A package advertising a newly opened apartment complex in the heart of Charlotte, North Carolina’s art district was created as a direct mailer sent to potential residents who requested more information. The North Davidson (NoDa) neighborhood of Charlotte, NC is known for it’s eclectic assortment of local restaurants, music, beer, and even the residents living there.
The concept for this project, “Smell the Fiction” was meant to highlight the way all five senses can be immersed in the culture of NoDa, as well as play on the fact that sometimes things are not always as they appear at first glance. The package that would be received by a potential resident would contain an informational booklet about all the condos have to offer, a sample of the available floor plans, the business cards of several sales associates, and some rather mysterious Polaroids of various views found in the NoDa neighborhood. All of these items were selected to give the best overview of the necessary information, while still maintaining a whimsical obscurity that anyone living in this area would be accustomed to. The booklet was arranged to vaguely mimic the layout of a novel, with a dedication, foreword, and table of contents appearing at the very beginning. The copy was carefully chosen to be ambiguous and intriguing, urging viewers to read on despite the apparent lack of visuals.
Each “chapter” of the book was written to focus around a different sense– taste, hear, touch, and see, with the contents reflecting aspects of the neighborhood or condo establishment that relates to that sense. For example, the “Taste” chapter highlights some of the many local restaurants that NoDa boasts. Die-Cut treatments were made several places throughout the book, mainly on the title page of each chapter, using the cut out letters of the main word to reveal a brightly colored paper beneath. Although simple in nature, the imagery on each page was also created to further the concept. The page opposite each title was given a simple shape pattern, and somewhere within that pattern a shape was turned into another object that is being interacted with. The arms and hands that appear throughout the pages were intentionally made to look disproportionate in order to represent the idea of “stretching the truth” or telling little white lies.
