'Shazai / Apology'
Brief: Create a book based on a personal memory of guilt.
The book is called ‘Sorry’, and is a personal apology from me to a primary school teacher. I deliberately ruined a class art project of a Japanese pond by forcing glitter glue from its tube causing an explosion all over the canvas, ruining my Koi and everyone else’s.
The Koi illustrations, square shape of the book and traditional stab binding method all evoke a typical Japanese style. The use of Helvetica Ultralight is attempting to keep the type at it's absolute minimal, a typical trait of Japanese design.
I commissioned a calligrapher (my tutor Tim Donaldson) for the front cover. The Koi’s markings get progressively bigger and denser, obcsuring the fish almost entirely at the end, communicating my growing
sense of guilt.
sense of guilt.
Front Cover. this says 'Apology' in Japanese. I commissioned a calligrapher (my tutor, Tim Donaldson) to create the marks in ink
stab binding is a traditional japanese method of book binding.
I also made an orange covered book, which I gave to Mrs Saunders, the teacher who i disobeyed in the story. She wrote me a letter back explaining how she also carried guilt for all these years, as she thought she over-reacted.
