Pandora's Box :
The brief was to design a typographic publication that ‘visits death’- a work that will inform and stimulate the intellect whilst pleasing the typographic designers eye. ‘Stare death in the face’ and find out everything there is to know about it.
My publication visits the Greek mythological understanding of death, which led me to Pandora’s box. Pandora’s box is said to be the source of all darkness, death, evil and the 7 deadly sins. But not only is it the source of all darkness, it is also the source of light, hope. My typographic piece explains this interesting tale of how death began on earth through the Greek myth of Pandora’s box. The typographic piece comes in a wooden box that is laser engraved to show both the light and the dark that Pandora’s box contains. Inside are two books Death and Hope/ Darkness and Light.
The Darkness book has a very unstructured layout, with type running off the page and layering of words over each other. This is to make the viewer feel uncomfortable,as if something is wrong, this relates to the idea that death is uncomfortable, uncontrollable, chaotic and rule breaking. The use of translucent and solid white paper allows the viewer to be struck by the chaoticness of death but also allows them to make sense of it.
The book of light tells the story of how hope fluttered out the box like a beautiful glowing dragonfly. Even though Pandora had allowed all the darkness and death to escape she also allowed Hope to follow and be a source of light in the dark. Compared to the book of Darkness the book of light is much smaller as it is not as thick. The cover allows light to shine through onto the next page- allowing light to shine through in the darkness. The type inside is light and is set in a comfortable way to allow the viewer to feel at ease.
