The Book Of The Latitude and Invitation Card Sleeve / Nonchalance (2015)

Concept, prototyping, and facilitation of custom books as part of an Augmented Reality installation for Nonchalance. I designed the prototype and then worked with the client and a commercial bindery to create thousands of mostly but not entirely blank books that needed to fit a specific set of measurements, because the entire library that housed them would be designed to precisely fit the books themselves. The books were blind-debossed on the front with a custom logo die, and gold-foiled on the spine. 2,500 were produced. I also facilitated the production of blind-debossed and gold-foiled paper sleeves that housed the invitation card for the same experience.

Post-production, I worked collaboratively with the systems and engineering team to embed and conceal RFID chips in the covers of the display books. The chips triggered an animated story that was projected on the book when it was opened.

Hacker Passport / Foma Labs (2017)

This was a fun project. The folks from FOMA Labs created an experience for a bunch of information security professionals and asked me to make a simple “passport” that would double as a souvenir of the event. The hitch was that they wanted the hand-set brass type for the foil stamping to render a Cyrillic phrase. I did the best that I could with the variety of brass type I had at my disposal, and Google Translate rewarded my efforts with a perfect translation. Event photos courtesy of Foma Labs.

Walking Cinema / Free & Equal Albums (2021)

I was approached by Walking Cinema to create physical photo albums for its Reconstruction project Free & Equal, an augmented reality audio tour highlighting the Port Royal Experiment, a key moment in the history of Civil Rights. The challenge here was that the books needed to be sturdy but light, open completely, stand up to a fair amount of moisture and handling, yet be glare-free so they could be used with the AR app. I brokered the print job with a local printer and constructed albums of matte-finished laminate images that felt, in the hand, like traditional photo albums. Images of Darius Brown holding the album courtesy Walking Cinema.