2. SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS
When judge Dana Lytle of Madison’s Planet Propaganda claimed the 2004 SVA Senior Library as his judge’s pick, a glint of the green-eyed monster flashed in the eyes of several jury members. Weeks later, Lytle still jealously guards his copy. “I’ve been stingy with it,” he says. “I don’t think I’ve lent it out to a single person.”

For Lytle, the five cloth-bound books—nestled in a white, vinyl slipcase—inspire respect for the institution that cultivates the talent featured therein. He particularly admires the fact that the Library—designed by SVA portfolio class instructor Carin Goldberg —moves well beyond the formula of an annual to open up a broader exploration of design itself.

So, too, did students’ personalities emerge when Goldberg requested that they submit drawings of their hands and eyes, as well as traditional, black silhouettes of their profiles. “To my utter astonishment,” she says, “it turned out to be a totally eclectic and personal collection. I was blown away by their diverse interpretations, even within the context of this simple assignment.”

The silhouettes—with which Goldberg created collages, single images, and patterns throughout Book One—are variously scraggly, precious, graphic, and in one case, animal. Rendered separately, students’ eyes look out from the pages—bloodshot or wide, shifty or long-lashed—moving through a spectrum of moods as diverse as the student body itself.

“I wanted there to be a joy to the project,” says Goldberg. “The design department at SVA does not teach one way of working or seeing. There is no one manifesto. I wanted the book to reflect the diversity of students and teachers and especially to show the girth of work that the students produce in a year. I didn’t want it to feel promotional, but to be a series of beautiful books that you might want to keep on display with other coveted art books. And I wanted the books to be relevant beyond 2004.”
Tiffany Meyers