A FRESH-FACED FEMINIST
A book that conveys a woman’s continuous battle with beauty standards, social pressures, and the notion of being a “bad feminist”. Constructed to highlight a personal narrative through its intimate size, and invoke the delicacy of skin and self-worth. This book gives a glimpse into a woman’s life as she debates plastic surgery.
PROCESS
Defining an Audience
Upon examining themes within the narrative, I defined my audience as young women, and sought to create a design language that felt relatable and intimate. I began experimenting with different media, from smashing lipstick into paper to laser cutting words and then ripping away their precision. I felt that this process—precise machine cutting, burning, and tearing—resonated with the message of the article. After laser cutting words with perfect accuracy, what was left behind was a pile of burnt letters and shapes. I used this as a motif throughout the book to demonstrate the unrealistic perfection that women are expected to achieve and the deep internal struggle that comes with it.
Establishing a Design System
I began by exploring typeface pairings with my content in mind, and eventually narrowed down the selected typeface options to compose six different combinations of title and body typefaces and weights. Considering typographic tone, I chose BT Grouch as my display font because it possessed a bit of playfulness to reflect the casual and sometimes humorous tone that the narrator uses. After establishing the fonts and visual language through laser cutting materials, I explored the color palette. I decided to focus on two contrasting colors—black and pink. I wanted to take what is seen as a “feminine” color and utilize it as an obtrusive and bold accent within the book. I further explore juxtaposition in the visual language through the use of perfectly cut letters and ripped paper.
