03 | Typography
ISTD - Anne of Green Gables
Brief
Fedrigoni are leaders in the development of paper stock and substrate for over 130 years, elevating creativity by encouraging designers and makers to consider the importance of paper in the communication of stories. This project asks to consider how typography and format, alongside paper stock and book architecture, can amplify the engagement with prose and narrative.
Books, as objects, are transformative spaces, inviting the reader on narrative journeys; romantic, intergalactic, horrific, fantastical – the list is literally endless. Sometimes the arc of a story can shift and completely change; from the establishing of characters and context in the opening chapter to the potential transformation, cliff-hanger or stark conclusion in the final chapter.
Open | Close invites to choose a book (work of fiction, novel, biography) that is out of copyright and asks to consider how the designer can use typography and experimental formats to amplify this storytelling device of a book and give stories
a new life.
Using the opening and closing chapter of a chosen book, the projects asks to create a radical reimagining of the content through typography. Consider all aspects of book design – typesetting, hierarchy, typographic detailing, pace, format, paper stock, paper engineering, binding, casing etc. as the conduit in this retelling of the book’s narrative. In essence, consider how the design and production can express the narrative arc. How can the designer reflect the shift in tone or atmosphere from the opening to the closing pages through type, composition and paper?
The project requires to define a context, identify a target audience and build a strategy that rationally underpins the development of appropriate outcomes. The project expect rigorous sketchbook research with evidence of responses to the information that are uncover.
Deliverables
- Strategy and Specifications document
- Research and Design development document
- Final outcomes
Design Strategy
Set in the late 19th century, the novel recounts the adventures of 11-year-old orphan girl Anne Shirley sent by mistake to two middle-aged siblings, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, who had originally intended to adopt a boy to help them on their farm in the fictional town of Avonlea on Prince Edward Island, Canada. Anne has a truly magical personality and a wild imagination, she’s headstrong, ambitious, fanciful and feels deeply and this story follows her childhood and adolescence through all her mistakes and triumphs as she develops.
The goal for this redesign is to provide readers of Anne of Green Gables with wall art of the first and last chapter that bring the reader into Anne's mind so that through typography, colour and composition, the reader gets to see the world of Green Gables and Avonlea through her lens. Anne’s life is a vibrant love letter to the beauty and romance of nature. She loves fiercely and grows vigorously and poeticises everything, and the aim is to bring the viewer into that dynamism.
The redesign incorporates vibrant colours inspired by Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis but intensified and exaggerated in order to communicate Anne’s sense of wonder and intensity. Her liveliness and imagination are explored through the use of missmatched type weights, giving the posters a sense ove movement and life. Anne has strong ambitions and such deep dreams and imaginings that she almost coats the world around her, her relationships and experiences with a layer of vibrance and intensity. The highs and lows are imposing peaks and unending chasms in her eyes although his evens out as she matures. This growth and progression is evidenced in the redesign.
Moodboards
Research and Development
Design System
Grids
Black and White
Final Posters
Mockups
