Project Timespan
February 4-5, 2018
Inspiration
Those who know me know that I am a Packers fan, through and through. You will never see me making any art whatsoever celebrating the successes of the Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings, or the Detroit Lions.
However, after spending the better part of four years in the city of Philadelphia, the boisterous and temperamental Philadelphia Eagles fans won me over, and though I cannot forget such transgressions as 4th and 26, the celebratory atmosphere flooding the city in the aftermath of Super Bowl inspired me to document the Eagles’ victory through a series of laser cut photos of the game.
I worked in a surgical research department on campus during my gap year before entering medical school, and I thought that it would be a great prank to put up images of the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory the morning after they won, before any of my coworkers arrived in the office on Monday morning. Therefore, just after midnight, appetite satiated and energy boosted after consumption of a Wawa hoagie, I headed down towards the engineering department for a late-night project.
Project Background
I only have one picture of the finished project – as you can see, it consists of eleven photos of Super Bowl 52 surrounding a logo of the Philadelphia Eagles. Some of these images are difficult to make out given the resolution of the photo itself, but I will walk through the context of the various pictures in this post (in mostly chronological order).
The process of making laser etched photos is extremely simple – in the interface I used, all I had to do was drag and drop the photo into the CAD program (i.e. DraftSight) and make sure the power and speed settings were dialed in. Given my previous experiences with the MDF material, I knew exactly what settings were optimal for the best contrast.
I was in University City when the game occurred, and as I walked east through campus towards the engineering buildings wherein the laser cutters were located, I heard the cheers and shouts and whoops of revelry coming from all directions. Perhaps most memorable was a motorcade rolling up Walnut Street from Center City/ North Philly – most of the participants were performing wheelies on their motorcycles. It was quite the sight (and sound)!
The reason why the numbering increases from right-to-left is that the main entrance to the office space is to the right of the image, so that someone walking in would first see the rightmost photos. I didn’t deliberate too long with regards to the placement of the photos, but I think the final arrangement makes some sense, even if the alignment can be improved.
Note: I am not sure exactly from where I found the images for the laser cut photos, but I will provide the attribution to the following (similar) images that I found while putting together this post.
1 | Cool Under Pressure
Nick Foles throwing a ball under pressure from Trey Flowers and Lawrence Guy in the first half of the Super Bowl at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis (Getty Images / Jerry Holt / Star Tribune)
2 | Touchdown, Eagles!
Alshon Jeffrey scored the first touchdown of the game on a 34-yard dime from Nick Foles. Jeffrey caught all three of his receptions in the first half, finishing with 73 yards in the game (Getty Images / Patrick Smith)
3 | Blount-force Trauma
I am not entirely sure the laser cut photo is of this play… but, this was a great play nonetheless! Blount would rush for 90 yards and 14 carries (Getty Images / Andy Lyons).
4 | Philly Special
In the most memorable play of the game, trickery was afoot as Nick Foles and Doug Pederson gambled on 4th-down with “Philly Philly.” The play began with a direct snap to Corey Clement, who flipped the ball to Trey Burton – Burton passed to a wide-open Foles in the right corner of the end zone. Following the successful extra-point try, the Eagles would go up 22-12 on the Patriots (USA Today Images).
5 | Game-winner
Down 33 – 32, Zach Ertz dived for the go-ahead score on a seven-yard pass from Nick Foles late in the 4th quarter of Super Bowl LII. Ertz would finish the game with seven catches for 67 yards and this touchdown (USA Today Images).
6 | Final Score: 41 - 33
Corey Clement and Jay Ajayi celebrate their victory over the New England Patriots. Clement would finish with eight rushing yards on three carries and 100 receiving yards on four receptions. Ajayi rushed for 57 yards on nine attempts (Philadelphia Eagles/@eagles/Twitter).
7 | Fly, Eagles Fly
Alshon Jeffery and Fletcher Cox celebrate their victory as the final seconds tick away. (Getty Images / Gregory Shamus). I couldn’t find a very similar image as to the one I used originally, but I found one that captures the same spirit!
8 | Bummed-out Brady
Tom Brady finished with 505 yards on 28-of-48 passing with three touchdowns and a 115.4 QB rating. In any other game, these statistics would have led to a comfortable victory. Not to be in this Super Bowl, however, as the game slipped away from his hands (Getty Images / Christian Petersen).
9 | Your Super Bowl MVP
Nick Foles celebrates with Jason Kelce on the field. Foles would finish the game with 373 yards on 28-of-43 passing with three touchdowns and one interception, winning the Most Valuable Player award for the game (Reuters).
10 | Celebrations from the Top!
Head coach Doug Pederson and Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie celebrate after their victory against the New England Patriots (Associated Press).
11 | Broad Street Parade
Play like champions, celebrate like champions. Fans of the Eagles align the streets in celebration of the victory! I laser cut this last photo a few days after the Super Bowl, not the morning following, as the victory parade took place on February 8th (AP Photo / Matt Slocum).
Lessons Learned & Improvements
Only lesson to be learned here is that you should doubt playoff Nick Foles at your peril.
All in all, I did the best I could with a morning of time before people began arriving at the office – I finished everything around 4 am, and then I spent a fair bit of time setting everything up on the wall. I do think hardwood would have provided the best contrast, but MDF was all the material I had on hand.
Reflection
It was so funny to see the reactions of the others in the office when they came to work the next morning to find a whole wall of Eagles decorations. I did not ask permission from anyone before putting up the images, but I wanted to stay anonymous throughout the whole process! After a month or two, I took down the photos and wrote a note for my colleagues in the office that they were free to take any that they wanted. The mystery of who made the Eagles art stayed a mystery for several more months until people gradually realized that I was the one responsible for the laser cut artwork popping up around the office… fun times!
Now that I think of it, many of the recent Packers’ playoff runs have suffered at the hands of these bird teams – Eagles, Falcons, Seahawks, and Cardinals have all handed the Packers some devastating losses over the years!