Postcard reads: "Spain, travel and culture - La Siesta"
La Siesta is a series examining my personal experience of nap time while living in Spain. Through illustration and photography, I developed a series of postcards and a business card that establish a contrast between the themes of productivity, cultural experiences and consumerism. The postcards are a series of digital self-portraits to appreciate the cultural experience of La Siesta. The business card is a photo collage of a sleeping mask and a gothic style typeface I designed. This choice of font is to allude to the gothic lettering widely used for commercial signage. The irony behind creating a business card for La Siesta rests in the fact that it is the very reason all businesses close between 14:00 – 17:00 pm. As a tourist or foreigner, one must accept this reality and cancel all shopping plans. Would the typical North American traveler such as myself send a postcard to boast or complain about this experience?
Postcards are 4 in. x 6 in. in dimension.
Left : “Before taking off for Spain you must know…; La Siesta will not exclusively be on the flight.”
Right: “There are many sights to see in Spain; Take a rest after the many adventures”
Left : “Before taking off for Spain you must know…; La Siesta will not exclusively be on the flight.”
Right: “There are many sights to see in Spain; Take a rest after the many adventures”
Left: Detail of the sleeping mask with words “La Siesta”.
Typeface: Stringendo, designed by Lydia in 2018.
Typeface: Stringendo, designed by Lydia in 2018.
Right: Business card mockup. Reading: “Need rest? Monday through Friday, 14:00 - 17:00”
As an exchange student, I found myself at times disoriented in my own neighborhood during these hours. A street’s face could change entirely when the closed shops’ garage doors typically revealed a mix of murals and graffiti painted on the outside. The process for La Siesta began as a sightseeing experience in my neighborhood, leading me to pull inspiration from the yellow and pink color palette of Madrid’s buildings in my illustrations. I choose to make work that can live in ordinary and accessible contexts, so that they can bring unexpected moments of poetry to the everyday experience. Art and Design combined allow this sort of conversation between material and immaterial life.
