Another project completed, two more to go. This one really took a lot of time researching poets and poems. Lots of good ones that I wasn’t able to quickly translate into graphics. Maybe the professor’s restrictions made it more challenging? We had to incorporate an image that gives a feel of the subject of the poem, at the same time make creative use of the type. I thought about doing Langston Hughes’ “Cubes”. But with Picasso’s name thrown in there I felt little confidence in making a believable cubist drawing in a short time. So I picked a lighthearted poem, “Madam and the Fortune Teller,” also by Langston Hughes.
Fortune teller looked in my hand.
Fortune teller said,
Madam, It’s just good luck
You ain’t dead.Fortune teller squeeze my hand.
She squinted up her eyes.
Fortune teller said,
Madam, you ain’t wise.I said, Please explain to me
What you mean by that?
She said, You must recognize
Where your fortune’s at.I said, Madam, tell me–
For she was Madam, too-
Where is my fortune at?
I’ll pay some mind to you.She said, Your fortune, honey,
Lies right in yourself.
You ain’t gonna find it
On nobody else’s shelf.I said, What man you’re talking ‘bout?
She said, Madam! Be calm–
For one more dollar and a half,
I’ll read your other palm.
My ideas came from those signs selling psychic readings. Using an image of all-seeing-eye to represent the fortune teller, and the palm the madam. The funniest lines are the last two which shows the true intention of the fortune teller. Those words I put on the palm which can seem to be open to giving more money. The rays are sort of hypnotic, no? I turned in the blue one to the professor. But I also like the other two variations that I printed out. One criticism I got from the professor was that the title and author’s name were unnecessary and seemed out of place. If I were to insist on using them, they should be inside the graphic elements, not a separate entity. I agree.
