The goal of this project was to create a typographic pattern that could be featured in WRAP magazine. This included a two-page spread that includes the pattern as well as a cover design for the magazine. The purpose is to familiarize oneself with the formal aspects of typography and finer details that may not always get much attention.
I chose to create my typographic pattern out of glyphs from the typeface, Baron Neue. I wanted to evoke a sense of nature and organic movement while mainting some of the geometric structure of the sans serif font.
I chose to create my typographic pattern out of glyphs from the typeface, Baron Neue. I wanted to evoke a sense of nature and organic movement while mainting some of the geometric structure of the sans serif font.
My typographic pattern and resulting spread stemmed from two things: flower illustrations I created out of the glyphs of Baron Neue, and a quote by environmental activist, Wendell Berry.
“We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. And this has been based on the even flimsier assumption that we could know with any certainty what was good even for us. We have fulfilled the danger of this by making our personal pride and greed the standard of our behavior toward the world - to the incalculable disadvantage of the world and every living thing in it. And now, perhaps very close to too late, our great error has become clear. It is not only our own creativity - our own capacity for life - that is stifled by our arrogant assumption; the creation itself is stifled.
We have been wrong. We must change our lives, so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and to learn what is good for it. We must learn to cooperate in its processes, and to yield to its limits. But even more important, we must learn to acknowledge that the creation is full of mystery; we will never entirely understand it. We must abandon arrogance and stand in awe. We must recover the sense of the majesty of creation, and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. For I do not doubt that it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it.”
-Wendell Berry
I wanted to create a spread that spoke not only through words, but also through my imagery. My patterns are all based off of four flower glyph illustrations I created: the rose, the marigold, the sunflower, and the poppy.
In the beginning when I was just developing the patterns, I noticed how some patterns were more dense, creating an overall dark shade, while some were more open, creating a lighter hue if I squinted my eyes. I wanted to explore how I could use this effect, pattern as shade, in my final design.
In the beginning when I was just developing the patterns, I noticed how some patterns were more dense, creating an overall dark shade, while some were more open, creating a lighter hue if I squinted my eyes. I wanted to explore how I could use this effect, pattern as shade, in my final design.
Although I began this project by working on the internal spread, the cover I designed is ultimately what influenced the appearance of the spread on the inside. I chose a patchwork-like cover design because I liked the contrast between the rounded edges of the flowers and the straight, precise edges of the squares. In contrast, the flower patterns were actually very gridded while the less organic squares changed in size and position and didn’t follow much of a pattern.
I used the idea of the patchwork pattern to create a Mondrian-esque tree as the main focal point of the interior spread. Silhouettes of the owl from the cover give some motion and interest and the quote is positioned neatly in one of the squares in the sky.
I used the idea of the patchwork pattern to create a Mondrian-esque tree as the main focal point of the interior spread. Silhouettes of the owl from the cover give some motion and interest and the quote is positioned neatly in one of the squares in the sky.
