When Science Meets Art

Several months ago, Alex Nabaum contacted me for snowfall data from Alta for a project he was working on. I get such requests from time to time, but this one was different because Alex is a professional illustrator and was interested in integrating this data into the concept for a poster he was working on.

I'll let Alex tell the story behind his poster and encourage you to check it and some of his other offerings out at https://www.skiposters.art/. 

40 years of Alta Snowfall Season Totals, Hidden in This Poster
Alex Nabaum

Poster © 2020 by SkiPosters.art

I’m a professional illustrator, skier and lover of ski resort history.

Especially Alta’s.

My grandfather Sherman Nabaum was chairman of the Winter Sports Committee that raised money to get skiing started at Alta in the late 1930’s.

A few years ago I went searching for ski resort posters to hang in my house, but was disappointed with the posters available.  Albeit beautiful, they all looked so similar. 

The unique visual story of each ski resort was not being told. 

I realized if I was going to have an authentic poster that told the unique visual story of my favorite ski resorts in a fresh modern way, I'd have to make them myself. 

So what’s the unique story of Alta?

To me it’s “Light, Deep and 1938”

Visually I tried to emphasize the light air filled and right side up quality of Alta’s snow by extending the transition between the white snow and dark blue sky. Blurring the line of where snow begins and sky ends.

Second is Alta’s deep snow history, which I hid in the columns of white dots.

The large white dots hide the last 40 years of Alta's snow season totals. Starting with the 1980-'81 season on the far left column and ending with the 2019-'20 season on the far right. If you squint your eyes, the chart becomes a bit more obvious. 

Each large white snow dot represents 50 inches of snow. For example, the off-the-chart winter of 1981-'82 with a total of 748" is the second column from the left and nearly goes off my chart as well.

There is also a very thin faint line that runs through the dots halfway above the V baseline (seen the detail picture below) that represents the 500 inch average.

The smaller white dots above the large dots are just artistic and serve to fade the snow into the sky and actually hide the bar chart a bit, so that the owner of the poster can enjoy counting and figuring it out over the years.

The large V shape of the snow/skyline (and the data chart’s bent V shaped X-axis) dramatizes the depth the skier is sinking into the deep snow. It is also meant to symbolize the deep V shape of Little Cottonwood Canyon which funnels storms to this little blessed micro-climate.

Also hidden in the dots is Alf Engen the ski jumping champion who scouted out Alta in 1935 and taught skiing there for forty years. He is hidden in the 1982-'83 season column of snowflakes, third column from the left.

In another nod to to Alta's 1938 beginning, I formed the letters out of bamboo ski poles which were commonly used at the time. The letter's simple red lines are also intended to echo the historic single seat red lift chairs preserved on the Alta welcome sign.

To find the other famous skier hidden in this poster and see how I use actual Alta snowmelt in the hand making of this poster and others, you can visit:  www.skiposters.art