I’ve started to design this final project of typography. It is a 12-page brochure explaining an Italian Bike Tour. I approached this style by first looking up travel posters. I wanted to convey the sense of tourism, sights to see, open air, emphasizing the locale. I saw a poster that collaged elements of the locale with the silhouette of the place and thought that would be a good style to be inspired by. Along with the copy, the instructor provided some photographs. I used those to create this collage using Photoshop (clipping masks! Thanks Jason). I am no doubt subtly inspired by the Swiss Beach travel posters in my choice of type and by Schwinn’s branding. Slanted Sans Serif screams bicycles now. It can’t be undone.

Whenever I design something like this, (derivative) I think to myself if that’s what design is. At the heart, it is repurposing elements. Putting together something new out of the cultural symbols we’ve all agreed on works. Sometimes when I design, I am ripping a page out of more obscure books and therefore feel more creative, but at the end of the day, that’s what education is. If I done this for a client they would say, job complete. They have something compelling, crisp and functional. If someone did this for me, I would look at them and wondered if they had a soul, a unique thought in their wormy brain. Are all just remixes at this point? In this supersaturated culture of ours where everyone gets the same jokes from the same places, can’t we come up with ideas totally uninfluenced by our environment? Or is that what design is in comparison to art. Design is the sign, the frame of reference to something we already know to something we’re trying to figure out.