A set of banners commissioned by the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Program and LGBT Studies at Cornell. The programs are celebrating their 50th anniversary and have titled the series of events "Trans*forming Futures — 50 Years of Feminist & LGBT Studies at Cornell."
The word "transforming" is split by the asterisk to visually put the trans community at the forefront, while at the same time acknowledging that transformation encompasses feminist and queer scholarship more broadly. This posed a unique design challenge which I solved by offsetting the word trans and bringing in the asterisk just far enough to bridge the words "trans" and "forming." As a hidden feature, "S*F" creates the simplified outline of the McGraw Tower, Cornell's most iconic building.
The Banners
I explored several options, including abstract patterns, but settled on line artwork based on historical photographs. Given that the photographs were of varying qualities and resolutions (some barely legible), drawing the images allowed me to side-step the issue entirely.
I created the drawings in Adobe Fresco with vector brushes, which allowed me to change the color and scale freely across mediums, with or without gradient backgrounds.
The Drawings
