

But she's not being truthful if she's claiming that she designed it.Įkiss denied that she took the design. This was a common practice between the cup companies, and Gina was just doing what she was told. Same colors, same everything, except Gina made the purple line a little smaller. Someone from Sweetheart picked it up, liked it, set it on Gina's desk and asked to tweak it just a little to avoid copyright issues. Miller acknowledged she did not have proof that she created the design, although she wrote on Reddit in 2015: According to Miller, officials for Imperial Bondware considered her new design too "forward thinking" and stopped using it after approximately one year. You didn't have to worry about edges lining up." Miller later said that she believed her design was titled "Brush Strokes", but she could not remember for sure. She used paint brushes and ink to create the winning design, and she designed it in a way that it would be easy to print: "The whole idea was that it would be easier to be printed, because the design didn't have to line up at all. According to Miller, Imperial Bondware held a contest for its three graphic designers to create a new cup design. In the late 1980s, Stephanie Miller worked as a graphic designer for Imperial Bondware, a paper and plastic cup manufacturer based in Ohio. At the time, Jazz was the company's top-grossing stock design. Ekiss worked for Sweetheart until 2002, when the company relocated its art department.

The jazz solo paper cup design shirt full#
Full production of the Jazz disposable cups began in early 1992, and the design was also used for disposable bowls and plates. Įkiss did not receive a bonus payment for her design, and did not receive royalties as Sweetheart took ownership of the design.


Ekiss later recalled that she had no idea what to call her cup design when it was chosen: "I had to come up with a name for it, so we just called it jazz." The name is a variation of her earlier Razzi image. The original image was drawn on vellum using charcoal according to Ekiss, "I think I probably just had some on hand at my desk and was just messing around and I liked what came out." To create Jazz, Ekiss remade her Razzi image digitally by scanning it. Jazz was based on an earlier image named Razzi that Ekiss had designed while she was in college. In 1991, Sweetheart chose Ekiss's design, which utilized her favorite colors: teal and purple. Įkiss submitted three or four design ideas. At the time, Sweetheart was transitioning to digital technology, and Ekiss was one of the few workers who was skilled in computer design. One of the new design's limitations was that it could only have one or two colors, due to the high speed of the printing press. Marsh was influential in the company's decision to hold the contest. In 1989, a company contest was announced to choose a new stock image for the disposable cups that would have wide appeal, as the company's cups were used in various locations such as hospitals and fast-food restaurants. Dennis Marsh, a manager for the company, said that the design agencies did not understand the specifics of the company's printing process, and that their designs were too complicated to use. Sweetheart became disappointed with the new designs submitted by external agencies. During the late 1980s, Sweetheart planned to replace its disposable cup design, "Preference," which featured a gray base with a thin red line that formed two leaves. She was one of approximately 32 artists working for Sweetheart's art department, based in Springfield, Missouri. Gina Ekiss (then known as Gina Boyd-Burgess) began working at Sweetheart Cup Company in 1987, after graduating from Missouri State University. According to Skala, "At this time, our best assumption is that a former employee named Gina created the design, but we are unable to confirm whether this is accurate or not." Gina Ekiss However, Skala stated that most of the people who worked on the Jazz project were no longer with Solo following its acquisition of Sweetheart Cup Company. Kasey Skala, spokesperson for Solo Cup Company, subsequently said that the company did some internal research on the creator of Jazz. Some reports credited Ekiss as the creator but this has not been confirmed by Solo Cup Company. During the same year, Stephanie Miller claimed on Reddit to be the true creator of the Jazz design. The popularity of the design led to a Reddit inquiry that year as to who created the design, ultimately revealing Gina Ekiss as the designer. Until 2015, the identity of Jazz's designer had remained largely unknown. The Jazz design consists of a broad, jagged, crayon-like brushstroke of teal coloring, topped by a finer zig-zagged brushstroke of purple coloring.
