Containers make journeys.

This book represents two journeys—one graphic, one textual—from a common point of departure. 

Project
Point of Departure

Type
Print design

Context
MFA Products of Design, School of Visual Arts
Guidance from Benjamin Critton
Fall 2015

Details
Containers make journeys. This book represents two journeys—one graphic, one textual—from a common point of departure. The graphic journey depicts a process of gradual abstraction from a photograph of shipping containers; the textual journey follows a series of links through Wikipedia, starting from the entry for shipping container. 

Process

While the formal parameters for this book were set—20 pages, 6.25"x9.5"—the content was anything but. Starting from the prompt 'container,' I thought immediately of shipping containers. However, I didn't want impose a narrative on this project; I set out to create content that would allow me to work with both images and text, and set up a very strict set of rules with regard to typography and the grid. 

I found an image of shipping containers, traced it in Illustrator and began to abstract the image step by step, reducing variables according to my intuition. To generate text, I visited the Wikipedia entry for 'Shipping container,' and started following hyperlinks within the entry, hopping from page to page, to see how far from the original entry I could get. I discovered many routes, but chose one for the book. 

The text is set in Eurostile and Eurostile Condensed, and the frames of the images use the proportions of shipping containers. The text is set in short columns, and includes the references from the Wikipedia entries. Rather than giving the different entries chapter names, the running footer displays the source URL.