A Visual Elevation
Contributed by Stephen Coles on Feb 17th, 2012. Artwork published in
circa 2009
.
This 9″ × 11″ book chronologically captures a visual journey through Peru, Beginning in Lima, and ending in Cusco, a village located in the Andes mountain region. Traveling from one City to the other, an extreme change in altitude takes place, starting at 50 meters above see level in Lima, ascending to 3,300 in Cusco. The drastic change in altitude induces a host of psychological affects to endure, which, in this case are paralleled to emotional responses. This book intends to recontextualize the words used to describe the psychological effects associated with extremely high altitude and juxtapose them with a visual narrative that evokes an emotional response.
See more images on Behance.
3 Comments on “A Visual Elevation”
Yes, that looks wonderful. Shame about the font. Here is some more information about its designer, Magnus Rakeng.
You mean that it’s no longer available since Village folded? Yes, that’s a bummer. I’m sure you can still obtain a license for Radio by getting in touch with Magnus directly, via his agency, Melkeveien.
Mr. Rakeng was actually kind enough to provide me with the three font styles, which is very generous these days. He also mentioned that he would design them differently today, more than thirty years later, and said he had to apologize for the design. But that is not the case. Erik Spiekermann once said that there are no bad fonts. He is right. You just have to find the right font for the design you want.
The “Radio” may not be a readable font for texts, but, apart from small kerning problems that can be easily solved with a little work, it is very decorative for certain applications, as the example above shows. The curves are very elaborate for the time: bravo! Many designers still cannot do that today.