Poetry, Publishing & Process

For my capstone project, Poetry, Publishing & Process, I created a set of publications—using both print and digital media. In this process, I was able to experiment with a variety of publishing mechanisms. I love poetry because it manipulates language, creating evocative, interpretative text. By choosing to design with poems at the core, I was able to work as a visual translator, additively enhancing a reader’s attention. Each piece is thematically connected by a through line of found language and objects, and an attention to process:

One was a chapbook of self-generated haibun poems inspired by Baudrillard’s essay “The System of Collecting,” and a found receipt, which was used to generate visuals. I scanned the receipt repeatedly until the shape dissolved into a plane of yellow. Reversing this disintegration of form over the spreads of the book, I aimed to evoke the sense of a crystalizing memory, the experience of holding an artifact and suddenly remembering a formerly faded recollection.

Another was an illustrated book and digital animation inspired by a found poem, which a friend wrote this fall. Inspired by symbolist poems, I manipulated type to create expressive forms, and integrated illustrations of the poem's images. In collaboration with the poet, the animation I created was timed to the pace at which she read the piece.

In addition to these poetic publications, I created a process book. It explores the new tools, techniques, and influences I found and utilized during this semester to produce and document my designs.