Crying With Glasses
On

Crying With Glasses On

Crying With Glasses On

2021
broadside poster
Typography II
Print

In collaboration with acclaimed literary journal Poetry International, I graphically interpret Crying With Glasses On, a poem retrieved from the thousands of works logged in the journal’s archives, as a 13" x 19" poetry broadside poster. While browsing the numerous works, author Eric McHenry’s skillful application of literary devices and writing technique captured my attention. Accordingly, I translate the message of his poem through a manipulation of type and image.

Magazine cutout letters that read "Crying" are overlaid onto a collage of various paper and newspaper scraps. The full titles reads "Crying With Glasses On, by Eric McHenry."

process

I challenge myself to utilize photography and collage, two artistic mediums with which I am largely unfamiliar, as the foundational elements of this broadside poster. I experiment with a number of title arrangements; some are entirely digital while others incorporate physical media. Ultimately, I opt to photograph a newspaper-cutout collage as seen through a teary eyeglass lens: the handcrafted quality not only invokes McHenry’s nostalgic literary imagery, but also the immediacy of his emotional turmoil. In this case, the tears that obscure forms on the page allude to his despondent tone and, by extension, his muddled view of the future.

Systems

In order to integrate the title into the collage, “Crying” is pieced together with magazine cutout letters, while “With Glasses On” is rendered in an italicized Hoefler Text. This serif typeface—with which the poem itself and a portion of the title are designed—affords the poster a personable feel, as if the lines of text are extracted directly from a novel. Likewise, the handwritten typeface, Rollerscript Rough, is arranged sparingly across the page and contributes to the poem’s intimacy.

final application

View Project

More Works

A series of smart phones laid out on a flat surface. The phones display various screens of the "For The Record" mobile app prototype.

For The Record

For The Record explores brand identity through a typographic guide booklet and its respective introductory mobile app prototype. The booklet hones in on record...

How to Play a Record

How to Play a Record examines digital illustration and type arrangement in a six-step instructional brochure. My illustrations consist of blown-up photographs of vinyl...

© 2022 by Brennan Hickey

Mobile Interface Under Construction