Lycée Français
Artist-in-Residence 2000

Challenge

Lycée Français de Chicago is a private, French international school located in Chicago offering a dual French and English curriculum. Founded in 1995, the school exposes students from an early age to the value of critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity. One of their major initiatives is an annual artist-in-residence program. Each year, the school brings in a world-renown artist who works with students to explore issues and experience discovery through art. The program culminates with a soirée to celebrate that year’s project and raise money for the school.

In 2000, the visiting artist-in-residence was famed textile-artist, Sheila Hicks. A product of the Yale School of Art, she studied with former Bauhaus artist and educator, Josef Albers and modernist, Herbert Matter. Known for her experimental weavings and sculptural textiles, her art incorporates bold colors, natural materials, and personal narratives. And it was these three attributes that would guide the students’ semester-long project.

Ms. Hick’s theme for the project was Treasures and Secrets. The students partook in ten different artistic exercises, exploring the city and their place in it. Specifics included crafting personal narratives, identifying cultural artifacts, wrapping personal items, and mapping different neighborhoods. My main task was to design a piece that reflected the visiting artist’s personal work with textiles and conveyed the concept of Treasures and Secrets—and make it bilingual.

Solution

I began by working with a photographer to shoot photos of several of the students' wrapped stones, selecting one specific stone to serve as a visual metaphor for the entire project. Next, I personally shot a photo essay of the students’ assignments, recreating their experience of exploration from that semester for myself. These photos would serve as the foundation of my main piece.

The result was a box of forty cards (four cards per assignment). Each set illustrated the purpose of the particular assignment, i.e., exploring socio-economic factors, evaluating comparative ethnic heritage, developing neighborhood mapping tools, etc. The cards were die cut with slits and holes, allowing users to organize, bind, and build with them. To encourage free-form interaction with the non-linear nature of the narrative, I designed the cards to be viewed at multiple orientations, flipping the type and imagery on each surface. As a result, readers had to rotate and view cards at different orientations in order to read the content and appreciate the full experience.

Additionally, I designed an event invitation and RSVP for the soirée, along with event materials such as a commemorative poster, event signage, table cards, table numbers, and silent auction sheets. The structure of the invitation itself played on the theme of Treasures and Secrets, allowing the recipient to reveal hidden information as they navigated the piece.

My role: Strategy, Design, Photography, Copywriting

In the hunt for the crème de la crème of this year’s 9th annual HOW International Design Competition, our judges waited through a maze of entries in search of a treasure: a project that excelled in both its concept and its execution. It’s appropriate, then, that a project based on cultural treasure hunts snagged their attention and, ultimately, the coveted Best of Show title.

—
Katie Weeks, HOW International Design Magazine

What’s great about the legend is that people can interact with it in whatever way they want. One way has a strict sense of order; the other way has you making up your own rules. You have total freedom and how you choose to read these cards.

—
David Frej, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Otherwise Incorporated

It’s not a closed kind of form that you open, read, close and it’s over. It’s a piece that allows ongoing interaction.

—
David Frej, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Otherwise Incorporated

Back to My Work