Eben Breton

For the tinfoil-hat-wearing conspiracy theorists, The Condon Report was a publication made to give scientific reason to alien machinery, to explain the unexplainable, and to study that which cannot be understood. The Condon Report, having such an interesting message and goal behind its creation, lacks in the visual department where it counts—drawing the eye nowhere in particular and making it an absolute chore for even the fanatic to make it through one chapter. Disregarding the beliefs of each person who may come across this book, the redesign aims to make flipping through its pages an intriguing and enjoyable experience. Important information within the story is given the recognition it deserves, playing with type, grid, and image in fun and creative ways that make it difficult for anyone to put down. Developing these types of systems was difficult at first. Type was the most challenging element to play with—not so much grid-wise, but in experimenting with typographic variation, making each page an experience through systems that are meant to complement each other. This was achieved by making certain elements stand out with a more uncommon vertical type system for the page numbers, headers, folios & footers. Now, with the work completed, it’s easy to look back and say there is still enjoyment to be had flipping through The Condon Report. It became exactly what was imagined for it: that out-of-this-world book that was fun for anyone to read through. Although a really nice piece to go through from time to time, I’m really glad I don’t need my kitchen equipment to have fun with the book.

"Prescription For Profit" is a museum experience my Partner, Thomas Rascol, and I created. It was built to critique the price discrepancy between manufacturing costs of various live-saving pill medications and the consumer cost for a supply of these different drugs. We sought to build this experience akin to purchasing over-the-counter, however with heavily exclusive and nearly unobtainable medication. We want the user to have a sorrowful realization that there are hundreds of thousands of people who go without, and likely won't live simply because the paywall for their lives is too great.

This was a branding project I did, taking inspiration from a widespread brand known for its wacky themed retail stores and tutoring centers. I made mine based in Boulder, Colorado, which pushed me to learn all I could about Boulder, its current state as well as its past. That research gave me the idea to base my 826 store and tutoring center on the town’s rich banking history, spinning it in a fun, engaging way for kids in grades K–12. This is where I came up with the Piggy Bank direction, and that idea is what shaped my mood board, my iteration, and later the products, mockups, and the consistent brand system.

There is this movie directed and filmed in 2022 named THE BATMAN, featuring a different take on the iconic character. Played by Robert Pattinson, Batman is put in a new light, seen more in the movie as the intelligent detective while keeping his overpowered crime-fighting stature. The movie was well-received; however, it lacks a strong title sequence like some of the other Batman movies. This project was assigned as a team effort, so there was a lot to consider, and two minds are better than one, they say. There was a similar objective to mimic the film's main themes throughout the sequence. The goals the team strove to achieve were as follows: truth seeking, persistence, coded messaging, vengeance being replaced by hope, and distorted lies becoming revealed truths. For the distorted lies theme, there were windows that blurred what was behind them, and moved to uncode the messages, which doubled as the coded messages theme. There was also the idea of progressively giving the audience more information, eventually leading them to the zoomed-out perspective in which you see the Batman symbol built out of a similar typeface used by the movie. This lent itself to the character’s development through the film, making the symbol one of hope in the end. The sequence went by a lot quicker with two, although the project was one that took a lot of time to render due to the entire thing being precomps of windows that were fully digital. However, there was a lot to be learned in After Effects before it could be completed. This involves a heavy amount of well-established file management, communication between partners, and the use of effects on the windows and type. This sequence, having been so fun to make, feels wrong for it not to be in the film itself.

What is love, really? Seemingly an easy enough question to answer, but love means something a little different to each person, and to each person, it changes as they broaden their horizons and mature through their lives. Having been given a partner, Thomas, there became a common goal to open the conversation up to two main ideas: love as a logical and calculated choice vs. a giddy and magical experience that transcends the physical into something more. Having different feelings on the topic, we collectively made a publication on the topic in the form of a newspaper, doing our best to give an unbiased account of both sides on the Mathematical/Magical spectrum. The team chose a podcast from “This American Life” as the study and backbone to our goal in expanding our ideas and representation of this dichotomy. Since there was little practice working with others up until this point, learning to work with someone was challenging at first. It was all about looking inward to one’s own weaknesses and delegating tasks accordingly. When this happened, the team flourished. What came of it was a detailed account of what the various people on the podcast spoke on—whether love was this magical feeling or if it was a calculated move, and how their feelings on the matter have evolved over time. Finally, this team leaned into the use of collages of this Magical vs. Mathematical love—using images such as Rubik’s Cubes and graphing pencils to represent math, while using wizards, illusions, and organic formations to represent magic. In the end, the type took on the same philosophy as the images, representing geometric type for math and organic type for the magical feelings of love. The collage and typography the team created for the publication were made for the sole purpose of helping the audience be guided along, led through the words on the page until they’ve gotten enough to make up their own mind. It’s not possible to erase all opinions on a completely subjective topic; however, our goal was to give a wide range of thoughts on the matter so that whatever resonates with the reader remains.

For those who like to make things with their hands, look no further! This is the beginning of the class’s use of film and type together. Being given the liberty of what we made in terms of the project’s “how-to” video, the idea was to make a cutting board. This was an easy choice as it lends itself to so many different typefaces and iconography, which are integral parts of this project. The main focuses of the project were the use of typography, film direction/continuity, and making a comprehensive tutorial that others could realistically follow. In filming, it was important to consider where, when, and how the team filmed. This wasn’t necessarily a team project, but credit where credit is due, Thomas Rascol was a great help in the filming of the process. Being that this was a process about making a cutting board, that really only left the woodshop as the location for the project. Daytime was best suited in terms of lighting, and the visual direction was planned with lots of cuts and close-ups, and action shots of the board being processed and assembled. Challenges that we faced were the length of filming. The board took a while to process, sometimes needing days in between steps so that the filming portion could continue. Having finished the project, there was a lot of pride to be had in how it came out. It was one of the more involved and interesting projects done in my years at this school, and it took a lot of effort. This project forced the skills for camera control and style to be developed, as well as integrating type with video. There was a lot to be learned from this project’s problems, and it made us better designers for it.