The theme of this speculative film fest is Day of the Dead. I drew this up in Illustrator, and added texture in Photoshop. A best-case scenario would be that I would then make this by hand (except for the lettering) on illustration board. If only I had the time. This is one of many projects I need to finish within a month’s time, including a 3D sculpture and accompanying process book, a website design (and accompanying process book), a book of typography exercises, and a motion design piece.

With fashion as my inspiration, I designed what felt like a million line and dot compositions based on color relationships and basic design structures — asymmetrical balance, complementary contrast, emphasis by anomaly, and so on. I selected 18 compositions (and 18 correlating fashion-themed photos) and bound everything in a flag book format. The minute I got done with it (after weeks of hard design labor and four prototype books), I thought of a billion ways I could improve it. Still, I’m extremely proud of it and there’s no way I’m going to spend another second on this project (at least for the time being).

The dimensions of the book are 6 x 18.5 in. when it’s closed, and nearly 4 feet wide when opened up. I was trying to emulate the drama and surprise of a fashion show. Also, the flag book format allowed me to emulate the pleating/draping/ruffles/fringe of a couture gown. To finish things off, I’ve indicated the cover with only a couple inches of tailor’s tape.

For this project, we cut out type in class and pasted it onto white sheets of paper to make a new typographic book cover for 20th Century Remix by Lewis Blackwell. Compare the actual one (top) with a few of my in-class covers. Fun assignment.

Stamped these for me and my husband.

I’m doing my spring cleaning this week, and I’m scanning some of my hand sketches/paintings/prints just so I can clear out my drawers to make room for the next term’s projects.