Background

Al Rashid Education Foundation (AREF) is an Edmonton-based organization, supporting undergraduate and post-graduate students of visible minorities through scholarships. Each year, students are awarded for their academic and leadership achievement at a gala, hosted by the foundation. As a member of AREF’s Board of Trustees, I understand the significance of donors’ support, without which, the organization would not be able to provide support to students. As a thank you to our donors, we send out plaques of recognition. To further emphasize our deep appreciation for donors’ generosity, a ‘thank you’ card usually accompanies each plaque.

This year, our ‘thank you’ cards tell our donors a story about the impact that their support has had.

I started by asking: how can I show donors the impact they have had on the many students who received AREF awards? I knew that over a period of 6 years, 95 students were awarded 101 scholarships. This information helped with my initial sketches of the card’s idea.

I decided to draw 6 flowers to represent each year in which AREF awards were presented to students. Each flower has a certain number of petals, which correspond to the number of scholarships awarded that year.

I decided to make a print in order to reproduce the design multiple times for all the donors. I used a linoleum block to create the print.

To create a block print, the image to be carved is first traced onto a piece of linoleum sheet. The linoleum sheet is then hand-carved using a linoleum cutter.

The printing process involves spreading ink on an inking tray with a brayer. Using the inked brayer, the ink is applied on the carved linoleum block, which is then transferred onto paper. A clean brayer is then rolled over the print to burnish it.

The process is then repeated as many times as needed.

Finally, the prints are coloured, labelled, and placed into hand-made frames attached to greeting cards.