poets pulling prints

I was asked to design two broadsides for SFCB's Poets Pulling Prints, which was an interesting challege—the poetry and quotes I choose to use in my work are design dependent and are usually from authors from earlier centuries, not modern poets and designed to the author's words.

In my approach, I used Beatrice Warde's philosophy on the Crystal Goblet, that the typography should enhance the text, not detract from it.


For Emily Raabe's Milestones, the colors green, blue and brown immediately came to mind. Her passage through time and space had a definite weaving and intertwining quality. The introduction of interlacing random threads was an immediate idea and worked well in theory and on the press. Mrs Eaves was chosen as the text face because it's excellent letterpress results and the modern feel of a rendition of Baskerville, a 18th centry typeface design.


For Brent Foster Jones' poem, the imagery was more challenging. My first thoughts went to the vivid text of pools/circles of red, harsh yellow lines, blue folders/squares, but after playing with these elements and colors, the imagery always overtook the text. Deeper thoughts into lifelines/ekg lines and stock market graphs resulted in very simple interacting visuals that sang to the text, not taking over. The line elements were paired with DIN Schrift, a crisp and clear typeface with a European flair, used in Germany for transit signage.