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Fables of Aesop

by Reference City College Library on 2020-06-18T12:17:00-04:00 in Art & Art History | 0 Comments

By Jerry W. Beersdorf II

As the Spring 2020 semester began, the City College Archives and Special Collections Division played host to a very special exhibit, “Fables of Aesop - A TYPOGRAPHIC EXPLORATION”. This exhibition highlighted some of the work produced by students in the Typography 2 class offered by the Electronic Design and Media program of the Art Department taught by Professor Anne Bartoc Fink. The exhibit opened on January 30th and closed March 5th.    

This class of talented graphic designers were tasked to created book covers using mixed media representing each letter which spells out “Fables of Aesop”. One student, Betania Lopez used faux fur and flowers in her design of the letter “P”, while another student, Domica Roberts, sculpted the capital letter “B” out of one continuous piece of aluminum wire.  

 

                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                    Dominica Roberts

In addition to the beautiful book covers, the contents of each book illustrate, with typographical direction, part of the narrative of some Aesop’s treasured fables. CCNY Graduate Laxmi Manosca, chose to reimagine the fable of “The Fisherman and His Pipe”.  By using only letters, she illustrated the fables narrative into the shape of a fish. Another student, Maria Tsampas, uses various different typefaces to create a dog in mid-stride. We see in her project, the lowercase letter ‘b’ represents a dog’s paw, a careful layout of “M’s” and “W’s” represent the fur of the collar and tail of the dog, and an upside “V” represents an ear. Each of these students mastered and manipulated the medium of typeface to create whimsical images and dynamic, fresh and exciting content. The talent of these students is highlighted by their tremendous skills which has been championed by Professor Bartoc.   

 

                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                        Laxmi Manosca

Professor Anne Bartoc and Professor Sydney Van Nort, City College Archivist, understood the potential of showcasing student work that would engage the University in a powerful and unexpected way. With great purpose and joy, we worked with the students to create the exhibition. Professor Bartoc's favorite part was hearing from them how meaningful it was to them to have their work seen in this academic setting. The students realized that their work can ignite interest and dialogue in current issues.

Laxmi Manosca reflected on the course experience this way: "I think this project was a great collaborative class project that the professor thought of, it had the same guidelines and restrictions for all the books but as can be seen in the exhibition, they all turned out very different! It really allowed each person’s style, creative process to flow and shine through and it let us make our own mistakes that we could learn from. While I was having trouble with the proper shape or placement of extra text and titles, others were having trouble creating animals out of letters, or making illustrations with letters. While some of us looked for simplicity or elegance, others looked for bold or fun."

One of the most enduring of Aesop Fable is the story of “The Tortoise and Hare”. In the fable a Tortoise and a Hare are set to match off in a race.  With a natural agility to move about freely and quickly, the Hare is the presumptive winner.  Ultimately, the Tortoise, the underdog, with his bulky frame and heavy shell, wins the race. This fable illustrates that consistency, dedication and fortitude are qualities that will not only win a race but are also character traits that will help sustain someone in the long race of life.  CCNY Students are some of the best in the City. With consistency, dedication and fortitude, these students will go far.  


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