May Day: Origins, Traditions & The Future
Handbound Book (2012)

Awarded Membership to The International Society of Typographic Designers with Commendation

The book explores the spring festival of May Day, charting the festivals origin, the traditions associated with it and the current debates surrounding its future. I generated, researched and wrote the content, as well as sourcing a selection of relevant essays to support the arguments. The purpose of the book is to inform the reader of the festivals enormous historical and social span, which is reflected in the typographic appropriateness of my final solution.

Each chapter chronologically documents the festivities, with an appropriate typeface handpicked to embody that particular movement. As well as having a chosen typeface, each chapter also has a designated colour, which is used to pick out and accentuate certain elements of the typographic design. Furthermore, to support the highly considered typefaces and colour usage, decorative paper stocks are also used to emphasize the content. The choice of binding is hugely important to the overall concept of the book and is reminiscent of a May Pole.

The book provides a clear narrative to a largely misunderstood topic, with the aim of informing the reader about the significance of May Day. The typography used is expressive, maintaining relevance to the various strands of the topic. Through the combination of the type, stock and colour choices, the result is a highly tactile piece of design that encourages the reader to place themselves within the subject matter.