EMILY
ZHENG
film/photo/illustration
The front and back of the postcard for "A New Standard", a UC San Diego student organized art show at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) La Jolla featuring works by students and local artists. Since this art show was in partnership with MCASD, I learned a lot about institutional standards for promotional material during the design process. Important feedback on formatting and text was given by Cris Scorza, Education Curator at MCASD, who approved the final design and helped students understand museum standards on marketing materials. Take a look at some of the previous versions of the postcard.
The figures and shadows in these earlier versions here were inspired by a scene from the 1961 film "Last Year at Marienbad" directed by Alain Resnais. In this scene, men and women stand still in a garden, casting long shadows onto the pavement while the plants and trees around them produce no shadow. The surreal still quality of the long shadows combined with bold red letters was my way of paying homage to Ed Ruscha, the artist whom my class (CAT 124 led by Michael Ano) at UC San Diego was surveying with our art show, " A New Standard". Ed Ruscha's paintings often play with image and text. As you can see, our show title was both visually and thematically inspired by his painting, Standard Station.
A still from "Last Year at Marienbad" directed by Alain Resnais
Ed Ruscha, Standard Station, 1966