The Patron Saints of Graphic Design was a personal art project that came into my brain many years ago after spending some quality time in the beautiful and deeply spiritual region of Assisi, Italy. With imagery and silly biographies inspired by the lives of real saints, the website went viral with designers and was featured in HOW Magazine (shown below). Each saint's make-em-up backstory included a lot of deep inside jokes that old school designers may catch (remember rubylith?). The saint images were all composited in Photoshop. And no, I’m not Catholic... but after gaining attention worldwide, the Saints received enthusiastic fan mail from lots of creative clergyfolk. So, that was fun. :)
This project still make me laugh, and I hope you appreciate them as well.
BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT CONCEPTA: “Concepta experienced her first creative ecstasy – a vision of John the Baptist selling hats – in 1454, when she was but five years old. Constantly sketching on serviettes, she longed to know more about design and asked her father if she might go to art school. Outraged at the prospect, her father urged her to try real estate. Instead, she rebelled, enrolled in art school, and went through a phase where she wore a lot of black. After spending a great deal of her creative lifetime daydreaming out of windows, Concepta died in 1505 and a spring with inspirational properties sprang from her grave.”
BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT EXACTO: “This devout worker, beloved throughout all the land, was but 29 years old (in the year 514) when he suddenly began to publicly denounce authority. After tireless service to the Queen of Productión for many years, he suffered a breakdown and was found in a moor spray mounting farm animals together. He was institutionalized and in his later years went on to become the world’s first classical pianist to be missing six fingers. He was martyred at the age of 80 and his digits rest in a glass case on display at the Church of Rubylith, next to the right arm of Saint Kimwipe of Bestine, where they are said to have healing powers to this day.”
BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT PANTONE: “This Flemish maiden (who is also the Patroness of the city of Cmyk) was the niece of Saint Gertrude of Trumatch. Famously compassionate and harboring a flair for drama, Pantone caused a miraculous fountain to spring from the earth (it is there to this day), the waters of which are wondrously effective against depression and boredom. In art, Our Saint is pictured holding a sheep, in honor of the famous occasion when she – for reasons unknown – restored a roasted lamb not only to life, but gave it the most beautiful shade of wool ever seen by man.”
BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT PIXELA: “Isabel de Santa Maria y del Madonna de Guadalupe, who preferred to be addressed by her confirmation name of Pixela, was a Moorish princess. Her father, King Wacom, persecuted artists and kept them prisoner in his castle where they worked tirelessly, day and night, in a cold room with no lights or windows. Pixela secretly visited the prisoners, bringing them food and venti cappuccinos. Upon befriending one prisoner in particular, the Bishop of Photoshop, she discovered a calling for recreating his paintings at a larger size after he had finished painting them. She lived as a solitary by the Lake of Saint Vector, died at the age of 100, and is still revered worldwide.”
BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT TYPO: “Born as Typernius but better known to his followers as Typo, this son of a dry cleaner retreated to a cave near Belgrade to pursue the life of a hermit. He lived undisturbed except for fawns, owls, and daily client faxes until the Duke of Copywriting came thither a-hunting. As Typernius relates in his autobiography, the aforementioned Duke (about to be held captive in a perpetual meeting) asked him to proofread an annual report on his behalf. Typo's obsessive attention to detail soon gained a following and in his later years he entered a monastery in order to rest his eyes. He died in the Order of Strunk & White circa 303.”
BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT ANXIETÉ: “This thirteenth-century domestic servant worked for two generations of the wealthy Asap family, who were often annoyed by her. An irritable child and adolescent, a swarm of bees settled in Anxieté's mouth when she was an infant, foreshadowing her penchant for office gossip. Deeply in love with the Duke of Starbucks, Anxieté was tragically martyred at the age of 45 when trampled by a herd of cattle while chasing after the King of Fedex to hand him a package. Heartbroken by her death, the Duke put her relics on display in his small coffee shop where they were said to make people extremely stressed out and had to be subsequently removed. Her Latin name means ‘She who ought to take up yoga.’”
