Undersea - Rachel Carson

Undersea is a short story written by Rachel Carson in 1937, first published in The Atlantic. During my second year at university we were tasked with choosing between this and another short story, the brief asked us to create a book design from our chosen work using purely typography, no colour, imagery, or other supporting elements.

I was inspired by Carson's highly illustrative and expressive writing style, and her ability to communicate boundless emotion and meaning through her words. This was something I wanted to emulate and further amplify through my designs. I re-read the work countless times, highlighting various words and phrases where I felt Carson was adding extra emphasis or hidden meaning. I read the story aloud to verbally hear it's cadence and rhythm, noting which parts were naturally stressed or shortened. My approach for my outcome was to visually represent how the piece felt to hear aloud, matching the emotive nature of the words to their physical appearance.