Jenny Rizzo

The following prints were part of a year long project studying the semiotics of various objects and how that relates to design. Prints were created that told the stories of the objects. 

Doomsday, Anniversary, Tomatoes

These pieces were based off a perpetual calendar created by Ritz for their 50th anniversary. All of these prints used imagery from the calendar and phrases from Ritz advertisements over the years. Doomsday focused on the concept of time and planning, using John Horton Conway’s Doomsday Algorithm as inspiration, but also referencing how the calendar functioned and the feeling of impending doom that can occur when our schedules get busy. Anniversary focused on Ritz’s celebration of 50 years in business, and Tomatoes was a reference to an advertisement about not being able to disguise the great Ritz taste. It also referenced a personal story of my brother and I dipping Ritz crackers and cherry tomatoes in chocolate to trick my dad (the Ritz crackers in chocolate were good, the tomatoes, which we told him were cherries, were not).

Risk, It’s Your Turn, I See Loss and Lies

These prints were based off a vintage game spinner found at a flee market. I could not find information on the exact spinner, but used similar typefaces and colors to those found on the spinner. I referenced the ideas of allowing arbitrary physical forces to dictate the outcome of a game, the competitive nature they can bring out in people, and the personal story of how my dad and I would always get distracted playing with the pieces of the game instead of paying attention to the game. 

$925.52, Spring Ahead, Bedbugs

The idea of rest, its simplicity, and how quickly the price of bedding adds up ($925.52 just for the basics!), and realizing what a luxury such a simple part of our lives really is inspired these prints. I used phrases from mattress advertisements that reflected deeper meanings. The Moon image is from NASA’s collection of public domain images.

Breathe, Heal, Roll with It

These prints were inspired by moss and phrases taken from Merriam-Webster, Encyclopedia Britannica, and G.K. Chesterton in Heretics. The quote “The moss is silent because the moss is alive” holds strong connotations of survival in the midst of hardship, but it also shares hope and strength coming from that same root. The next print from that series discusses two scientific definitions of moss, one that shows it to be a failure of a plant, and the other that shows how necessary it is to the ecosystem. While it’s not the same exact message, it still shares the theme of a silent and overlooked force of strength.