Uppercase Contest submission for They Draw and Travel!

I really wanted to submit something to this contest as it is a combination of 2 of my favorite things. I love the TDAT website, and traveling in general, and Uppercase is my fav magazine. You can see the full map here on their site. I wished I hadn't already submitted my map of Westborough, MA, that I did for Make Art that Sells, Part B , but  because I had, it made me work on something new! 

I had to reformat Lilla's assignment to the more horizontal specs of TDAT.

Since I had already done a map of the town in which I am currently living, I decided to focus on the area I spent many years in and around, the Providence/Pawtucket area of Rhode Island. I used to work at Hasbro, at 1027 Newport Avenue in Pawtucket. Let's just say it's an "interesting" town. Rhode Island has a lot of faces... from beautiful beaches, quaint seaside towns, to chain-linked fenced yards, triple decker housing, tattoo and pawn shops, well you get the idea. Pawtucket has a lot of the latter. Another strange characteristic is what the locals like to eat. For some strange reason, they have a certain fixation on "New York System" hot weiners (Rhode Islanders do not adhere to the i before e except after c rule). SImply put, weiners are skinny hot dogs, topped with a meat sauce, onions and celery salt. Anyway, I thought illustrating a little tour of the top wiener spots in the area might be a funny topic. Back in the day, Dot's Dairy Bar (see spot number 6 on the map) was within walking distance of 1027. I went there mainly for the shakes, but I was known to occasionally pick up a weiner alongside. At around a buck a dog, the price was right.

It was a fun map to do and if you look closely, you might see my homage to my former employer with a guest appearance of Mr. P and Rich Uncle Pennybags. In retrospect, even the little houses look like the ones in Monopoly! If you ever go there, I don't recommend hitting all these spots in one day... I won't be held responsible for the state of your digestive system after, but enjoy!!

uppercase :)

I finally got my copy on Friday and I must say, it still seems surreal. I submitted on a whim at the last moment, figuring I had nothing to lose and to say I am humbled at being included is a huge understatement. I had done the middle and bottom patterns as an offshoot of my second round submission for the GlobalTalent Search, last fall and the top piece was an extension from the final assignment from MATS A for giftware, as you can see below. 

I gotta say, when I look through all the pages of loveliness and then get to mine, I still get a "what does not belong here?" moment, but I'll take it. It's not flowery or super graphic in nature, but kinda goofy like me, so I guess they needed a dose of that in the issue. What can I say, but now my silly anthropomorphic flirtatious pear has now had her thirty seconds of fame, and that's a good thing :)

uppercase??? say whaaat??!!

Yup, it's true. I have no idea how or why, but I somehow made the cut and will be in the April issue of Uppercase which will feature the surface pattern design guide. I've never been in anything! Evidently there were close to 300 submissions of which 100 were selected. I ended up submitting at the last minute, sending in two different collections that I had already done. I will be interested to see which ones actually got in. Needless to say, I am humbled to know I made it. The beautiful art of fellow MATS graduate, the talented Jan Avellana, is featured here on the cover. Congrats Jan!! If you are not a subscriber, you really should be... it's a great publication and I pour over every page as soon as it arrives in my mailbox. Better yet, act before April 30th, and you can use this code, USPDG2014, to get $15 off your new subscription or renewal. Check it out here!

Below are the 2 collections I submitted. Can't wait to see what got picked!