Leo Lionni
University of Cincinnati
1979
11” x 34”

A poster for a weeklong student seminar and public presentation given by Leo Lionni, renowned graphic designer, artist, and author of numerous children’s books.

One of Lionni’s best-known characters is a mischievous field mouse named Frederick.

Designed as a multipurpose piece, some of the posters were scored and folded for mailing. An 11" × 8.5" mailer was created by horizontally scoring the poster and folding it into fourths.

A side note: Why does a brown and gray poster for Leo Lionni—an illustrator of children’s books known for their vibrant colors—make any sense? This was a judgmental question raised by some critics when the poster first appeared.

Lionni’s numerous children’s books, with their bright colors and characters such as Frederick, are widely recognizable. His work in graphic design, advertising, magazine art direction, painting, and sculpture, however, is less familiar to the general public.

For this particular event, Lionni wanted to emphasize his series of books featuring Frederick. However, I also wanted to express the underlying qualities found in all of his work: finesse, polish, and class. In a word, sophistication.

The brown and gray palette—colors associated with sophistication—was my attempt to convey the essence of Lionni’s remarkable and diverse body of work. You, the viewer, can decide whether the palette is appropriate.