Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Envelope Art, Drawing Up Past Memories




One of my favorite memories of paging through game magazines as a kid was the envelope art. I loved all of the original artwork and varying styles . The most exciting aspect to me, was it being submitted by readers of the magazine. It was an awesome exchange between reader and publisher, championing the art of video games.



I know the long time debate of video games as art, but you can't deny the grand artistic side the medium brings. The games of my youth greatly affected my impression of art and animation, I mean It was video games that taught me what graphics were in the first place.



Most art has some sort of message or meaning. envelope art has a direct, literal and and tangible message and meaning in the form of a letter. A fan could scrawl renditions of their favorite video games on the out side and write gushing love letters to them on the inside.



I always dreamed of one day being featured in Nintendo Power. The only problem was that I never even drew on an envelope. I was not as much of an artist back then and perhaps a bit intimidated.



Moving a lot in recent years, I write more letters than I used to. I have not forgotten these childhood fantasies of creating envelope art and have started pumping them out. I am not sure what I will do with them all, but it is everything I dreamed of. Except for being published in Nintendo power, of course. But hey, you can't win em' all.

Any one actually get an envelope featured or know someone who did? I can only imagine they were the most popular kid on the play ground.

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