Since last spring illustrator Craig Frazier has posted a new drawing online each week, inviting @Issue readers to submit a caption to explain what’s going on. Readers emailed him more than 8,000 captions during the course of his Drawords project from places like Slovenia, Paris, Dallas, Scotland, Estonia, Milwaukee, Australia, San Francisco and Trenton. “The project has been a testament to the power of the Internet to create a forum for worldwide participation on a single creative endeavor,” he says. Craig personally reviewed every submission to pick the week’s winning entry and “almost selected” winners. “I looked for wit, subtlety, surprise, and particularly insight into the drawings that I, frankly, didn’t see,” he explains.
For us, Craig’s project proved that when designers and writers bring their own unique perspective to a topic, the result can be more imaginative, quirky and stronger. Interestingly, the frequent similarity between “almost selected” entries also showed us that certain themes are universal and that humor and wit know no cultural borders.
Drawords is now available in book form at www.craigfrazier.com. In thanking readers for their entries, Craig adds “I hope this project brought a moment of frivolity, if not creative challenge, to you – I know it did both for me.”
