The Lost World

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, a classic piece of literature that I quite enjoy, no matter how out of date it is. For this book jacket, I wanted to hint at what was to come and not come out right and say what it was; an adventure novel about dinosaurs. Though that comes across fairly well enough anyhow. So I placed a silhouette of the novel’s main villain, the Megalosaurus, upon the book cover and cut it out, hinting at the dinosaur but not completely revealing what it is. This book jacket slips over a second one, making a window out of the die-cut, and letting the viewer either get a themed glimpse at this “Lost World” or outright look at by removing the first jacket. For the title, I wanted to give it a prehistoric jungle feel, and thus used Photoshop to enhance the majestic Trajan to become somewhat of a lost ruin of type, light spilling on to it through jungle branches unseen.

Bookhound Interactive Componet

Bookhound was an extensive group effort to solve a specific problem: How can we help shoppers at bookstores find books without having to seek out an employee? The answer is a simple one, an interactive kiosk that allows the customer to quickly look up his or her book, get an answer to wether it is in stock or not, and directions to the books place in the store.

For the interface design, I wanted to keep it bright and simple. Something that children and people with failing eye sight would be able use easily. The result was large, colorful buttons and the use of futura, a clean, playful type. The kiosk offers multiple options, allowing users to look for the current best sellers, see store events, or simply find their goods. Simply touching the screen brings the user to the next screen in the process. This was simulated through a flash program

Click the Flash button to see a demo of the system in action. As a demo, only a portion works.

Bookhound Process Book

This piece is in addition to the Bookhound interface seen on the previous spreads. It is a saddle stitched booklet detailing the process of creating the kiosk from beginning notes, through interviews with book store employees and customers, to a completed flash interface (seen earlier) and identity work.

Each spread of the work is divided into zones that provide for an interesting and exciting look at the material. The left side of the spread is used for the text (headers in a blue Bodoni, body copy in Times), the middle of the spread reserved for a central image related to the copy, and the far right of the spread becomes a zone reserved for quick snapshots of the bookstore world. The bottom of the spread becomes a band of notes, not only revealing the thought process of the Bookhound project, but also painting a texture of hand drawn type and doodles across the book.

Rosewood Man

Let’s pretend there’s a physical type shop in the mall. What sort of advertising goes on inside that shop? How do you sell a type to the uninitiated? This was a theme that ran through the making of this poster, choosing a type (The ever bold Rosewood) and personifying it for poster use. The Rosewood Man is obviously from the west, sporting a fancy old timer look or a thick bold feel. As the type was created to emulate signage found in the old West, Rosewood Man become a true cowboy, and like the variation Rosewood Fill, become bold and in your face. Rosewood Man isn’t polite, he has no lower case. He’s loud and in charge, and not like Helvetica, is overflowing with distinct personality.

Recipe For Disaster

At some point I decided I was going to write a book and that book became Recipe for Disaster, over 70 pages of dry humor and insane ramblings about ways to kill yourself. I also provided the illustrations throughout the work in a messy ink pen manner. As much fun as that is, it also needed to be designed.

The book is a small five inches by 9 inches, and Recipe for Disaster’s layout uses a simple red color field to frame the story. The book is divided into 4 sections, each using a large photograph to set up the section. The interior of that places the chapter title in the color field at the start of the chapter, and at the end of each chapter is the “ingredients list” for said disasters in its own special box. The work makes use of the colors red, white, and pink for its captions, color fields, and titles. A color field at the top of the page allows the viewer to quickly note what kid of page he or she is on.

Bones in Type

I have a fascination with many things, bones being among them. For sometime I had been wanting to pursue a project utilizing animal bones and finally got my chance with this experimental book. For this piece I created ten different compositions using image, type, and images as type, the central theme being the use of animal bones as type. The book is comprised of a varying assortment of paper stocks, each to try and bring a different feel out of the type and image treatment printed on it. The book is bound by wire spiral binding in an attempt to further the book theme, resembling a spinal chord.

Richmond Almanack

Another interest of mine is history and I am always intrigued by the Victorian aesthetic. In this piece, I created a largely fictional though up to date guide to Richmond but gave it a Victorian flair. The result was a blend of Victorian aesthetic and type with modern ideas of layout and design.

The book uses two grid styles, a three column grid and a four column grid, and switches between them to keep things from getting stale. The book is half letter size and made to appear as printed on old newsletter. Designed as a throwaway piece for tourists seeking a good joke, the booklet has a map of 19th century Richmond as well as Victorian inspired advertising. The type used throughout is Rosewood for headings and Caslon for body. Ole style numbers are used in place of modern aligned ones.

Flash Tragedy Beijing Style Face

This piece is a flash animation inspired by the old Dada trick of pulling random words from a hat. The phrases I pulled for this exercise were: “A Show of Flash;””Tragedy in the Realm of Myth;””Beijing - the Unexpected;””Style to Burn;””Straight to the Face.” Using these five phrases, I put together a story set at the Olympics starring a cast of typographic characters with the lead being -of course- the letter A.

The flash application starts off with an interactive menu, allowing the viewer to choose a scene or start at the beginning. Highlighting the words also brings up a small animation. A home button hangs in the corner throughout the movie, clicking it returns the user to the opening menu.

United States-Native American Wars 1776–1918

This is an exhibition piece for an exhibit on Native American wars in the United States. It was also a chance to experiment with how we read things. Usually we read from left to right, however as America grew from east to west, I wanted to reflect that in the 36 inch long time line. The time line has over 40 different wars listed on it and uses a simple icon to determine the victor. The earliest entrees are on the right, or eastern, side while the latest entries are on the left, or western, edge. A series of paintings and photographs run the length of time line at the bottom in a black bar, which contrasts nicely with the tanned leather beige of the rest of the piece. The paintings also tell time, the earlier material depicted on the right and the later photographs on the left. The time line of dates at the top is in a faded olive green which goes well with the beige background, as well as a simplified U.S. map in the background of the time line to help drive in the east to west concept. A large title also helps the reader in where to start, and is balanced by a large key on the end.

Our History on Earth

Our History on Earth is one of my favorite pieces. The research was intriguing, the concept interesting, illustrating the animals fun, and the execution entertaining. Our History on Earth is a flash piece, an interactive application that details 15 key animals in our ancestral tree. The piece is intended for any interested in the subject and contains many Easter eggs to be found by scrolling the mouse over the 1000 x 500 pixel board.

The piece uses many symbols and icons that fill the user in on information at a glance. If unsure as to what the symbol means, one simply roll over the icon for a pop-up explanation. Buttons grow when highlighted and a mutable sound track lures the user into a foreign and prehistoric atmosphere.

Dinosauria

Dinosauria is a hypothetical dinosaur hall at an imaginary museum of gigantic proportions. Focusing on dinosaur relationships between family groups, the hall divides into small halls: theropods, sauropods, ornithopods, thyropheans, and marginocephalian dinosaurs. The example book created for this monumental exhibit focuses on but one portion of one hall;
the hadrosauridae.

The hadrosaur portion of the ornithopod hall sits in a circular room, using mostly pure white walls, inspired by DK’s Eyewitness series of the 90’s. A ramp leads up from the iguanodont section into the massive hadrosaur exhibit. The exhibit starts with an introductory panel and some information panels about common hadrosaur traits and the basal hadrosaur group. The room the divides as the family divides, crested lambeosaurines on the left separated by a frosted glass wall from the crestless hadrosaurines on the right. Interactive stations are set up in both sides of the hall for children and curious adults to play with, and massive skeletons are posed on the other side of informational rails with projected movies played on slanted walls behind them. The room comes together in the end, with an interactive panel about predation and an exit out of the hall.

The book here shows three information panels and how the system would work for a whole hall. Use of clean whites and grays, thin rules on maps and charts, and use of Century Gothic and Calibri unite the myriad of panels and stations found throughout the dinosauria exhibit.