A-Z is a first year Illustration project celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which was first conceived, compiled, printed and published in Edinburgh on 10 December 1768.
The project began with a visit to the archives of the National Library of Scotland, where library staff introduced the student group to the original Encyclopaedia Britannica.
After being inspired by the original books, students were asked to each choose one entry and create two pieces of artwork in response:
#Britannica250
In support of the library’s appeal to digitise ‘Britannica’, students created short animated gifs, which are shared across the ECA Illustration and National Library of Scotland’s social media accounts. Use the Twitter and Instagram hashtag #britannica250 to find these lively interpretations of words you may be unfamiliar with. Here are a few examples:
Risograph print
In addition to the animated gifs, the A-Z is a collective book featuring the eighteen chosen Encyclopaedia Britannica entries in the form of risograph prints. The focus of this project was to get students to think about image and text layout and the imaginative interpretation of texts. It also served as an introduction to risograph printing and an exercise in working with a limited colour palette.
This work is currently on display at the National Library of Scotland throughout June, alongside the original Encyclopaedia Britannica.
