The Leap from Words to Words and Images

By LISA ZAMARIN, creative services manager for the CIIS Communications Department

This post was written as an assignment for professor Cindy Shearer’s WRC 7087: Writing as Art. This course exposes students to varieties of work in text and image from illustrated books and blogs and visual journals to graphic novels and memoir and art books—while also asking them to create their own illustrated work, postcards and text/image art and journal.

I was pleasantly surprised to take the leap from a short story format to an illustrated version of the story in Cindy Shearer’s “Writing as Art” class this semester. It’s been quite awhile since I’ve gotten into the creative process so freely, and without specific rules or guidelines I needed to follow. What resulted was a wonderful melding. It reminded me just how powerful images can guide the experience of reading fiction.

The project was to write a manifesto, and then create a text and image piece that fit within a box.

Here’s some of my manifesto:

How to Prepare for your College Reunion

Three months out:

1. On receiving the notice, print it out, along with the alumni yearbook questionnaire and place it on the top of your inbox.
2. Email your old friends to ask if they’ll be attending.
3. Set your alarm an hour early each morning to go to the gym before work. Do not let yourself hit snooze.
4. As soon as your return home from work each night, do 30 minutes of sit-ups, and other core exercises, followed by a light dinner.
5. Do not graze afterward.
6. Each night, remember to moisturize before bedtime.
7. Each morning, apply sunscreen 30 minutes before walking to work.
8. Drink 8 glasses of water a day and consume no more than 1,500 calories.

Two months out:

1. Email your old friends to ask if they’ll be attending.
2. Recommit to #s 2-8 above.
3. Ignore local friends who tell you more than once how brave you are.
4. Ignore local friends who ask you if you’ll be going clothes shopping before your trip

When I went about adding images, my initial thought was to blend more traditional/stereotypical collegiate images with quirky ones to show contrast. But the moment I delved into the creative process that got thrown out the window. The play of words and tone found me having a blast working in a very different way.

What resulted was a really fun process of creating, and a final piece I love:

 

Page 1 of a book created by Lisa Zamarin for Cindy Shearer’s "Writing as Art" class.

 

Once the images and text came together, I could see that this was screaming to be an accordion book...

 

Accordion-style "How-to" poster.

 

The look and feel of the book dictated the box contents: two-sided "playing" cards that played on some of the manifesto rules, affixed by elastic thread and hung by buttons. They spin easily so to show both sides. The book also fits in the box, too...