Course objective
ECHOES is a book that was made as the final project of the course Communication Design 3. This course is about finding and translating a theme that had to be presented through a printed medium in the end. For this, curating stories, creating visual materials and designing a communication style around the theme was all part of this course.
Deliverable
The deliverable was a 120-page hardcover book (30 blanco spreads for presentation purposes). The artworks on the cover and inlay are inkjet printed on linen.
Storyline
ECHOES is a coffee table book that overlays two almost identical events and thereby gives rise to a whole new storyline. The 1953 flood in Zeeland (The Netherlands) and the Katrina hurricane in New Orleans (US) are being blent in this book into a new narrative. The stories that are in reality consecutive, but interwoven in this book, form a new perspective on repetition of history. The repetitive historical events which are translated in various ways through authentic imagery, poetry and personal stories form the common thread in this editorial project.
The cramped feeling of flooding and drowning can be experienced as you progress through the book. Elements such as the stony water level such as page numbering and the storm that seems to be constantly hanging over you like a person are frightening on the reader.
Design
For the cover and graphic elements in the book the color yellow has been chosen because this is a color of danger and warning at the same time it forms a high contrast with the grim black and white events in the book. For all the artwork in the book, combinations of authentic photography were chosen that were made on site during or after the disasters. Subsequently, a creative combination between the imagery was made that creates a new imagination.
Title
The title ECHOES has been chosen because of the repetitiveness that it speaks in the word itself. Once an echo has started it is an inevitable recurrence that flows and only patience and beholding can let it go. Just like the principle of the past repeating the future throughout the book without having an influence on it. It comes and goes.
