objects & methods lecture
designer in residence, emily sara
 

Emily Sara, a neurodivergent disabled designer, gave a talk to my class about her line of work. Emily has a fascination with "sick foods", such as saltines and animal crackers, and how they represent so much to the disabled community. Imagine being hospitalized and the only way you are able to get back to your normal life is if you can hold down a pack of saltines or a hand full of animal crackers. This is Emily's story on how strong of a hold these items have in her life. 

I was inspired by her story to create a poster using a hand-made partial typeface consisting of real saltines that I crushed up and formed into the corresponding letters. After forming these letters, photographing them, and editing them in Photoshop, I was able to use them in my design. Pink being a strong color in her line of work, I focused on a bright pink color palette and added variation with a plate image. I wanted to keep the poster simple, yet powerful, so I added a simple san-serif typeface along the bottom and a curved line of text along the plate to accentuate the rounded shape. The required "gdes" logo is added to the bottom of the page, incorporated into the realistic cracker pieces that add a nice contrast to the flat background.