Although Winter Carnival festivities are still five weeks away, the 1996 Winter Carnival Council has already selected the winning poster for this year's festival and made plans to commence construction on the giant snow sculpture today.
Last Friday, the Council chose the artwork of Chris Miller '97 to appear on the Winter Carnival poster.
Miller's poster, currently at the printers, will go on sale on Jan. 29 and will be available for the two weeks preceding Winter Carnival Weekend.
Winter Carnival Council co-Chair Tim Chow '96 said Miller's poster was "a great, fun takeoff on the theme" and "had a spirit of enjoying the outdoors."
Miller's poster depicts an array of dinosaurs frolicking in the snow in front of Baker Library and Webster Hall, and is patterned after this year's Carnival theme, "'Round the Girdled Earth They Roamed: A Prehistoric Carnival."
The poster features a tyrannosaurus and a triceratops having a snowball fight, a pterodactyl wearing a scarf and skis, and in the background, a brontosaurus flying off a ski-jump.
Miller, who had never submitted an entry in the Winter Carnival poster contest before this year, said he decided to draw a poster because he "thought the theme was a lot of fun this year."
Miller said he was looking to draw something "playful" since "Winter Carnival is supposed to be a good time."
The prehistoric creatures in Miller's poster are caricatures, and Miller said he patterned his dinosaurs after those he often saw in the "Calvin and Hobbes" cartoon strip.
"I did it not exactly as a tribute to Bill Watterson, but definitely with him in mind," Miller said.
Meanwhile, work on the snow sculpture will begin today.
Continuing with the prehistoric theme of this year's Carnival, the sculpture will depict a stegosaurus standing on a block of ice. In addition, there will be a globe with Baker Tower on top of it near the stegosaurus's head, and the stegosaurus will be nibbling on Baker Tower.
