A Bit of History

Long ago in a far away place (which is rumored to be a few hours outside of Pittsburgh or, perhaps, somewhere near Cumberland, England) lies a place called Pencilvania.  Over the eons, Pencilvania evolved in its own way and in its own time.

But let’s not jump ahead of ourselves.  We should start at the beginning.

In the beginning, the Sharper Image in the Sky said, “Let there be a place made entirely of parchment.”  And so for millions (maybe even billions) of years there was a rather boring land of pasty looking parchment that spread across miles and miles of monotonously white plains (not to be confused with White Plains). Eventually, the Sharper Image in the Sky realized that he had created a pretty dull place.  Something, if not everything, was missing.  This land needed squiggly things and scribbles, bumpy lines and bold blurps, color and chaos and much, much more!

“Let there be Pencils,” he commanded.  At first it began with only a few tentative swirls and brief dots and dashes, but soon there was no end to the wildly  imaginative world that evolved.  Before you knew it, there were cavemen pencils and cannibals, clowns and clairvoyants.  Then came the sylphs, the sinners and the saints.

Centuries passed and as the Age of Enlightenment dawned halfway across the world in France, one very bright blue pencil invented blueprints.  That meant that buildings and battleships, bargain basements, grocery stores and gas stations, theaters and telemarketers could be united in a fantastic city that, of course, was named Pencilvania.  Blueprints and the ideas they expressed completely changed everything!

As civilization expanded in Pencilvania, things turned red and love was in bloom. But, with love, comes complication, twisted relationships and couples drawn to the forbidden fruits of desire and a lust for lead.

Naturally, it didn’t take long for word to get out and Pencilvania quickly became a destination spot for the adventurous.  Soon Pencilvania was teaming with tourists and Texans, fine lines and fine wines, graphic and graphite love stories where passion is never erased – all drawing attention to a fantastic world that can only be found in a vivid imagination.

Welcome to Pencilvania!  A place where love (and obsession) will never be pointless.

Visit the Gallery

Jayme Odgers Biography

Introducing Pencilvania

Click on image to expand

Jayme Odgers Biography

About Pencilvania

The Birth of Pencilvania

Born in Butte, Montana, Jayme Odgers graduated from The Art Center School in Los Angeles with a Bachelors Degree in Art with Great Distinction. In 1964 he became Paul Rand’s assistant by designing graphics for the IBM Pavilion fort the 1963 World’s Fair in Flushing New York.

In 1966 Odgers was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study in Europe. During this phase of his life, he was honored with over 100 awards of excellence in design including Gold and Silver Medal Awards plus an international silver Typomundus Award for Excellence in typography.

In 1983, Jayme Odgers was selected along with fourteen ‘world class’ artists, including David Hockney, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Johnathon Borfosky, and John Baldessari, to do an official poster of the 1984 Olympic Games, the XXIIIrd Olympiad, held in Los Angeles.

In 1986, Odgers was one of eight international artists commissioned to do a poster commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Thieme, the international publishing firm of Switzerland. Odgers continued garnering world-wide attention in helping to establish a new look for California design producing work which was later exhibited at the Museo Fortuny in Venice, Italy in 1987

His work has been exhibited at theBrooklynMuseum, the San Francisco Museum of Art,ArcoCenterfor the Visual Arts, The Albright Knox Museum and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the permanent collection of the Smithsonian’sCooper-HewittMuseuminNew York Cityand The White House inWashington,D.C.

Jayme’s poster for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences was included in theWalkerArtCenter’s 1984 landmark show, Posters of The Century: Design of the Avant Garde along with works by Rodchenko, Man Ray and Paul Rand.

He was also awarded an Honorary 2006 Henry Award for extraordinary contribution to California Modernist Design by the newly formedMuseumofCalifornia Design. Also, In 2006 Odgers’ was included in Megg’s History of Graphic Design.

In 2012 his work was included in POSTMODERISM, Style and Subversion 1970–1990 at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, as well as in the latest Dictionary of Graphic Design and Designer by Thames & Hudson.

In addition to teaching at The Art Center School and its later incarnation the Art Center College of Design, the California Institute of the Arts and Otis-Parsons in Los Angeles, Jayme has guest taught and lectured extensively. He has toured and lectured in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, Japan at the invitation of the Tokyo Gakuin, and was commissioned to co-design two water fountains for the Metropolitan Water District’s Headquarters Building plaza in downtown Los Angeles.

View the Pencilvania Gallery!

The Birth of Pencilvania

Introducing Pencilvania