Curating the Curious
Art Direction • Design • Editorial
Creative Brief
It was my senior year of college at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, and I had one project left to complete my senior thesis. Make a catalog. Alongside a talented photographer, we curated a catalog of curiosities by documenting a local insect collection paired with whimsical musings. While it wasn’t the traditional take on the project, it demonstrated our understanding of product photography, organization, creative direction, managing editorial content, and most importantly—how to have a little fun. We got an A.
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Click on a spread to zoom in on contentReflections
Best Moment
It was early 2012, and I posted a general inquiry to my Facebook page: “Does anyone have a large insect collection I can photograph? Please share!” I didn’t run in the types of circles where I expected a large response, but through the power of sharing, I had a collegiate level collection within 24 hours. It was the first time I had ever truly experienced the power of the internet to connect with strangers.
Greatest Challenge
Not damaging the collection. The insects were part of the enormous personal collection of a SUNY ESF graduate student, meticulously pinned and labeled. In order to photograph each insect, we had to remove it from the collection, pull the ¼-inch label from the pin, set up the shot, and then put everything back together. It was time consuming and, quite frankly, a little risky. Don’t fret though, not a single leg was damaged in the production of this booklet.
Unexpected Lesson
Standard book sizes exist for a reason. Initially, we tried to create a custom book size, but after receiving several very high print quotes and discussing our options with a printer, it became clear that our best option was to use a well-known and standard book size. We were already going against the grain with the custom content, and stuck with a classic size.