This assignment required two full spreads and a cover page with our name as the title.  We could choose any subject, but every design element we used had to embody that subject.  I chose Sci-Fi.

I needed to convey the feeling I get from science fiction.  For me, that’s old radio shows, Douglas Adams, and Star Wars.  I think a lot of people associate the genre with contemporary interpretations — gritty and dystopian.  I definitely prefer the light-hearted, silly approach.  It’s science fiction, after all.  Let NASA deal with the bleak realities of the void!

I drew a lot of inspiration from retro sci-fi posters (you can find the pin board I put together here).  I wanted it to be playful and really pull the audience into it.  To do this, I constructed a sort of story using colorful card stock.  The cover page obliterates the viewer’s home planet, and from there the spreads have no definite direction.  You’re in space now!  Turn it any which way and it’ll make the same amount of sense.

There are quite a few moving parts.  The improbability “dunk” (duck/skunk) spins, the “jet propulsion” propels off the page, and you’ll find that little time-traveling spaceship in the future (on the next page).  In the “Galactic Life Forms” chamber, the little dials slide around under a “Vague Warning” and you can open those big shutters to reveal a Large Nose!

The back cover sets the viewer down on a new planet, with a new perspective (in the opposite direction of the title page).

Maybe view this on an iPad or something that you can turn in different directions?  The thing about this project is that photos don’t really do it justice.  It’s a very kinetic experience, but imagine (if you can) that urge to pull and lift as you look at these images.  I hope you get a sense of how much fun I had making this!