Samantha Mantua

Lyric videos provide an opportunity to create a visual language for music. The goal of this project was to use the beat and lyrics to influence the motion and imagery. The design is bold to match to upbeat energy of the song. The band, Coin, has a very digital aesthetic, almost as if they jumped into a 2008 windows operating system. The type pairing of a bitmaped typeface and a stretched serif typeface pulls from a nostalgic digitial era. The color palette was inspired by the brightness RGB computer screens allow for.

826 National is a network of youth tutoring and writing centers. Each tutoring center has a unique storefront that makes the tutoring center more enticing, while also providing a steady revenue source. After being assigned a town to research, we were tasked with creating our own unique 826 store identity. Based in Bangor, Maine, a store was created to combine Maine’s lumber industry with the spooky tourist attractions prevalent in Bangor. The result: “Knock on Wood,” a store for the superstitious. Products are based on superstitions, such as athletes needing lucky socks, throwing salt over shoulder, and black cats crossing paths. Imagery was drawn from Maine’s connection to wood through the lumber industry. The object based icons for the brand are inspired by specific superstitions and icons of good luck. The visual language of the brand emulates the dark side of superstitions, while still being playful and enticing enough to bring customers in.

When looking for content for a book, I stumbled across some eye catching photos of sea jellies I had taken at a few aquariums. Not only are sea jellies visually interesting, they are unusual creatures as well. These photos were an opportunity to promote the uniqueness of sea jellies. To make the images cohesive, and bring attention to the whimsical shapes of the jellies, I decided to riso print the images. The images are organic, strange, and even alien-like sometimes. The letter-pressed quotes about sea jellies are informative and emotive. The process of hand-setting the type is lengthy compared to the speed we are accustomed to with computers, but it was made more difficult due to the decision to highlight words in the quotes through scale. The hand crafted elements that come into play when using historic processes, such as hand sewing a book or letterpress printing, make this book about more than just content.