Drumroll Please: Guillaume Apollinaire, Father of Calligrams
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| Drum kit Calligram Illustration by Joni James Copyright 2011 This particular drum kit calligram was made with a friend in mind. Others in this style were made custom for a few customers which included personal names and favorite songs of the person receiving the gift. Personalized Calligrams make great gifts, especially when they were new on the scene. My calligrams were the first to show their head on Etsy back in 2009 under the shop name CalligramORama. After a few years the idea quickly caught on and many others began creating them too, but computer font programs took over the show and my hand drawn calligrams became diluted in a sea of flatness and unimpressive digital art. This gentleman below in the form of a calligram is Guillaume Apollinaire. He was the first known calligram creator around the year 1915. I always felt especially kin to this French Playwright as he was also an enormous Picasso fan, not to mention a poet and short story writer.  |
