The Wild
Developing a creative vision and identity for The Wild Bookstore.
Role:
Creative Director, Visual Designer
Client:
The Wild Bookstore
Work scope:
Ideation & Brainstorming / Visual Design (Print & Online)
Background & Overview
When you meet someone who shares your love of books - particular books - you need to keep that person in your life. In that sense I'm lucky to know writer and curator, Marly Pierre-Louis, who adores absolutely nothing more than the power and beauty of books.
To combine her love of books with her love of Black community, Marly launched a pop-up book store dedicated to literature and discussion around the concepts of blackness beyond the white gaze, a free and wild blackness. Marly contracted me to take her through a visual exploration of the concepts underpinning her bookstore and to ultimately produce visuals that would be used to promote the first event and eventually the entire brand.
The Problem
Visually communicate a sensibility of freedom from restraint and external expectations of the white gaze. Capture and relay the embrace of unapologetic Blackness and validate the state of being a fugitive and an exile from oppression.
Bookstores can be centers of community. But they're not.
There's no denying the impact that digital publishing and huge monopolistic entities like Amazon have had on the average neighborhood book seller: they're pretty much gone. The shops that remain seem to be serving such a broach group that they serve no one at all. A feeling of coziness and the atmosphere of a welcoming community is hard to find and harder still to visualize.
Image: Paul Povoroznuk
Blackness is an amazing state of being both futuristic and immemorial.
Depicting the inner state of literary Blackness and the Black person's experience with wildness and fugitivity is a tall order. Shedding the often trod patterns and structures of the white, Euro-centric design tradition in favor of a visualization explicitly meant for consumption by Black readers required a plastic mind and true creative collaboration.
Image: Casey Horner
My Process
I shared a Miro board with Marly and seeded it with images I had gathered about afro-futurist multimedia artwork, fractals, and wild foliage and unchecked jungle growth. After having conversation about this collection and gathering requirements about dimensions and intended uses, I used Affinity Design and Sketch to layout a number of compositions that would be printed and used online.
Wild. Seed.*
It was important to capture as much of the client's universe of visual inspiration as possible. The notions we were exploring for the event were very deep, layered, and contextual.
*HT to Octavia Butler, the god.
Crafting an analog vision using digital tools.
When I sit at my machine to create, it can be a challenge to cross the gulf between the multi-dimensional, fantastical ideas that exist in my brain, and the restrictive medium of a computer's trackpad and screen. This time was no different and I did my best to free my thinking and approach even my process from a wild point of view. Using Affinity Designer, photos I took of text and paper from printed books, strange lighting effects and textures, and vector creations I made in Sketch, I compiled layouts meant to capture the eye's attention.
The Outcome
To support the promotional phase of The Wild's Pop-up Bookstore, I designed and printed a set of full color, limited edition post cards in three variations. Additionally, I made poster-sized versions of the designs as well as public space policy notices using the same visual themes.
Like what you see?
Don’t hesitate to reach out so we can chat about working on a project together.