Miguel Estrada

Typographic Voice: Perception (Typography 2)

This quarter in Type 2 there are only two projects with brief exercises before each; for the first I was tasked with making a book.The problem posed to the class was to gather poetry with emotional themes from contrasting perspectives, then develop each in spreads using formal and experimental typography to give the poetry typographic voice. The contrasting themes I chose to go with were viewpoints on military conflict, choosing a now historically heroic Second World War, and contrasting that with contemporary conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. I decided to approach the ten pieces of literature individually, designing each its own voice and feeling, ultimately visually conveying it’s emotion.

One would think that with half the usual amount of projects usually expected in a studio class that there would be less work, fortunately this was definitely not the case. I say fortunately because for the first time I was able to flesh out and really pour in a great amount of working hours to truly experiment with something new and refine it to a finished state. Most of the design solutions that I worked with in these spreads are new and personally innovative. Even with the physical construction I was able to experiment with perfect binding and new types paper for the first time. Overall I feel like this was a big step for me as a designer, and I’m pleased with the results. Check it out below.