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Design Category
Book design, 2003
Design firm
Project M (Belfast, Maine)
Collection
(2004) 50 Books/50 Covers of 2003
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This is an unusual book that was conceived, photographed and produced by the participants in my Project M 2003 summer design program. It helps to think of it as either an exercise in or metaphor for “Thinking Wrong,” which became the project theme. We all usually think along existing, learned pathways. It’s how we make decisions and function in the world. Creative endeavors like design benefit greatly from breaking those patterns and generating multiple alternative solutions.
The photographs in the book are a document of the month-long program and backdrop for the process. As readers fold the pages, they are participating in “Thinking Wrong” by violating the normal conventions and rules of books. We learned the folding technique from a 93-year-old outsider artist named Alice Hinckley of Searsport, Maine.
It’s hard to measure the impact of a book like this but I’m pretty happy with how it came out and I’m sure that all the Project M designers are proud of it. At least it should make for an interesting story when they are looking for jobs.
“Dumb one-liner, taken to an extreme. Front cover is very unusual. ” Archie Ferguson
“It is a great inspiration. Is this a book or a promotional piece?”