Dust to Ashes
– Project nameDust to Ashes
– RoleBook designer
– DateSpring 2025
– SpecsAbobe InDesign
Adobe Photoshop
For this project, I was given the opportunity to purely build on the skill of working with word and image that I have been developing over the course of the past three years on my BA. So far, to this extent I hadn’t had the opportunity to do this for an official module, so this brief was a great opportunity. The final outcome that I produced was a 20pp codex-form booklet showcasing my ability to competently explore the relationship between word and image (how they interact both together and apart) within the context of a subject matter that is meaningful to me; David Bowie.
Prior to deciding to dedicate my booklet to David Bowie, I brainstormed ideas that could also fit the risograph medium effectively.
‘Never perfect enough’ was part of an art installation in Spruth Magers, Los Angeles on March 19 to July 16 in 2022. Upon entering the gallery, the three pieces are presented. The adjacent walls capture the viewer; the nine-foot-tall canvases loom over them.
Learnings
- Create typographic tension between both texts through size and styling
- Consider emotional tension between subject matter and viewer
-
Pursue risography – implement moire texture
-
Adopt photomontage techniques
‘National Hero’ was a piece displayed as part of a gallery titled ‘Ukrainian Diary’ displaying Boris Mikhailov’s body of work within the Photographer’s Gallery in Soho, London, which is where I was first exposed to his work.
Viewing Boris Mikhailov’s work in The Photographer’s Gallery directly inspired my direction for this project. The way Mikhailov subverts gender identity, wars, the patriarchy, what it means to be masculine and/or feminine through juxtaposition in a surrealist-influenced fashion set the tone for my booklet. For instance, I overlayed images and shapes to draw attention to aspects, typically eyes, making spreads feel less flat. Mikhailov’s work also influenced my selection of colour, tactically using it for navigation purposes rather than purely aesthetics
V&A East StorehouseTo explore these themes further, I decided to visit the V&A storehouse in East London, as I knew there was an exhibition dedicated to him. Going to see all of his work in the flesh was worthwhile – I was exposed to parts of his creative process, such as cutting up lyrics and throwing them up into the air whilst writing songs, many different textures and colours from his expressive clothing.
Bowie’s homesPrimarily due to the opening of the interview prose mentioning South London and Bowie subsequently outlining the impact his childhood had upon his artistry, I visited two of Bowie’s residences, 40 Stansfield Road in Brixton (fig 12) and 22 Clareville Grove in South Kensington (fig 10). Doing so made me emphasise more with Bowie, seeing him more as a human rather than a paragon, becoming more immersed within his world for this project.
On Tuesday 24 March, I attended a talk led by Annie Atkins and Erica Dorn. Annie Atkins spoke about how she was a ‘messy designer’. I felt this directly related to my usage of risography for this project – risography being an imperfect medium which will never grant the polished feel of a laser-printer. Atkins also spoke about her process upon tasked with designing props for films, stating that the very first thing she does is print out the film’s scripts and begin annotating them (a process I also followed for this project).
Prior to designing, I explored material from Ray Gun magazine and David Carson as I knew that Bowie had featured during the 1990s. For my approach to my secondary, lyrical prose, I took inspiration from Carson’s signature use of typography. Carson’s handwritten style was more pronounced in my early iteration , later evolving to his Dymo-style lettering. Carson also never avoided putting type over image and abstracting the images themselves, elements I also integrated into my booklet as its design evolved.
I learnt how risography fundamentally worked from my initial digital experimentation (the machine not seeing colour but shades of black, each element needing to be on it’s own plate), which solidified once I began physically using the machine. Initially, it took a lot of effort to understand how registration worked.
Making the book’s typography work with the nature of risography and plates was a challenge. Through experimenting, I learnt that type had to be placed on a solid background – I achieved this through three ways; justifying the type and placing it on top of a box , incorporating Dymo type (as inspired by my research of David Carson), and fully integrating the type into the background. Once I had figured this out, I then started formally choosing typefaces. For the interview prose, I decided on Merriweather 9pt on 11pt due to it’s large x-height which translated well to the 126mm x 210mm scale of the booklet.
Upon refining my booklet and creating a fully risographed dummy that I imposed and paginated, I felt prepared to create my most polished version of the booklet yet. I decided two produce two; one both laser-printed and the other, risographed – I five-hole-saddle-stitch both booklets too. This was because it was difficult for a decision to be made on which medium to use without seeing them both in-situ in an equal light. The laser printed version looks and feels far more polished, like a glossy magazine, whereas it could be argued that the risographed version is more alluring.