I developed the "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" poster series as the capstone project of my graphic design BFA. Each 24"x36" poster represents a single stanza of Wallace Stevens' poem.
I began each poster by first building a supportive grid on which to scatter the language. Next I would build in gradients to form the composition and to help viewers trace the odd formatting. Finally I would develop or select a series of glyphs to augment the references in each stanza and add some "shimmer" to the poster. The final pieces feel like flowing rain and the flickering of a night sky, much like the natural beauty that first inspired Wallace Stevens.
(Title)
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
By Wallace Stevens
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
By Wallace Stevens
(Stanza I)
Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.
(Stanza II)
I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.
I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.
(Stanza III)
The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.
(Stanza IV)
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.
(Stanza V)
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.
(Stanza VI)
Icicles filled the long window
With barbaric glass.
The shadow of the blackbird
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.
(Stanza VII)
O thin men of Haddam,
Why do you imagine golden birds?
Do you not see how the blackbird
Walks around the feet
Of the women about you?
Why do you imagine golden birds?
Do you not see how the blackbird
Walks around the feet
Of the women about you?
(Stanza VIII)
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.
(Stanza IX)
When the blackbird flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.
(Stanza X)
At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.
(Stanza XI)
He rode over Connecticut
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For blackbirds.
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For blackbirds.
(Stanza XII)
The river is moving.
The blackbird must be flying.
The blackbird must be flying.
(Stanza XIII)
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limbs.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limbs.
