Christine's Design Blog

This really cool split fountain letterpress poster was made on a class field trip to the Arm in Brooklyn with my Pre-Press and Print Production class taught by Sarah Foley. This happened about three weeks ago, and we were each able to take about 10 posters to promote the show. As you can see, I haven’t really put any up anywhere, so if you would like a cool letterpress poster … let me know.

The class was split up into groups of 3 and Nina, Liz and I were the first group to go. We helped find letters and set the type for the first lines before we had to skedaddle to make room for the next group.

Luckily, Steven took some photos, so here’s some of the process that we missed:

There’s Mika with his beard. He’s been growing that beard since school started two years ago, and it will come off after graduation. It’ll be so strange to see his naked face.

Sarah, letterpress and print expert.

And here’s a video that Steven took:

So cool! It’s a shame the whole class couldn’t fit into the space, because it was such a fun experience. Nina and I are considering taking a letterpress class at the Cooper Union this summer.

Also, there was this wonderful dog at the letterpress studio, as seen in one of the photos from their website:

Today was the last day of classes. I cleaned out my locker, and Nina and I walked away from Pratt together, and she said that we’d walked home together after first meeting at orientation. I don’t quite remember walking home together, but I do remember Nina being the first one I spoke to, and we’d shared a sandwich. I’m going to miss school. But it ain’t over yet, since there are four days of the Pratt Show to enjoy, as well as graduation. See you at the show!

Fresh off the Vimeo, the Oliver Jeffers CreativeMornings video! Makes me want to hug SwissMiss.

2010/04 Oliver Jeffers from CreativeMornings on Vimeo.

In other news, Pratt Show installation happening today. Lugging my world and books up to 34th in a few hours’ time.

My new website design is finally up and running! There will probably be little hiccups here and there. If you run into any, please don’t be shy to let me know.

I’m so glad that doing a website was part of our Portfolio Development class. Our teacher, Dungjai Pungauthaikan, was amazing and gave valuable critiques.

I owe Ben a huge thank you for writing me the wonderful javascript that allows the design page’s images to be clickable and to fade in and out. I tried to make it as user-friendly as possible, so feedback welcome there as well.

Meanwhile, my desk is going to take a long while to make complete, but I wanted to show a preview of what is to come. The desk is my way of separating my main focus on design from my other interests. I also wanted a fun way to present the eclectic mix of categories. Plus, anyone who knows me knows that I’m obsessed with my work space and the way it’s organized.

Eventually this blog will also be updated to match my new identity. In the meanwhile, enjoy the new site, and cheers!

Phileas Fogg Travel Guides

I am so excited to share this project with you! For our last project in Graphic Design II, our teacher Anne Fink let us choose our own projects. I knew that I wanted to do something with branding and book covers, and decided to think back to my summer internship at Fodor’s and my recent trip to London for inspiration.

Traveling is wonderful, and having the proper resources is wonderful, too. What gets me is that having a travel guide out as you stand on a street corner poring over it is kind of a dead giveaway that you’re a tourist.

So I decided that I would design travel guides that are disguised as novels. The books are 4.25×7 in size, standard mass market size, and concentrate on single cities to keep them pretty portable. The books are branded as ‘Fogg Books,’ after the main character in Jules Verne‘s Around the World in 80 Days. The covers are designed with a title to fool people into thinking that you’re reading Episodes in Sydney written by some guy named Phileas Fogg, rather than a travel guide about Sydney.

Upon purchase, the books come with half-jackets that tell you what’s really going on, and how to use it, and when you travel, you simply remove the jacket. Now you’ll look bookish and be well-informed.

These are some photos that I hurriedly took right after assembling the comps the day Pratt Show submissions were due. Better photos will come once I’ve got them back. Hopefully they’ll make it into the show!

I had such fun hand-lettering these!

I wrote fake descriptions and reviews on the backs — all the reviewers were journalists from other Jules Verne novels. These names are explained on the inside flap of the jacket, which I didn’t get a photo of.

When you have the books on your shelf, you’re supposed to have a nice little skyline of famous monuments running across the spines.

Originally, I’d planned to take the project further, but ended up running out of time. If I get a chance after graduation, I want to flesh the books out with maps and inside page designs. My idea was that the books wouldn’t have loud, blaring color photography that would give you away as soon as the book’s open, but to have black and white photos treated like illustrations or photos in regular novels. I haven’t yet figured out how I would comp that up, though — for now, these books are Studio Tac’ed onto three Ernest Hemingway books I bought at the Strand, because they happened to be the right size. Comping suggestions and feedback welcome!

But in other news — HURRAY, Pratt Show madness is over! Just one more week of classes and finishing up projects, as well as getting ready for the show, and I’ll be spat out into the big bad world.