A Spelling Bee for Cheaters

Stefan Bucher · 2010 · Event poster ¬∑ Offset print ¬∑ Sepia illustration

An event broadside for 826LA's "A Spelling Bee for Cheaters," held in 2010 at Lincoln Middle School in Santa Monica. Hosted by the cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, the tournament rewarded "verbal smarts and fraudulence" in equal measure. Bucher renders Abraham Lincoln in painstaking sepia-toned pencil at the microphone, drawn deliberately "shifty" after Mathew Brady's photography, surrounded by hand-lettered speech bubbles that double as rules, tips, and asides. Trap words and near-impossible entries spill down both sides of the page, and the oversized "8.14" at the bottom left, wrapped in a burst of pencil rays, doubles as date, punch line, and call to arms.

All projects are different, but you have to treat each one with care. Sometimes you get to build a luxury yacht; other times, it'll be a rowboat. You still have to make sure the thing doesn't spring a leak.Stefan Bucher

View this poster in The 29 Collection