Zephyr is the art & literary magazine of Rye High School. For four to five weeks each year the Zephyr art staff works late into the night, often until being kicked out of the school at 10:30pm, to turn a stack of art and literature into a finished magazine. I am particularly proud of the 2008 edition because of its elegant yet daring design and fabulous content.
Zephyr is the art & literary magazine of Rye High School. For four to five weeks each year the Zephyr art staff works late into the night, often until being kicked out of the school at 10:30pm, to turn a stack of art and literature into a finished magazine. I am particularly proud of the 2008 edition because of its elegant yet daring design and fabulous content.
Zephyr is available online! Simply visit zephyrmag.com to flip through this year's issue (2008). Zephyr 2007 is available here.
Casey A. Gollan > Design > RISD Process Book
In the summer of 2007 I attended the RISD Pre-College program as a Graphic Design major. I created an entire personal brand including a logo and stationery, as well as some other small projects. In the end I summed up my entire process in a book that documents all my work.
Perhaps my most thoughtful project at RISD was my book cover redesign. After RISD, I submitted it to a design blog, The Serif, that was running a book cover redesign contest. My redesign of 36 Views of Mount Fuji was published on the website and I got some great positive feedback. Among the commenters was the book's author, Cathy Davidson herself who wrote "Casey Gollan, you’re my Design Idol. I love design, I love the cover of my book, and I really love what you’ve done in the redesign."
My Critique of the Project
I had a hard time starting this project because the designer in me tends to pick books by their covers. I spent most of my time on this project trying to think of a book I’ve read whose cover didn’t do it justice, and came up blank. I ended up choosing a book I find already very well designed both inside and out. The existing design of 36 Views of Mount Fuji is elegant and appropriate.
My copy of the book is a softcover so I wanted to imagine the design for a hardcover “collectors edition.” My idea was to show not just one, but 24 of the symbolic block prints in the “36 Views of Mount Fuji” series on the cover, uninterrupted by text. I wanted the book to double as a piece of art.
To accomplish this effect I decided that the title and other graphic elements would be placed on a removable acetate book jacket representing the Japanese flag.