CANAART
New Winterfest poster
The 2013 Winterfest poster has
finally been released. This year's theme is a welcome to the winter warrior to
release the spirit of the inner polar bear and make the best of the season.
This year, Winterfest organizers, Bill Cooper and Ann Goehner wish to pay
tribute to members of our armed forces. This commemoration is expressed in a
playful (and temporary) substitution (on the poster only) of the sculptures on
the Soldiers and Sailor's monument in Clinton Square with fun-loving Winterfest
polar bears.
Although still under construction at
this point, please visit their website at
I encourage everyone to come out and enjoy the wide variety of activities
taking place in and around Syracuse, NY between February 14-24.
Since the beginning,
I've done, probably 80% of the
Winterfest Posters. I've been doing the posters nearly every year over
the past 28 years Winterfest has been in existence. That’s a lot of painted polar
bears. I was on the first committee as a young art director for WTVH5 for the
first Syracuse Winterfest . I have no
idea where the originals for all those posters are. I started “painting” them
in Photoshop around the early 1990’s. The first posters were around 30" x
42", painted in airbrush, or constructed with cut paper. Now I draw a
sketch, ink it, scan it, and build sections of the illustration in various
Adobe software, combining the parts in Photoshop and adding copy points in
InDesign. I like doing a single bear rather than several, although this
year, (like 2011) was an exception. Some
posters became just too crowded. Polar bears are somewhat solitary
creatures. Ironic that we'd use them to attract crowds to Syracuse.
How many ways can you
paint a polar bear?
Last year the theme was fun and
games, so a bear stepped forward to referee the fun and he made 2012’s
illustration. In past years I’ve drawn juggling bears, peeping Tom bears (actually
inviting the viewer out of their homes, exclaiming, “The winter’s- weather’s-
fine,” and a bear cook stirring a pot of fun things to do. One year following a
heat wave in February, the theme was “Things heat up when it cools down.” No
matter what the weather, the challenge as a designer and illustrator is finding
ways of coaxing people out of”
hibearnation” (also a theme early on) and into as many of the fun activities
the Syracuse Winterfest offers.
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