"Three"

Sigh, this is now my favorite cover that never got published! After I did this, the NAD decided to change things again-- they ultimately decided to start off their new staff artist, Jessica Thurber, with the Feb/March 2007 issue and the theme of that one is Myth vs. Facts-- so the top third of the cover design I did is no longer valid. Boo hoo!

But I left the story below alone, as well as and image of the cover that never was.

With all that happened with the Deaf World (Unity for Gallaudet Protest) and with the NAD (Conference; book publicaton; 125 Year Celebrations; other) in 2006; they decided to combine two issues-- Apri/May and June/July. The April/May issue was originally scheduled to cover the myths about the NAD, what people think, and contrast them with the true facts. The June/July issue was to focus on the Visual & Performing Arts; with a wrap-up story about the NAD Conference.

When I was asked to do the cover, no one, including me, could visualize how to combine all of those ideas. I knew I had to divide the cover somehow; or do the kind of generic cover most magazines do-- one photo related to a story, and words about what else was inside. Another idea I had was all words using design and typography.

Then, casting about for ideas, I found myself signing "first, second, third" and the vision was born! I would divide the cover into thirds, and use the sign to unify it.

My friend, Dora Tin, posed for the photo, and that's what I started with. The circles on the fingertips represent touch-points for the signs "first," "second," and "third." The NAD sent me the photo of all the living past presidents taken at the Conference that I used in the bottom third of the cover, as well as drafts of the stories to help me with the rest of the photos.

Ann Calamia, producer and director of the movie, "Universal Signs" sent me photos of deaf actor Anthony Natale. That's Anthony at middle, left; his character is an artist and you can see the brushes in the background (behind the "al" in the word Visual). I volunteered as an extra for two days for that production, which was filmed in Philadelphia. The other photo used for visual arts is a photo of Betty G. Miller at her art show in a restaurant in DC. I know-- I cut off half her face and most of her paintings-- but that "three-hand" was a hard shape to to work with. The photo is repeated inside, in my article called, "Support Your Local Artist" (which spawned a directory of its own on my site.)

The images used for the myths of the NAD being wealthy and "Ivory Tower" were from a stock photo company, photos.com. The fake "white only" sign has its own story, though.

America's racist past was built into our laws and policies, and while not pleasant to today's people, it is still part of our history. "White only" was in the NAD Bylaws. I saw it myself, I remember so clearly holding the old bylaws in one of the old convention books, and being horrified. But I know it was changed, and it was in Byron B. Burnes chapter in the "Sands of Time" book, where BBB tells readers his proudest achievements:

1952-55
Deleted the word "white" from Article 1, section 1 of the by-laws, opening
membership to any citizen of the United States and Canada.

That the NAD is for White people is a very pervasive, persistent idea. Probably because it was in organizational bylaws and because Black Deaf had separate schools. But the NAD changed the bylaws a full decade before the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

America has tried to whitewash this part of our history, and only Black people seem to know the depth of the truth. This was driven home to me when I couldn't find a photo of a water fountain, or restroom sign that showed "White Only" and "Colored" signs in ANY of the online stock photo companies. The only things I could find were from South Africa apartheid. I couldn't even find it in Smithsonian or Library of Congress online photo collections.

I found stuff on eBay, though in Black Americana collections. I bought a cardboard sign that says Rest Rooms, White Only, and has the drawing of a hand. I scanned it, took out the rest rooms part and put on the old NAD logo. The sign is dated Aug. 2, 1926 and has a logo for the "Cotton Belt Route" on it, which I also took off. Feels really weird to hold something like this in my hands.

Artistically speaking, I also made some other design choices. While the sign is "first," "second," "third" going down; the number of the photos goes in the opposite direction. The top third has three photos to illustrate the concept, the second third has two photos, and the bottom third has one. I also wanted a strong separation between Dora's hands and text, and the underlying photos and text. I desaturated the photos, to make them more of a tone with each other. But that wasn't enough.

I tried a lot of techniques, and I finally settled on something you can't see well on the web, so I created a closeup, shown at left. I added a layer of solid color betwen the photos and the foreground (a green/gray color) and used a filter to create a tone, a little like seeing the screen in an old print or engraving; or something that Roy Lichtenstein would do in a painting. The dots created using this technique gave the underlying photos a distinct separation from the rest because of the change in texture as well as color and tone. This closeup gives you an idea of the difference between the smoothness and solidity of the type, and the dots in the background.

The "Three" cover is also the third cover I did for the NADmag-- a nice happenstance!