Most of this semester we have used shape, color, and type to communicate as clearly as possible. Of course, this is only one approach to design. For this assignment, you will use type in an expressive way, employing a variety of typefaces, weights, styles, sizes, and placement to set a haikus by the Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694, seen above). We will print and bind the results into a book using traditional stab binding next week in class.
Your challenge is to balance legibility with expressiveness: how can you create a readable book while also expressing the flow and sentiment of the source poem? Consider the examples shown in class, as well as your interpretation of the poems and any other research you might do.
PROJECTS SHOWN
- Dadaist and Futurist typographic experiments
- The work of Ray Gun Magazine founder David Carson
- Fluxus typography
- The long history of punk-rock posters
PROJECT REQUIREMENTS
- Select 3 poems to design from this list, each on their own page within a single Illustrator document.
- Pages should be letter size (8.5 x 11”) in landscape orientation, leaving a 1.5” margin on the left side to accommodate the binding, ½” margins on all other sides. (See the diagram above.)
- We can’t print full bleed, but will trim ½” from the top, right, and bottom once the books are bound.
- Black only; no gray, no color.
- You can use any combination of typefaces and styles, but remember how much you can accomplish with a single typeface!
- Convert your type to outlines, export as a PDF and upload to Canvas.
- Please also bring your tools to class next week!
DUE DATE: Thursday, October 29