I’m An Idiot
PUBLICATION DESIGN TYPOGRAPHY
As an exercise in typographic scale, I compiled and designed a short book about Lisa Hanawalt—the webcomic artist and illustrator behind BoJack Horseman and Tuca & Bertie—along with a poster promoting an imaginary lecture series by the artist.
THE STYLE
The goal for the typography and stylistic elements was to evoke Hanawalt’s work without directly mimicking it. To contrast from her expressive, hand-drawn style, I stuck with a simple sans-serif (Balto) in three weights for titles and headings, with the serif Fayon for the book’s body text. I prioritized white space, using watercolor textures sparingly as page backgrounds and text overlays to let the artist’s work shine.
The book’s outside margins are decorated with one of Hanawalt’s watercolor patterns of horses and ferns. In each folio, a watercolor horse plays next to the page number. Each section-opening spread features a full watercolor verso page with an excerpt of an actual essay the artist wrote as a child, which I hand-traced in Illustrator and set in white.
