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“My passion is designing very precious, very special books. The kind you pick
up and examine page by page,” says Rita, thoughtfully pulling favorite volumes
from her shelves. It’s hard to believe now, but she never intended to work in
publishing.
In the early 1980s, (a) Rita Marshall was a graphic designer on the
advertising fast track. “I convinced the creative director of my agency to fly
me to Switzerland to work with this artist I admired, Etienne Delessert,” she
recalls. Within days, she fell in love. Within weeks, she was living abroad and
working for a French advertising agency. “It was crazy—flying all over, not
understanding the French mindset,” she recalls. So when a publisher approached
Etienne about developing a series of fairy-tale volumes, Rita happily shifted
gears to illustrated books, mentoring talented artists like Monique Felix and
Roberto Innocenti. Eventually, she even wrote her own title, the perennially
popular I Hate to Read, and became creative director for the respected
children’s publisher Creative Editions.
(b) Rita
has been exploring quilt making, with an emphasis on graphics and lettering. Her
“CH” design (an abbreviation of Confederation Helvetica) is an interpretation of
the Swiss flag. (c) Illustration by Monique Felix, one of Rita’s favorite
artists, on the cover of the Creative Company catalog. Rita is at the
visual
helm of its specialty children’s book imprint, Creative
Editions. (d) A catalog the artist designed for the 2002 opening
exhibition of the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst,
Massachusetts. The show featured Maurice Sendak.(e) Works by husband Etienne Delessert, outsider artist Michel Nedjar, and Yellow
Submarine illustrator Heinz Edelmann hang in Rita’s inner sanctum. (f) She turns
Midwestern feedbags into colorful quilts. (g) “7th Letter of the Alphabet” quilt is
an homage to the typographical allure of the lowercase letter “g”. (h) The converted
garage studio features an upstairs room for textile projects. (i) Her library shelves are
packed with a retrospective of projects. (j) Envelopes and
stamps from Europe decorate a corner of Rita’s desk.
Vision Quest page
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 Stumble It!
artist's studio archive »
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When Passion Meets Promise
Passion meets promise in the careers of children’s author, illustrator, and filmmaker William Joyce; potter Rebecca Wood; multisurface designer Lotta Jansdotter; and theatrical costumer Donna Langman| read more » |
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Reinventing themselves
Just what propels creativity to the next level? In our 10th annual artists’ studios tour, two icons, textile designer Kaffe Fassett and illustrator Jerry Pinkney, reflect on how their work has evolved over the years
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