Tricksters, Traitors, & Thieves

Print Design, Layout & Typography

Programs Used: InDesign, Photoshop

For this academic project, we were tasked with completing a direct mailer promoting an exhibit for the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. I was given text describing the museum in general and asked to incorporate that with text describing an exhibit. I chose to promote an exhibit of my invention about the symbiotic relationship between wolves and ravens called "Tricksters, Traitors, and Thieves."

For the mailer, I conceptualized an envelope containing a booklet the size of a postcard (4x6 inches). To create interest, I made a cutout in the shape of a circle to recall the moon and surrounded it with the silhouettes of a raven and a wolf. This spotlights the title of the exhibit and the design of the cover. I chose matte black for the background and designed the silhouettes to print in UV gloss. On the reverse I placed the addresses and postal indicia.

Overall, I wanted to create a sense of foreboding. The mythology of these two animals tends to be dark and violent, and encountering them together in the wild in twilight would be a hair-raising experience. I aimed to recreate that feeling for my cover. To that end, I chose an image of a dark, foggy forest for the background and repeated the motif of silhouettes.

For the interior of the book, I chose to emphasize the photography. Images of these animals are fascinating and visually stunning, and I wanted to use them for impact. I used a serif with sharp points reminiscent of claws or teeth for typography. For spreads related to the exhibit I chose blood red and black text on a light grey foreground to further the theme and create a visual separation from the museum information, for which I used light blue and white on a charcoal background.

Overall, I believe the theme worked with the content to create a visually arresting mailer that recipients would be interested in looking through. Next time, I would increase the mailer's size to have more space to work with and incorporate more of my own photography. I hope to have proof of this project physically printed to visualize the UV gloss effect better. Someday, I would love to create and design the whole exhibit itself.