ENVIRONMENTAL GRAPHICS PROJECT – AUSTIN, TEXAS
by Alan Witschonke

Alan Witschonke's completed banners hang above Congress Ave. in Austin, Texas

In late October, 2003, I received a call from Cindy Goldman, Associate Creative Director for Kolar Advertising & Marketing in Austin, Texas. She was looking for an artist to illustrate two large banners commemorating local authors Ada DeBlanc Simond and Dr. John Mason Brewer for Black History Month in February 2004. Her client was the Austin Convention and Visitor’s Bureau (ACVB). The two banners, 30”x84” each, were to be displayed up and down Congress Avenue which leads to the state Capitol Building. The artwork would also be used on brochures for the opening ceremonies and bookmarks, which were distributed to the elementary schools in Austin.

After discussing the particulars of the job, I accepted the commission. I was then contacted by Drew Holmgreen, Senior Account Executive at Kolar, who sent me some materials to help me get started. The authors being not well known outside of Texas, it was difficult finding good quality reference photographs of them. Kolar sent me a couple books by the authors and I ordered a couple more on Alibris so I could get a sense of what their writing was like. I then started sketching. I came up with two approaches: one was to feature each author’s portrait, large and centered, with a small rural building in the background near the top; the other was to make the portraits smaller and have some of the characters from their stories around them. On November 24, Kolar and the ACVB enthusiastically accepted the latter sketches.

final painting with type added by Cindy Goldman	Dr. John Mason Brewer sketch	On to the paintings. I worked at about 25% of final size in oils, building up the surface in layers, scratching and wiping off paint in between. I added some collage near the end. I delivered the paintings in early December and everyone was very pleased. Cindy designed the typographic elements. The artwork was scanned and output onto a large-format color printer, 100 dpi at 100% The banners provide an early spring splash of color to downtown Austin The unveiling ceremony was held on February 13, 2004 at the LBJ Library and Museum. In attendance were relatives of the authors, as well as Travis County Judge Samuel T. Biscoe, Mayor Will Wynn, Director of the LBJ Library Betty Sue Flowers and others, including a gospel choir! Unfortunately, I couldn’t be at the ceremony but the client generously covered my travel expenses to fly down to Texas on February 17 and photograph the banners all lined up on Congress Avenue. It was my first visit to Texas and I found Austin to be a delightful, hospitable and WARM city with great music and restaurants. In fact, the whole project was enjoyable from start to finish. Many thanks also to John Elmore and Anjleen Gumer at Kolar and Ed Van De Vort at the ACVB.
The banners help create bridges between diverse facets of Austin's history