Design Found in Savannah, GA

I spent two years living in Savannah, Ga. as an MFA graduate student in graphic design at the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD). 

I loved living there. Savannah is small and accessible. My boyfriend/now-husband, Nate, and I could easily bike from our apartment to classes or restaurants without facing aggressive traffic. 

As a city, Savannah feels both historic and forward-thinking. The art school is very involved in restoring historic buildings throughout the city so the creative presence is spread throughout rather than limited to the campus.

Savannah is very community-driven. It’s a great place for creatives, innovators, and outside-the-box thinkers. People are always thinking of creative ways to serve their community’s needs. There’s a very local focus – not so much “how do we invent the next mega app corporation?” There’s a very caring element to the community and the folks who live there.

The creative spirit of Savannah meant there was always something to catch my eye. Here are a few photos of quotidian things I saw around town that caught my eye. 

Lemonade Sign

This is from the outdoor seating area at one of my favorite coffee shops, The Sentient Bean. My now-husband, Nate, and I lived a few blocks away, and we loved walking over for some iced coffee and spinach feta croissants. This spot has the most grassroots, local, community feel of any coffee shop I’ve ever been to. The space was always filled with unique work by local artists featured in rotating exhibits . Hand-lettered art and signage is common throughout Savannah, so the lettering feels very local and reminds me of the time I spent there. I also love how the sign both celebrates the lemons and functions as a warning not to take them…it has a bit of quirky humor that reminds me of the kind of people I met in Savannah.

Hanging Violin

This is from another coffee shop I used to frequent called Gallery Espresso. Can you tell I love my coffee? It was just down the street from my class building, so I would stop in often for a mid-day pick-me-up. I love the element of surprise. Who expects to see a violin hanging from the ceiling when they look up to read a cafe menu? This felt like a great reward for taking notice of my surroundings. Also, I used to play the viola (you didn’t know I was musical, did you?) and I imagined it would feel magical to play such a beautiful, visually artistic instrument. 

Concentric Circle Cobblestones

While I love a good reason to look up, I also love looking down. Seemingly simple designs on a sidewalk intrigue me because they are different every place you go. There isn’t one brick factory that decorated the whole East Coast in the same designs. Mass produced goods cover the country in sameness, so I always appreciate getting to see this seemingly insignificant variation when I visit a new city. It’s a wonderful reminder to me that the beauty really is in the detail. I also love the kind of patterns that you can use to make impressions, like my friend Meagan Healy and I did in Silver Spring (more on that soon!). It’s so fun to take something ordinary and make it into a unique print that is singular and special.

Tour Stickers

I love seeing how people organically agree on a collective action. No one instructed or guided people to cover this sign with their ghost and trolley tour participation stickers. Someone must have started it and other people got on board (ha, on board, trolley… love a fun, accidental pun). This sign is adjacent to a treacherous set of cobblestone steps to get to River St, which is lined with bars and clubs. I like to think people are marking a transition from their educational tour experience to the party atmosphere by discarding their stickers. And the way all the stickers are layered and aging together has a fun, unintended aesthetic appeal.

Savannah Floor Covering Co

This storefront was located next to a comic book store. I love so many things about this scene – the neat but weathered stripes on the awning, the S in the signage lettering – it looks somehow out of place and yet so striking – and how the beautiful tree and Spanish moss stretch across the whole area with authority. The Floor Covering Co. is now a coffee shop (yep, another coffee shop!). It’s powerful when spaces get repurposed like that.  It gives you a sense of the design and economic history of a place in a different, more accessible way than a museum exhibit or information sign. It’s immersive. It helps remind us of how all the spaces around us are in motion and in transition, which gives me pause to appreciate them even more.