If you're a festival volunteer, you'll be getting a free t-shirt with this beautiful bovine on it. And if you're not a volunteer...isn't the promise of such a cool shirt incentive enough to get you to sign up?
All of us at Irish Fest offer our sincere thanks and promises of fest weekend hospitality to Oliver for such great work.
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11 comments:
She's very winsome! I miss the little birds, though...
She looks like the kind of cow who's all sweet and nice until she gets a few drinks in her - then's she'll be up on the tabletops, shaking her udders at people.
Oh, am I anthropomorphizing again?
Whoa! Those eyes are following me aroung the room!!
The cow stands alone. Leave the birds off. She is perfect the way she is.
I tend to agree with you. I love the simplicity.
Well... either I've slipped in the bathroom and hit my head on the toilet enough times now to be totally daft OR I'm one of the only fans of KCIF who still thinks it's constructive to tell the truth.
As a cartoon, it's OK, I guess.
As a logo for a World Class Irish Festival... it SUCKS.
Seriously. It looks like the guy thought about it for just one cup of coffee and then took about half that time to draw it.
I think he mis-understood the assignment. It doesn't come near the quality of your previous 'logos'. It's truly 'flat' and 'lifeless', the colors are wrong, and the eyes are, well, just WEIRD. Almost SCARY. Not what you want for your 'logo'.
If this really is an Oliver Christianson then I suppose it's an honor he even bothered and it's worthy of a T-Shirt all by itself...
...but as a LOGO for one of the best Irish Festivals in the World it falls woefully short, IMHO.
If there is still time to get a logo that matches the quality of previous years I think y'all should exercise your options.
That cow looks hypnotized. And doesn't look like a she. Actually, reminds me of that space-y male enhancement guy, Enzyte Bob.
If I was a bird I'd be scared.
I'll say this in Oliver's defense and my own as the Irish Fest design boss: this is in fact exactly what I wanted and Oliver in no way misunderstood the assignment.
When I was a very young student cartoonist myself I used to spend hours on these pen and ink drawings. Miles of cross hatching and ridiculous detail done with a crow quill pen and a bottle of India ink. Finally a professor (thank you, Steve Gosnell, wherever you are) reminded me that in the visual arts, as in the verbal, brevity is the soul of wit. What I love about Oliver's work and the reason I asked him to render this year's cow is that there is nothing there that doesn't need to be there. He draws with a confidence of line and hand that I can only dream of after 25 years as a professional. I feel the same awe when I look at the work of Pat Oliphant and Charles Barsotti, a couple other great cartoonists I've had the pleasure of meeting. Say what up need to say and say it with as little as you need to say it.
Having said that, I truly love your comments, honesty and passion, Kevin. If you'll ever get around to hauling your arse back up here, we're long over due for a few pints.
It's certainly a good example of 'minimalism' and such but what I meant by 'mis-understanding the assignment' was that all of KCIF's prior logos had one essential quality emanating from them... a great sense of 'fun', and I thought that would have been a given for all future assignments. I'm just not getting that this time. However well executed, it's still rather lifeless ( and the eyes disturb me even more now that I look at it again ).
Oliver is famous. People will recognize his SIG and all say 'Ooo... look... it's THAT GUY!'. It's an honor to feature his work. It will fly. It will be fine. No one will care. I just miss the 'fun' even more than the little birds, that's all.
PS: Vigilantly trying to 'haul my arse' back up for those pints, Dan, but the doctors tell me that if I hit my head on the toilet again even just one more time not only will I permanently and finally not be able to recognize high-art when I see it my blog posts will all start to look like the following ( which is a reprint from a message I got from Jimmy Keane of Bohola )...
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. If you can raed tihs, psot it to yuor wlal. Olny 55% of plepoe can.
I really need to get one of those suctiony-cuppy-bathroomy-matty thingies, I suppose, before it's too late.
But that simplicity is EXACTLY what I like. It's my favorite KCIF Cow so far. BY FAR. And I like the eyes - they're what make me think "sweet cow with a wild side."
Kevin and all, I have to jump in....like Danny, even though I may have a different opinion that you, I really really appreciate and enjoy your passion and your participation in the discussion.
One thing I would love to add though is that to clarify, our cow is not our logo. I think that is important to point out because I do think logo's, when they are changed, do need to have an element of consistency to them. The great thing about our cow theme and the artwork to interpret it, is that we do have the opportunity to showcase different varieties of of artistic style. What may be a piece of art missing an element of fun for one person, could very well be an incredibly lively fun piece to another. That is the beauty of art...it is all subjective. :-)
I for one LOVE this new cow....I love the simplicty of it and I love how INCREDIBLY different it is from our last couple of years. I personally don't think I would have considered our first couple of cows fun. Beautiful traditional artwork yes, fun, no. :-) I also love how this new cow appears to be a cartoon version of the real life cow we used in our ads and viral videos last year....I love when things come full cirle.
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