March 10th, 2022

So far in our design class, we have focused most of our focus on elements such as banners, posters, ephemera, patterns, and other graphic elements that will have connections to the exhibition itself. However, Professor Wynn has recently challenged the class with creating the official catalog that will not only be given for the exhibition but also acts as a catalyst for understanding the artifacts and the amazing 75 years that Merrimack College has existed.

As with any design work, the first round of designs was simple and dealt primarily with layout, rather than details. The class was given instructions to design and think about how the cover page, index, table of contents, and body copy would be executed. Inside of this, Professor Wynn also challenged us with designing ideas for double-page spreads, image placement, artifact titles, artifact dates, artifact text, and much more. Below are images of my first round of catalog designs for the upcoming exhibition.

Cover Page

The cover page, which is first in the slideshow above, coincides directly with my other designs throughout the last month of this course. What makes this feel part of the “family” is the incorporated pattern that I have been using throughout all of my elements so far. I believe that using the design element from the Merrimack shield adds a sense of familiarity, but in a new and fresh way.

Table of Contents

The second image in the slideshow is the layout design of the table of contents. As mentioned before, these designs are simple layout-based. A skeleton-type design should not be the ultimate test for deciding how a page might look. However, by viewing this page in particular, one can get a sense of where images might be placed, the use of white space, and gather how typography might be utilized on the spread.

Category Pages

The next three pages are examples of how my catalog might show the artifacts that are being presented in the exhibition. These three pages are simply just different layout designs that may be used to show the artifacts of the six categories that we are showcasing in the exhibition. These layout mockups show image placement, heading design, pages number decisions, body copy composition, and of course white space utilization.

Index

The index, as with the pages that go before it is simply a layout template. However, the most important aspect of the index is how one may locate categories of artifacts throughout the entire catalog. For this, I developed a system where each artifact and image will be labeled with a category letter, followed by a number. This, as an early version, is flawed and needs a redesign for it to flow and work seamlessly.