Detroit based communication
designer, visual storyteller, and friend.
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02_THE CONDON REPORT_REDESIGN
Role:
Ideation
Typography
Book Design
Asset Design
Overview:
The Condon Report is a 100-page redesign of Dr. Edward U. Condon’s The Scientific Study of UFOs. The objective was to transform a traditional research document into an experimental, multi-page formatted publication that includes a dynamic grid system and unique typesetting to act as a portal of communication between Dr. Condon and its alien audience.
Process:
The design process began with establishing a flexible grid system that evolved across the six sections of the book. Once the formatting of the book was created, typesetting and stylesheets were weaved in to support the objective. Midway through, overlapping text, varying font weights, layered subheadings, and custom glyphs were introduced and integrated throughout the typography, further challenging legibility and enhancing the feeling of cryptic interference. This suggested a sense of “corruption” and the feeling that aliens were communicating with the author. As the book progresses, the visual interference made many pages partially or entirely illegible, an intentional choice made to symbolize the breakdown of human-readable information as alien presence intensified.
Outcomes:
The greatest challenge throughout this process was the six-week timeline to rapidly learn stylesheets in Indesign and develop a “corrupted” typographic system, however this process helped to better the understanding of typographic development. Sacrificing traditional readability was a difficult but necessary decision to fulfill the project’s core objective: to reimagine a scientific report as an immersive vessel of alien contact.