2 books, a profile book that represents my partner and a interview book about the both of us
Profile Book
my partner for this project was jessica in the profile book I tried to include my first impression of her and then my second impression after the interview, this reflects in the sleek and black cover that was my first impression she is stylish but quiet a closed book; as I got to know her the pages developed, I used the pictures we took in class and did some light editing in photoshop also I include a tracing drawing from one of the pictures I took made of pastels and pen, I included this to give the book a more personal and colorful touch.
it also completes the picture I used for the inner cover of the book
the text in the book comes from my profile interview in seminar class, I included the questions and answers that I think show the character of my partner, I decide to keep the journalistic writing style because fashion is a big part of her life so I wanted my spreads to look like a fashion magazine. other photos in the book also complement each other. the 3D format was my way of including my personality and was inspired by bookniture an stool inside a pop up book.
Intraview Book
For my interview book my main focus was cultural and how remote was the possibility of me knowing my partner who is from the other side of the world I decided to include this concept in my structure a reflection.
the cultural aspect comes from the graphics, I tried to find similarities and contrast within our cultures one similarity is how we are perceived by the rest of the world with negative stereotypes and a general overview but both our cultures are incredibly rich, thats why I kept my images simple like outlines. I also include symbolism from both our cultures. in this image I added paper marigolds and poppies marigolds are important in mexican culture they represent eternal life, and from research I discovered that poppy seeds are used in traditional chinese medicine. other symbolism is the paper lanterns and “paper picad0” both icons from our countries.
in the chinese section I included come buildings from Jessica’s hometown Nanjing.
the cover of the book has traditional chinese pottery and mexican talavera tiles, I realized that there was connection in colors and motifs, the title was inspired by the name of a restaurant that serves both mexican and chinese food and it made me think of the story of “china poblana” a traditional mexican way of dressing for women the name always sounded funny to me “china” is chinese female in spanish “poblana” means woman from Puebla ( a region in central Mexico), I did more research on this and this costume was introduced in the 17th century by chinese slaves brought to mexico during the spanish reign. this fun fact made me think of the ways cultures are related even if they are remote.