Zach Fitchner
Zach Fitchner
Intro
Nearly everything Zach Fitchner creates is imbued with Americana. His art, heavily influenced by his Southern roots, is a reflection of his offbeat yet charismatic personality. Our continued partnership with Zach spans a variety of projects and media, developing and expanding his visual identity in each endeavor.
Scope
01
Brand Identity
Zach, a professor at the University of North Florida, is a vocal proponent of printmaking—a lesser-known art form that includes woodblock printing, etching, and screen printing—which is rich in history and tradition. The goal of Zach’s identity was to support his work in a way that added to the overall experience by building on the distinctive personality present in his work. We married his eccentricity and sense of humor with an unmistakable American aesthetic in keeping with Zach’s distinctive style.
Business Card and Chop Mark
The goal for the business card was to create a memorable takeaway. Zach’s wallet served as the catalyst for the unconventional size of the card. The card is letterpressed and embossed, lending it a truly tactile quality that increases its memorability. We used Zach’s initials to create a “chop mark,” a traditional method for printmakers to mark their prints. The embosser serves a dual purpose, both as a chop mark for his prints and an additional detail for his business card.
Sustainability
The paper we chose for the business cards proved to be an exceptional choice for letterpress printing. The stock has a substantial thickness without being excessive and the paper is soft yet rigid, avoiding the “bendy” quality that tends to make some cards feel cheap and unconsidered. It accepts a deep and crisp impression, an effect often desired with contemporary letterpress printing. The textured finish gives the card a rough and tactile quality similar to the more common cotton-based letterpress papers which we typically avoid using.
Business Card
Mohawk Paper Loop – Antique Vellum (Milkweed, 160# Double Thick Cover)
100% postconsumer waste (PCW) recycled fibers
Process Chlorine Free (PCF)
Manufactured carbon neutral (RECs certified by Green-e®)
FSC® Certified (Forest Stewardship Council™)
Manufactured in the USA
Letterpress printed with rubber-based inks
02
God Save America
We created a branding campaign for Zach’s exhibition of large scale woodblock prints which collectively form a commentary on the excessiveness, materialism, and unconditional patriotism in the United States. The project included our first foray into exhibition design. We built on the theme of the show by creating a hand-painted patriotic banner and decorating the gallery with American flag bunting.
Invitation
We screenprinted the invitation for the exhibition’s opening on the back of a holographic paper plate. On opening night the invites had the added purpose of serving as a plate for the food offered, adding an element of sustainability to an exhibition that highlighted the contrary. We then worked with Zach to curate the food selection—again mirroring the themes of the exhibition—and featured hot dogs, an American flag birthday cake, and patriotic mints (made in Cambodia).
03
American Imagery Bank
Described as “a conceptual platform meant to serve as a singular source for our national iconography,” American Imagery Bank is a project created by Zach Fitchner to explore what it means to be American through the lens of art. We developed a brand identity and engaging call for entries campaign that pull inspiration from a variety of patriotic symbols and government ephemera such as the national flag, tax forms, and vintage propaganda. The American Imagery Bank website allows respondents to answer questions proposed on the site and view the catalog of entries that were previously chosen.
