WORK
INVISIBLE CITIES
by Italo Calvino
My response to the 2021 ISTD student assessment scheme ‘Invisible Cities’ brief. The brief was to design a new edition, that forms a radical retelling of the story; with the typograhy to visually explore each of the cities, reflecting their characteristics and idiosyncrasies.
The design of the book brings to light the previously hidden mathematical structure that Italo Calvino used to move through the different cities and reflects the pattern that it makes. This pattern is revealed in the contents page at the start of the book and each subsequent page links back to it through the location of the title and page numbers. The book is printed on semi transparent bible paper, allowing a build up of text to be seen through the pages. The typography builds up and the cities blend together to form the one city in which they are all describing, Venice.
DISAPPEARING WOODLAND
‘Disappearing Woodland’ is a loose-leaf bound book that focuses on the recent disappearance of ancient woodland in the UK. As the viewer moves through the book, elements of the woodland imagery begin to disappear, leaving behind only the imprint of the trees that were once there.
It was exhibited and consequently sold in the ‘Nature Works’ Exhibition at the Upright Gallery in Edinburgh in December 2021. Following hard on the heels of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow in November 2021, Upright Gallery invited artist book makers to submit work on the theme of climate change. Artists approached the brief in a wide variety of ways but always with a climate change message contained within their artwork. Nature Works featured a broad selection of artist books by over 30 makers spread across three continents.
