Blog

Last Friday, January 10th, saw the opening night for the 2014 New York Guitar Festival with a concert by the distinguished classical guitarist, Pepe Romero. The New York Guitar Festival, which has been running since 1999, offers unique musical events such as the Alt-Guitar Summit and Silent Films/Live Guitars series. 

But the festival will also be making a offering of visual art this year. Three grads from Shillington School of Graphic Design, Luciana Diehl, Drew Frist, and Amanda Zampelli have designed posters that are available for sale during the festival.

Shillington began using the New York Guitar Festival as a platform for a class project in early 2013, and unbeknownst to David Spelman, (the festival’s Artistic Director). Shillington began collaborating with the Festival and Spelman when he inadvertently came across Luciana’s NYGF project online. “Back in early September I was conducting some online research and while doing a Google image search for ‘New York Guitar Festival’ stumbled across imagery that looked like a branding campaign for the Festival. The funny part was that I'd never seen these images before, and they were really terrific,” said Spelman, of his discovery of the work, and adds, “The first work that caught my eye was by Luciana Diehl. I was lucky enough to find her personal website, and wrote her a what was essentially a fan letter.  After a few e-mails, we decided to meet in person. During that meeting the idea emerged of having her begin an internship.  In a very short time, Luciana re-designed the Festival's e-mail newsletter, designed a wonderful line of t-shirts and other merchandise for our on-line shop. Luciana is a terrific asset to the New York Guitar Festival, and with her self-motivation, enthusiasm, and commitment to deadlines, she's someone I believe has a bright future ahead of her.”

“David sent me a very fun email saying he was impressed with my all my work,” said Diehl. “Honestly, I couldn't believe the director of the NYGF (the real guy!) had emailed me! We had a nice chat and met in person a few days later. He liked the idea of using my design for the NYGF 2014 identity. That was a huge compliment to my work and such an honor to have my design featured in an fantastic music event. I feel like a part of the team of the NYGF and assist with creating emails newsletters, logos for different projects and setting up the online shop with a new product line."

Diehl introduced Spelman to her Shillington teachers who in turn invited him to come check out the current students’ in-progress NYGF projects. While reviewing the students work, Spelman and Dailey Crafton, a designer and teacher at Shillington, agreed that having some student work available at the festival would be be mutually beneficial to both festival goers and Shillington students. “Having the students’ posters available at the Festival is a visual flourish that I believe invigorates our brand,” said Spelman. “Interacting in the classroom with the Shillington students was a real pleasure for me, and I believe gave the students some valuable, real-world experience collaborating with a ‘client.’”

Currently, the posters are only available at select festival events, but you can check out Luciana, Drew and Amanda’s work online, and Diehl adds, “Come to the festival and support all the amazing people working behind the scenes to make the Festival happen. It's a beautiful festival with plenty of talented people. You might even see me selling posters from different artists as well as my own.”