Black Cats & the Occult:
Myths Debunked
Typography is one of my favorite things to play with because of this project. I needed to create a booklet over any subject I desired with a minimum of 12 pages of content. I had recently adopted a black cat and had thought a lot about their perception in the media and in popular culture. Wanting to do my research and to educate others, I designed an informational booklet about black cats.
Process and Ideation
One of my first ideas was to create my booklet in the vintage informational style. Pulling from the 1940s and 1950s for the typefaces, image style, and layout seemed like a fun way to organize information about something that started a long time ago.
Based off of my moodboard, I started some basic sketches of a couple of front covers and some content layout. I knew I wanted it to be small, like the style of the booklet I was going for, so I went with a 4 by 5.5 inch size.
This was my first round of digital drafts. I had chosen Futura for the entire booklet, and was planning to make all of the text full-justified to keep with the authenticity of the vintage booklet.
In future drafts, however, I had realized this should be more of an homage to the style and not a direct copy. I added in some blackletter type on the cover to match the medieval subject matter and scrapped the full-justification.
Final Design and Mockup
Since showing all 16 pages of content and the front and back covers would likely be a bit much, I’ve included a mockup and some of my favorite spreads from the booklet. These came from much trial and error, many, many drafts, and lots of feedback.
Front and back cover when the booklet is open
A rough sketch for this spread can be seen in my first sketches
Final spread of drafts shown above
This is the center spread, meaning it is the one that many would see first because of the way a booklet naturally opens
This project had many firsts for me: picking entirely my own subject, mixing my own design assets with sourced images and copy, and printing something this complex. I learned so much about how to handle typography, especially in spreads, that I can and do apply to my work now.