Modern Woman
Surprises Are Good... In Moderation!
Julia A. Rich is a talented artist & designer whom I found through social media about a decade ago. At the time I was working on my fine art skills & looking to different artists for guidance. I was drawn by her confident art style, curious about her cultural background (as a Filipina myself), and hooked by her generous nature in sharing her tips & techniques.
For this booklet, I wanted to showcase an artist whom I admired & try to encapsulate them through my design choices. It was never a question as to who I should choose, & it was not difficult to come up with design ideas! I wanted to use compositions inspired by social media as layouts, borders & elements inspired to tarot cards (one of her major artwork projects) throughout, and a demanding magenta to tie it all together. As she already has a maximalist style, surely I could compound maximalism on top of maximalism, right?
Well, this booklet was a lesson in using maximalism in the right way. One piece of helpful critique that stuck with me regarding my layouts was that they were "surprising". For whatever reason, that made me want to ease up on the creativity. I tried to see the booklet from a different perspective; from someone merely interested in reading the copy, not just taking in the imagery. I reduced and redesigned the level of surprising compositions so that the level unpredictability was fun, not confusing, & in doing so I was able to have a booklet I felt was unique but let Juilia & her work be the focus.
Project Overview
I was of course inspired by Julia's own work, but also brought in elements of inspiration from other tarot card decks, maximalist kawaii themes, and also interesting typefaces.
Sketches
I first sketched out ideas for the cover, knowing I would be recreating artwork based on Julia's art style. I knew I wanted to incorporate a tarot card layout, since her tarot deck is one of her most recognizable works. I explored ideas of drawing Julia herself, perhaps with a brightly colored & unusual skin color as in her paintings of women, but in the end couldn't help but recreate my personal favorite painting of hers; a whimsical toad with wings.
Drafts
This is the stage where I was excited to come up with unusual, outside-the-box layout compositions. Mostly inspired by social media interfaces, I was hoping they would translate onto a printed page. In the end, it was possible that they were merely confusing & interfered with design hierarchy, so after some helpful feedback I reigned it in just a bit.
Final Design
In the end I still have some layouts that are clearly reminiscent of familiar social media layouts, and coupled with some full-bleed layouts that give Julia's work the attention to detail it deserves, what is left is a cleaner, exciting booklet that more successfully conveys the messages I originally intended.
