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Honoring Black Poets’ Process

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Purpose

To promote the use of Neenah Paper, I found the opportunity to highlight 3 of the most notable Black poets in the world: Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Langston Hughes. Each booklet holds 5-6 of each poet’s most popular poems written during their careers. Each booklet is finished in gold foil in a radiating design, encased in a solid gold bookcase. In March 2023, this project received the GDUSA American Package Design Award.

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Moodboard

When considering this project, I wanted to connect with an audience that appreciates Black poetry and print media using Neenah paper. So, I created a 3 booklet series with poems by Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Langston Hughes (the most notable Black poets ever).

In my inspiration, I included work with gold lines, work with serif typography, and work with an Afrocentric subject. Later in my process, I will use colors inspired by this moodboard.

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Thumbnail Sketches

During my sketching phase, I had a few different ideas but the one that landed was placing a halo or sunray in gold foil behind each subject. Below, you can see the development of my ideas that include layout, naming, and printing conventions of the book.

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Practice Prints

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Revisions

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Final Results