We needed to create an interesting design with very little artwork and a lot of text in this book of interviews with prominent Art Center alumni. The only images available to use were digital portraits of each interviewee. We had to find a way to make this text-heavy book visually interesting. The design had to fit into the overall communications program of the client. The dot/circle has been an element of Art Center’s logo for a long time, so using it here, albeit in a new way, provides continuity.
The original artwork was digital and of varying quality, which led to the decision to use the photographs in an abstract way. This also provided a visual break from the text. This treatment lent itself to the use of only two colors in printing, which heightened the impact of the divider pages.
Since much of the book’s content is abstract and insightful, we wanted to communicate that. All people interviewed in the book have had a great impact on the design world. The cover was printed in a fluorescent orange and yellow with an image of an eye that is so blown-up, it becomes abstract. These elements hint at the book’s content. The divider pages were treated similarly to the cover; each divider page shows a greatly enlarged image of the eyes of the following interviewee. The repetition of the eyes reiterates the knowledgeable responses of those interviewed.