Client: Ernest Cline
Art Direction: Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz / Ernest Cline
Back in 2017 my friend Cristin commissioned me to design a holiday card for her and her husband, famed author Ernest Cline. Ernie's NYT best seller "Ready Player One" had just been made into a blockbuster film directed by Steven Spielberg and the world was, in hindsight, a much better place.
Fast forward three years to November 2020 and I was asked once again to design their annual holiday card. This time, however, I felt that making a cheery Christmas card was not the right approach. I wanted to do something that captured both the absolute dumpster fire that was 2020, but also turn it into a New Years card celebrating a hopeful future.
What we decided to do was show 2020 as a video-game themed map on the back of the card, but wrapping around to the front of the card showing all the reasons to be hopeful in 2021, mainly a COVID-19 vaccine allowing us to get back to our normal lives and an end to the insanity of the Trump Administration. Truth be told, this card was created before Joe and Kamala won the election or a vaccine was approved, but we were all hopeful that these things would come to pass!
