Local illustrator and designer Sarah Neuburger’s colorful, bold, and joyful imagery has been selected as the campaign art for the 2023 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival (AJFF). Now returning for its 23rd year and celebrating the magic of in-person film festivals, they enlisted Neuburger to design imagery that is inclusive, diverse, and colorful. I recently had the opportunity to visit Neuburger’s home studio to hear more about the work she has completed with the film festival, her creative journey, and her career as an artist.
“In my house it was normal to be creative,” said Neuburger of her youth. Growing up in Columbia, South Carolina, her home was full of art thanks to her mother who worked as an elementary school teacher and her father who had an affinity for architecture. Neuburger recalled how her family had a can-do attitude to all things creative, embracing an ethos of “we will figure out how to do it” about any challenges they faced. As a child, Neubuger would often channel her creativity through play, like the time when she designed menus for a pretend restaurant, her family indulging her and playing along.
While she has always been creative, a marked shift occurred in her junior year of high school when one of her high school art teachers took an interest in Neuburger’s artwork. “She saw me work and said ‘You don’t just have an interest in this, you’re really good at it, too.’” This teacher’s impact was instrumental; she encouraged Neuburger to try out for art competitions and helped her to photograph her portfolio for college applications.
In the summer months between school years Neuburger enrolled at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities where she took college-level courses that cemented her desire to pursue a career as an artist. After high school she went on to attend Columbia College in South Carolina where she got her bachelor’s degree in fine arts. Following graduation she attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan where she got her Master’s of Fine Art Degree in Studio Art. She began working with Women Make Movies, a nonprofit art organization, in the Fiscal Sponsorship Program. While she loved much about life in New York City she found herself overwhelmed and overstimulated by the experience and shortly thereafter moved back south to live with her sister in Columbia, South Carolina.
During this phase, Neuburger worked with clients such as Anthropologie and Chronicle Books, and she also started a wholesale line called The Small Object, creating original artwork and custom cake toppers which she sold directly to clients via online sales. Though it was immensely popular she started to dislike the way her studio had become overrun with materials and supplies. She made the decision to shift back to illustration and design. “After about 600 of these small clothespin people and probably as many cake toppers it felt like I had exhausted the creative ways to do it,” said Neuburger. “It was just too much stuff.”
Neuburger met her wife Edurne who took a job working at Emory University Hospital, and the duo made a new home for themselves in Atlanta. Shortly thereafter a group of friends started Paper Ghost Studio in Candler Park. Neuburger got on board and working amongst other illustrators offered Neuburger inspiration and encouragement as she further developed her illustration, design, and mural work. When the community began to respond well to using the space as a gallery rather than a coworking space Neuburger parted ways with the enterprise and began working exclusively from her home studio.
“Even when I was at the School of Visual Arts and I had a studio space I was always working from home and carting in the finished pieces,” explained Neuburger as we sat in her cozy treetop home studio which is located at the top of a tall spiral staircase. “It’s always nice to have a visual barrier… it helps me have a now-I’m-working-mode.” Neuburger and her wife moved into this mid-century gem in early 2022 and the space has proven to be a perfect fit for her to continue her illustration and design work. Surrounded by windows that let in plenty of natural light and offer opportunities to watch birds swoop and sing in the treetops, it’s here that she is most productive.
Hanging on the wall above her desk are iterations of the final design chosen for the 2023 AJFF. The imagery depicts a diverse group of people sitting in a theater and looking out as if you, the viewer, are actually in the movie. A white circle towards the top center of the design is meant to represent the projector, and swirling blocks of color surrounding the design were inspired by Ukranian-born Jewish artist Sonia Delaunay-Terk. Another sheet displays smaller graphics rendered using the patterns of the original design to accommodate various individual uses such as newsletters, postcards, and even a candy bar wrapper that will be given out on opening night. Her designs have also been enlarged to advertise for the festival on MARTA bus shelters and on the large 16:9 movie theater screen. Neuburger mentioned that the design will reportedly also be animated, with an in-house AJFF designer rendering it into a motion graphic.
The diversity of individuals pictured in the finished design is intentional and powerful. “It was very important to them and it’s very important to me as well. I try to take stock in who I draw and who I portray in all the work that I do,” said Neuburger. “It’s supposed to be that this festival is for Atlanta and for the international community. It needs to reflect the community.”
The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival is the largest film festival of any kind in the state of Georgia and the 2023 event will feature 60 world-class films as well as two shorts programs at multiple venues in Atlanta and in the suburbs of Alpharetta, Marietta and Sandy Springs. More information and the full lineup can be found on the AJFF website. This year’s AJFF will take place Feb. 8-21, 2023.