Art Careers Symposium Postcard Announcement and Poster

Each year Taylor University plans and holds a one day on campus event called the Art Careers Symposium. Three varying professional artists, designers, and photographers come on campus to the Art building, present their work, supply an overview of their experiences and transition from college to the professional world. The thought behind the symposium is to generate some excitement and encouragement in the students that there is life in the visual arts after graduation. Each year there is a different sampling of background, professions, and work in each visual artist. Therefore, a student in a four year stint as a student will see 12 different visual artists.

The concept was taken from a humorous twist on the loss of an ear by Vincent Van Gogh in order to encourage attendance by the students in the department. Loaning their ear(s) back to the presenters at the event completes the concept of the work. The background imagery consisted of searching and finding portraits of “famous” ears cropped from well-known paintings, photographs, and sculptures in art history. The patch on Van Gogh’s “Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat” was Photoshopped into the image as was the patch with baseball cap art on the poster.

The postcard announcement is a self-mailer and measures 7” x 5”. The poster measures 11” x 17”. Software used included Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign primarily.