One of my proudest accomplishments, this book was the final project in my sophomore-year Letterforms class. The assignment guidelines were very loose: tell your design story so far. We had to include all the work of the semester from that Lf class, but anything and everything from our other classes was okay, and from outside of class, too--internships, personal projects, "Heck," said my professor, "what music you listen to, design and designers that inspire you; that's fine, too. Put it all in!"
My first book! I spent a month and a half working on what felt like my first real Thing. The feeling of receiving one's work in physical manifestation is beyond words, only compounded by the sight of typo #1 in the dedication.
I divided my book's contents by class, and went with a full-bleed block of color for the divider page (one color per class). I couldn't come up with anything more creative, but that's what I'm in school to learn. Also, I used my scanned + vectorized handwriting as a consistent element throughout. Or as consistent as handwriting can be.
These are mostly here to show you just how good I am with grids. (I actually have a tough time with grids, but this book made me realize how helpful they are and I am determined to overcome.) And no, that's not a mistake--that's a seam. I wanted some space there for the binding, in case the book didn't open very wide, so that I didn't lose artwork in the crease.*
*Sound dystopian to you? "Graphite. Send for backup IMMEDIATELY. We just lost Artwork in The Crease!"
I like for my sketches to be pretty.
Since Letterforms was the class from which we had to use all our assignments, I had to include my journal itself in a spread. This struck me as distinctly Droste effect, and I couldn't resist making a sort of visual pun. ...Is it a visual pun? I don't even know what a visual pun is. Does this at least count as visual wordplay? I am the Shakespeare of graphic design.
The copy on the other pages is negligible--my talking at length about my hard life doing what I love. I'll spare you. But this is someone else's wise words that you don't want to miss. For ease of reading, I'll copy it here (haha, copy. Get it?).
"Barry Moser came in to talk to our class towards the end of the semester, and he covered everything in life from the philosophy of belief and certainty to art and earning money. 'Inspiration is a breathing-in: one doesn't find it. One absorbs it.' 'Art is stealing others' ideas and making them your own.' 'To be creative you have to see the universal in the everyday--the "world in a grain of sand".'
And then he quoted Rilke, which won me over utterly. It was good to hear about his journey--never knowing exactly where he'd end up--because that's where I feel I am right now. Where am I? Who am I? And where am I going?"
