From Page to Place: Using Design to Guide Narrative and Atmosphere.
Problem
Place-based poetry is often presented in conventional book layouts that treat text as content rather than experience. This flattens the emotional and spatial qualities of the work, and doesn’t reflect how a reader moves through a city or moment in time. The challenge is to design a book that behaves less like a static page and more like a lived environment — a system where typography, pacing, structure and spatial composition carry as much meaning as the words themselves.
Solution
Readers experience text in a linear, static way, which limits engagement with the rhythms, transitions, and emotional tone that the work is trying to convey. The design challenge is to create a publication that transforms reading into an immersive experience, where typography, layout, and visual hierarchy guide the reader through place, mood, and narrative flow.
