Poetic Threads of Identity

A Typographic Poster Series

Objective

Research

Kari Gunter-Seymour

is a ninth-generation Appalachian and Ohio Poet Laureate. She shares stories of Appalachian identity, womanhood, and environmental justice through her poetry. Her work is deeply connected to nature from its roots, and stems up into talking about feminism, mental health, and religious identity.

Type Manipulation

Concept Sketching

This typographic poster series aims to utilize visually engaging designs, formed through experimental typography, to highlight each individual's contribution to poetry. The goal of this series was to establish a cohesive design system that harmonizes the poets into one theme, but highlights their differences to capture attention and convey a deeper meaning to the audience. Given the initial prompt, "Unbound Landscapes: Ohio's Poetic Threads," as a starting point, much research had to be done.

Yalie Saweda Kamara

is a Sierra Leonean-American writer, educator, and researcher from Oakland, California. She advocates for BIPOC voices, religious freedom, and works to redefine the stories of the places she has called home--Africa and Oakland--through her lyrical language.

was a Black American poet, playwright, and composer. His involvement with music greatly influences his writing style of poetry, his poetry work often being describes as “composed” rather than “written.” He is known for sharing stories of music, culture, and black identity through is avant-garde compositions.

In order to sense the nature of this typographic composition project, we were tasked with first using type, texture, opacity, and other such physical methods to manipulate the text chosen to represent one author, in this case, Kari Gunter-Seymour.

Final Poster Series

Concept Digitization

Final Concept Sketches and Execution

In order to sense the nature of this typographic composition project, we were tasked with first using type, texture, opacity, and other such physical methods to manipulate the text chosen to represent one author, in this case, Kari Gunter-Seymour.

Russell Atkins

To further explore my initial concept sketches, I digitized a select few and implemented informational text to visualize what an end product could look like.

After weeks and even months of ideating, I finally got the inspiration for my final poster design. To fully grasp all possibilities for this project, I had to take a step back and look at the full picture again, starting from the beginning. The title of the category I was assigned included the phrase "Ohio's Poetic Threads," and I wanted to dive deeper into that idea of "threads."

Although I had only embroidered a few times before this project, I chose to fully immerse myself in the process, believing that the texture and detail of embroidery floss would align perfectly with my concept. All of my final posters include manipulated photos of my hand-embroidered typography and imagery, supplemented with digital informational type.