Work Web, Identity, & Print Design

The Ninth Letter is a literary publication published twice a year as a collaboration between the English and Art & Design departments at the University of Illinois. Much of the writing in the 2006 Fall/Winter edition had a feeling of surreality or a struggle of the characters to define their reality. The below cover concept illustrates this with the idea of ‘going down the rabbit hole’ – however, the viewer can’t be sure if the character on the front is coming or going from reality. The cover was intended to be printed on a dark navy cardstock, with white foil stamping for the illustration. I chose to move all of the issue details (featured authors) to the back cover, to further the sense of mystery of the issue.

Front cover

Back cover

I created a couple spreads of artwork for a short fiction titled ‘Apples Could Make You Laugh’ in the Fall/Winter 2006 edition of the Ninth Letter. The story tells of a desperate office worker obsessing over a female coworker who doesn’t return the feelings. The reader can’t be sure if the encounters described by the character actually happened or if they are all in his head. In this image, his romanticized daydreams of her swirl over the pages to entangle her, while she slowly cuts herself free.

Title page

Final page