Make Your Impression

Changing trains the other night on the DC metro at Gallery Place I saw our old friends Abe Lincoln and George Washington (among others) gracing banners and posters for the Library of Congress all over the station. Very clean, simple and well designed, they caught my eye as I'm typically under-whelmed by the design I see on a daily basis (especially considering the gobs of money that goes into it). But it wasn't until my trip down the escalator, seeing honorable Abe stare down at me, that I noticed that these weren't just drawings of icons of the past, they were made completely out of fingerprints! I of course had to ride the elevator back up to check out the entire series (and take pictures), immensely impressed by their design (after all, it was the smart advertising gracing the Paris metro walls that helped inspire me to become a designer).

{up close view of Marilyn}

Turns out they are for the LOC's Inspiration Across the Nation campaign - a growing collection where the public is invited to upload artwork, stories, poems, videos, essays (anything that can be uploaded) to the library, along with a description of what inspired the work. Click here to see the entire gallery, or here to submit your own. I've never been so excited about the Library of Congress before!
Also a fan of this "make your impression" fingerprint map.

UPDATE: The designer behind it is Scott Crooker of Huey + Partners out of Atlanta. [Thanks, Mendeigh]