Communication Design Assistant Chair CJ Yeh and Professor Christie Shin won two of the 143 awards in the 2016 Communication Arts Typography Award competition. As is customary to say in this election year, “That’s UUUGE!” The CA Award is one of the most prestigious design competitions in the world. The professors’ winning design for the all-type design category was the invitation card for FIT’s first exhibit of student work from the department’s new Creative Technology minor.
“We got the design direction for the front of the card fairly quickly,” said Prof. Yeh. “But I got stuck working on the design for the back. The theme was typography in the digital age,” And then…
“Prof. Shin started breaking the expected grid and used a diagonal layout to bring more energy to the design.
“I watched her move things around quickly on and off the art board. I said to myself ‘Oh, the movement reminds me of a printing press.’ It actually looks like a misprint when it is left partially outside of the art board.
“Misprint became our core concept. We were excited by this direction. The idea of a misprint exposes the technology behind the making of the invitation card. The textual content was rotated and purposely aligned on an angle to give a sense of movement, and the position was carefully calculated so the viewer has to complete some of the information by moving the eyes from one side to the other.”