A Different Texture of Reality
Dimensions: 8in by 10in
Printed at Marvel Printing in St. Louis, MO, and at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts
Binding: Spiral, 22mm, bound at Done Dept. in St. Louis, MO
Typefaces: FF Yoga Pro, Harmonia, Harmonia Mono
SP 2023. Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign.
Advisor: Amy Auman
For my senior design capstone project, I designed a 130-page book that acts as a translation of the synesthetic experience. Synesthesia is the neurological phenomenon where the stimulation in one sense can automatically and involuntarily trigger a sensation in another (i.e. colors and numbers could appear as colored, or sounds may be accompanied by perceived visuals). I have Spatial-Sequence Synesthesia and was inspired to select synesthesia as my capstone topic when it became evident during discussions of my synesthesia with friends and family that not very many people know much about the topic, despite its endlessly fascinating nature and its prevalence in our communities.
The materiality of the book was important to me throughout the design process. In order to emulate the synesthetic experience, I utilized various production techniques and materials, ranging from blind debossing, grommet-edged paper, and a variety of paper (transparent, vellum, speckled, and kraft).
This book is separated into two main parts: the Experience and the Science. The Experience discusses what synesthesia is and the five main forms. The Science explores the research and testing over the past few decades that have established the validity of synesthesia. Both sections feature personal stories from synesthetes (people with synesthesia), and the book concludes with an index listing all forms of synesthesia.
Blue Jeans: Articles of Interest #5
Dimensions: 8in by 10in
Binding: Saddle Stitch
Typefaces: Adobe Caslon Pro, Job Clarendon, and Trade Gothic LT Pro
FL 2022. Adobe Photoshop and InDesign.
Advisor: Amy Auman
I designed this book for Capstone studio in Fall22, about the 99% Invisible podcast episode, "Blue Jeans: Articles of Interest #5." This podcast discusses the history of American blue jeans and the historical, social, and environmental consequences that came with their mass production. In my design, I wanted to contrast the Americana infatuation with jeans and the stark ramifications of their production.
This book was printed on Mohawk Via Smooth Light Gray paper. The images were sourced from Unsplash, ArtStor, and Denim : fashion's frontier by Emma McClendon.
What's in a Space?
Dimensions: 6.5in by 8.5in
Binding: Perfect
Typefaces: Baskerville and Seravek
FL 2022. Adobe Photoshop and InDesign.
Advisor: Rebecca Leffell Koren
A 70-page photography book featuring the works of Bodgan Girbovan, Michael Wolf, and Adrienne Salinger, text excerpts from Georges Perec, and a series of 5 collages I made from the featured photographs.
While designing this book, I utilized the concept of space on the page to demonstrate how as humans, we can take an identical space and make it entirely our own through our possessions and personal style. To help communicate this concept, I treat the three photo essays differently, with each receiving its unique layout on the otherwise identical page. I selected three chapters from George Perec's Species of Spaces and Other Pieces: "The Bedroom," "The Apartment," and "The Apartment Building." To subvert expectations and realities about the amount of physical space the three places would traditionally take up, I instead gave "The Bedroom" the most amount of space on the page, while "The Apartment Building" received the smallest space, forcing it to spill onto more pages than the previous sections. For the marginalia and chapter headers, I arranged the type to be reminiscent of a blueprint, often separating the words or phrases and staging them around the perimeter of the page. The text excerpts are printed on thin, gray paper to subtly hint at the material feel of a blueprint. This paper starkly contrasts the glossy white paper the photo essays are printed on, once again suggesting that similar spaces (the page) can have different personalities.
I printed and perfect-bound this book myself in Fall22. It is printed on Mohawk Via Smooth Light Gray and Mohawk Via Bright White Smooth papers.
To Catalog a Mom Friend
Size: 4x6.5in
Binding: Perfect
Typeface: Calluna
FL 2022. Adobe Photoshop and InDesign.
Advisor: Rebecca Leffell Koren
I have this small pouch that I keep on my person at nearly all times. Inside I have an eclectic assortment of small items with varying levels of usefulness—an extra tampon, bobby pins, a Tide-To-Go pen, to list a few. Recently, I've noticed that I lend out items in my pouch more than I use them myself, which led me to reflect a bit further on the concept of a mom friend and how you could categorize, define, or catalog one. So I designed this book to serve as a physical catalog of my being a "mom friend."
While designing this book, I wanted to evoke the feeling of rummaging through the pouch—grabbing the wrong items first, seeing a few items at a time, sifting through the pouch for the correct item.
I designed, printed, and bound this book for a studio course. It was printed on vellum with Mohawk Via Smooth Light Blue end sheets and Papersource cardstock covers. It was perfect-bound with a quarter cloth bind.
Existing/Living (2024)
Dimensions: 6in by 8.5in
Binding: Spiral
Typefaces: Trade Gothic Next LT Pro by Monotype and Maiola by Veronika Burian for TypeTogether
Jan 2024. Adobe Photoshop and InDesign, Procreate.
Self-initiated project
Wil Wheaton's speech,
"I Live with Chronic Depression" and Nora Cooper's slam poem,
"I Won't Write Your Obituary"
Existing/Living (2024) was edited, designed, and produced by myself as a remake of a previous Type II assignment (2021). It connects Wil Wheaton’s speech from the National Alliance on Mental Illness conference in 2018 and Nora Cooper’s 2015 slam poem, “I Won’t Write Your Obituary.” Two very different texts from differing perspectives, but both revolve around mental health and its stigma. Wheaton discusses the importance of sharing our own stories of our mental health and how the action of sharing our experiences is a driving force to destigmatize mental health. Cooper seeks to save a friend, sharing an outside perspective that isn't readily available to individuals with mental illness.
In this new edition, I hoped to retain the heart and message of the original while being more intentional with the design system and materials. The ink spill imagery in the original becomes shadowy, blurry, gray image treatments. Just as mental illness can be an interruption in people's lives, the images become that interruption, that stigma. As the book continues, the images begin to interrupt less. They begin to take up less space and are erased by blank scribbles suggesting that things can get better for those struggling with mental illness. These "erasures" mimic the idea of erasing the stigma, as well.
While I used vellum in Existing/Living (2021), I did not use it with proper intention and therefore it doesn't add to the message. In Existing/Living (2024), I wanted to find a way to have the vellum create a deeper meaning. As the interruptions were meant to be shadowy images, the translucency of vellum lends well to create a more dynamic image effect. Additionally, these interruptions tease at the texts but also blocks them until they are revealed with a page turn.
Fall is Here and Now You Need Soup
Dimensions: 8in by 10in
Binding: Silver Metal Coil
Typefaces: Eloquence and Obliqua Sans
FL 2022. Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.
Advisor: Rebecca Leffell-Koren
I designed, printed, and bound this book for a studio course in Fall22. When designing this book, I wanted to capture the essence of soup—the warmth and comfort it provides, the jumbling and mixing of different ingredients—through the use of laser cut-outs, collages, and color. I bring in motifs of circles frequently throughout the book, hinting at the bowls and pots in which soups are served and cooked. I opted for a limited color palette of orange and purple, beautiful autumn colors for the best dish of the season.
This book was printed on Mohawk Carnival + Via "Warm White" and Mohawk Arjowiggins Keaykolour "Pumpkin" paper. The images and recipes were sourced from Unsplash, Adobe Stock, and the following recipe web pages: The Modern Proper, Love and Lemons, The Chunky Chef, and Little Sunny Kitchen.