Epicenter

2021

Preserving Appalachian design education history through book design

Epicenter: The Life and Legacy of Black Mountain College is an experimental typography book and accompanying exhibition telling the story of Black Mountain College which was a ground-breaking art and design school open in the mid-1900s in Black Mountain, North Carolina.

This project explores the Appalachian influence on modern American design by looking at Black Mountain College as an epicenter of ideas, shaping creative generations to come.

Special thanks to Heather South (Lead Archivist, Western Regional Archives, Asheville, NC) for Research Assistance

Griffith Observatory's original ironwork doors which feature seven different astronomical instruments.

I translated these symbols into contemporary marks that are used throughout the brand.

These symbols are used individually as a graphic language, or together as a unique brand pattern.

Epicenter

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About the project

To experiment with typography in a variety of ways, I explored typesetting and hand lettering in this project. I hand-lettered Epicenter’s logotype to represent the school’s mixture of tradition and experimentation in praxis. The waves of the letterforms reference the school's natural environment on Lake Eden in North Carolina.

The solution

In my process as a designer, I drew inspiration from the school’s architecture, incorporating cantilevered blocks of typography and images creating a scaffolding on which to experiment.

I contrasted this structure with references to the school’s natural environment incorporating ebbs and flows like ripples in water. This project juxtaposes organic and geometric as well as traditional and experimental, encapsulating the atmosphere of the school.

The poster series advertises the Epicenter Exhibition at the Atlanta Museum of Design, using photography to introduce the story of the college, setting the scene at Black Mountain. Because this project is centered around preserving the stories of the students and faculty, their names are at the forefront of the design.

The Black Mountain College print shop once printed concert programs onto rolling papers with the intent that the audience would smoke them during the performance. I wanted to replicate this idea by creating Epicenter rolling papers with the names of iconic Black Mountain College students and faculty.

Epicenter

Epicenter

Epicenter

Results

In this project, I learned how to experiment with typography, drawing from concrete archival research to create something that feels fresh. Because there was so much more to research about Black Mountain College, I chose to continue this project during my MFA thesis Place as Process at ArtCenter College of Design.

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