The journey begins wading in familiar waters awaiting Re, the creator of the universe and giver of life. The viewer learns of their guide, the Neenah Paper Company, which holds the secrets of success for the dead to pass a series of trials that will lead them to their final judgement.
The audience eventually reaches the ultimate goal of the typical Egyptian, which was to be granted access to paradise by Osiris through the words “ye shall flourish”.
The tactile nature of Egyptian hieroglyphics provided the steppingstones necessary for this paper promotion booklet. It takes on a more rugged style in a modern way. The paper line is from the Environmentals paper collection with an assortment of finishes from recycled paper. The folds and variety of texture encouraged the potential customers to engage with the product and to explore paper in a fun way.
Additional embellishments such as die-cuts enabled more interactivity with samples to pull out of pockets, business cards to find, and discovering duality of themes within the book of the dead. Spot varnishing and a twist on the traditional Coptic binding blended something new with something old.
The project goal was to make a paper promotion book for Neenah Paper Company that emphasized the possibilities of paper through unique folds and treatments. I chose the Sundance collection as it had the most textural types of paper. I also researched the brand to get a better understanding of its goals.
I made a creative brief based on my research and to solidify my goals for this project.
I made several concepts for the narrative of the booklet. I found that paper promotions were more successful when they had an interesting storytelling aspect.
After critique, we agreed that the Book of the Dead was the best option. I love Egyptian culture so it was a win for me! It was also a great way to promote the textural paper, because the nature of hieroglyphics and Coptic writing is very textural and would encourage the audience to interact with the booklet. I did a lot of research into the Book of the Dead so I could take inspiration from it.
I mind mapped to get a better idea of what I was looking for.
I made sketches of these ideas for critique. The main piece of feedback was to make sure my work was stylized and had a variety of interactivity within it.
I made color palettes based off of the paper colors in the Sundance collection. It was important to focus on the qualities of the paper, so I didn't add too many bright colors to my designs. It might have distracted from the quality textures that Neenah advertises.
I made a mood board based on the style I was going to go for. I liked the idea of cool brushstrokes. I had gotten feedback that I should choose to make the colors off white and not pure black, because it felt too clean with crisp white.
I made a lot of type studies because I was struggling to find a good balance between stylized type and easily legible type.
Originally I had chosen Rockwell and Homestead and made designs with those in mind, but after critique, my classmates felt that Rockwell and Roblox better alluded to hieroglyphics. After stepping back and taking a break it had really grown on me, especially when I made it more variable in height and rotation.
Making a pagination plan helped to organize the narrative of the Book of the Dead and to organize the folds and embellishments.
I made several layout sketches and test illustrations to visualize my ideas better.
I made sketches and brought them to critique. The original plan was to digitize it and make them with brush strokes, but my classmates liked the organic look of my sketches. It also made sense with how hieroglyphics were made.
I made more sketches and outlined embellishments with yellow.
I then made a mockup to make sure that everything looked how I wanted it to. I made tweaks after critique as well. I went with a new take on a Coptic bind, and practiced on the mockup, so I would have the measurements down for the final product.
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