Turning Matter into Spirit

For our first project, we in the Advanced Workshop resolved to let the letters speak for themselves.

Our goal was to produce a broadside that could be sent to schools around Maryland (not just Kent County, as we had initially planned) to celebrate teachers and writing. We wanted to give teachers something that would make them smile, something that they might hang on their classroom wall.

We decided that the best approach would be to find a poignant quote - but not one that would have students rolling their eyes - and give it some graphic punch. Marian suggested that we incorporate the alphabet to that end.

Of the quotes we considered, most would have generated some serious eye-rolling. We probably would have indirectly sent some seniors to the hospital for eyeball lubrication and rehabilitation.

Then it clicked. Alphonse de Lamartine cried up from our notes: "Letters are symbols which turn matter into spirit!" and shook his fists at our thumbnail sketches of alphabet arrangements. What better saying to frame with an alphabet?

I love this broadside. I love the red alphabet that marches across in the bold yet elegant Solemnis font.

But will its audience? Will my favorite English teacher from high school run her hand across the letters, a slight smile on her face? Well, she'll smile, because she'll get a note from me along with the broadside. Will the rest of the teachers appreciate the unpersonalized, yet sincere, gesture? How many of the 336 broadsides will find homes on the walls of English classrooms?

This broadside has to compete with all of the pseudo-inspirational "Achievement" and "Perseverance" posters of intimidating mountains and patriotically planted flags that tend to cover the walls of schools. I hope that it will catch eyes for its comparative simplicity. If it does its job, it will make teachers feel appreciated, and it will give students, particularly writers, something to think about.