While attending the How Design Live Conference, I saw Jessica Walsh’s presentation Play. During the presentation she talked about her reinterpretation of the Adobe MAX logo, which gave me an idea. Wouldn’t it be funny to do the opposite of that project? So, I decided to do MIN—a smaller scale complement to the MAX project.
Recently AIGA published an article about Walsh titled, “Jessica Walsh: The Face of An Expressive Uprising,” a title that I feel to be true. I have been inspired by the movement toward expression and human connection; however I’m left feeling a disconnection between this movement and the large projects that well-known artists have the opportunity to create. Personally, I don’t have the budget or people power to create these large installations. I wanted the project to show that anyone can create these inspiring projects with little more than time.
I started with 1000 toothpicks but realized that they would not fit into the foam letterforms. So I decided to cut the tips off the toothpicks, which would double my number of tips. After 2000 cuts I was ready to place them, which took all day Saturday. Instead of painting it the same color as Walsh’s MAX I decided to paint it yellow—purple’s complement.
The total budget for the project was 15 dollars and my time. I enjoyed the repetitious process which was very meditative. I hope this demonstrates that you don’t need a huge client or large budget to create inspiring and expressive work.
