Landfull: A Growing Environmental Problem
For this particular brief, the task was to choose a well-known poem or short story and using typography only, bring context to a contemporary issue. I strove to use type not just as words, but texture, color and pattern. My greatest challenge was not being able to use graphics or photography. But I also had to think creatively to design around an ever-decreasing white space. This project challenged me to use typography as both verbal and visual communication. I decided that I wanted to use a children’s story or rhyme. I felt that using literature from childhood would give the issue a feeling of innocence, and would be more effective by presenting the issue in a different way. I decided my contemporary issue would be the growing problem of landfills. The corresponding rhyme I chose is American poet Shel Silverstein’s Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout. The poem is a growing list of garbage items that pile up inside the girl’s house, because she will not take the garbage out. I see this as a metaphor for the human population’s general lack of concern and planning for where our garbage goes and its environmental consequences. I wanted to use the concept of a circle, or spiral. This would symbolize the problem of landfills spiralling out of control. Furthermore, I decided that I wanted to create something that goes beyond a standard book; I wanted to use circular cuts that increase in size as the pages are turned. The end of the book would have many rings, and perhaps could look like the rings of a tree trunk.