2019
Book Binding | Page Composition | Craft
Timeline: 5 Weeks
We Will Go Together
This book acted as a love letter to my family. Perhaps a glorified scrapbook-- this book is made of hand collected content: water-colored maps, scanned ephemera, and original patterns.
Especially for my family, there are parallels to tradition of place and traditions that we uphold. These traditions relate to food, wine, interactions, etc. In this project I hoped to explore how physical place affects family dynamics within tradition and connection. This book celebrates the strength of family. How families endure and overcome distance that may be between each member.
DESIGN CHALLENGE
Reflect on and create imagery inspired by the strength of families-- whether it be distance or hardship.
PROCESS
In 2018, my family and I went to San Luis Obispo to help clean out my late grandparent's house. My grandparents, immigrants from Japan and survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombs, had lived in this home for more than 50 years. In doing so they had saved and carefully preserved years-worth of pictures, letters, and other ephemera. Within the saved letters there were about 100 love letters from my Grandfather to my Grandmother. in the 50's when they were separated due to their differing colleges. I used these love letters as body copy, and it inspired the theme of this project: family's strength when overcoming distance between them.
ILLUSTRATION PROCESS
As the theme started to develop for this project, I began to write down the places my family have called home. I settled on California, New Mexico, & Florida. After centering in on my focus, I painted watercolor maps of each space we have lived. These maps acted as context and content for the book and created visual stories about past homes we have lived.
INTERNAL CHAPTERS
The focus on the past states my family had called home ended in California, New Mexico, and Florida. These internal chapters were printed on vellum so the mirrored image could be seen as the chapter page was flipped. The negative space on the page also allowed for silhouettes of the future page to come through as well.
