These studies show the progression of an idea. Robert designed the poster for an event featuring musicians and poets. In the upper left corner, he starts with a sketch of a standing woman playing guitar and a standing man reading from a book. In the next sketch, he replaces the human figures with symbolic objects. A guitar representing “jazz” and a flower representing “poetry” cross paths. The flower is over-sized and appears in front of the instrument, its bottom leaf playfully strumming the strings. Below this, Robert experiments with different ways the flower might wrap itself around the instrument, as if the two objects were lovers or dance partners. On the facing page, Robert brings each of these ideas together, the rose as player and embracing lover of the guitar, and employs cross-hatching to blend the two elements together.