ILLUSTRATED MILESTONES IN DOLBY HISTORY
Kate Bingaman-Burt isn’t one of those artists who always knew they were going to be an artist. It wasn’t until she was halfway through college that she realized her varied interests — mass communications, English, illustration, letter forms, typography, storytelling — could all be encompassed in a graphic design degree. Thank goodness. Because now we all get to enjoy her quirky, illustrative style through work for the likes of Chipotle, Uniqlo, Hallmark, VH1, Girl Scouts of America, Madewell, and the Gap. Kate is Associate Professor of Graphic Design and helps coordinate the program at Portland State University.
Medium: Illustration
Location: San Francisco
Date: 2015
Who better than an educator to teach us about Dolby’s history in film through illustration? From A Clockwork Orange (the first title to use Dolby® noise reduction technology on all premixes and masters in 1971) to Batman Returns (the first to use 5.1 surround sound with Dolby Digital in 1992) and Brave (the first to use Dolby Atmos® multidimensional sound in 2010), Bingaman-Burt hand-illustrated what look like alternative movie posters for 12 different films, featuring creative lettering for the titles and their corresponding Dolby history, along with iconic images associated with them. As for how it all came to life: “As an illustrator, everything starts with pen and paper. In fact, I’m notorious for not wanting to use pencil. Then I draw on tracing paper,” Bingaman-Burt explains. “It’s funny, I don’t really think about the end image. I like to do the parts and pieces first, and once I get it scanned into the computer, I put the parts together. I’m like a collage illustrator of my own illustrations.”
Her aesthetic shines through each piece. “On one hand it’s really simple, but on the other it’s not minimal.... It's maximal,” she explains. “For instance, it will always be one color, but the way I use that color is bold and overwhelming.”
