Project 3, Poem Visualization: Project Statement

In my poem visualization I wanted to emphasize the calm tone of Hopler’s poem by using soft images.  I altered the transparency of each picture in order to make the words of the poem stand out more, but also because I believe that it gives the book a softer feel.  Had I left the images at full opacity, the colors would have been very bright, and I felt that bright, vibrant colors would be wrong for this poem that is very soft and quiet.  I also wanted to use simple imagery, which I believe goes with not only the simple descriptions in the poem, but also the simple diction and syntax of Hopler’s voice in the poem.  The images I chose literally illustrate the poem, but they also portray the simplicity of the poem itself in their minimalism.  Although the poem is simple, there is emotion and a deeper theme, and I hope that my images allow the reader to connect to the poem’s emotional content in a visual way. 

To create the images in my book I began with photographs.  I edited each photograph in Photoshop, including cropping, changing brightness and contrast, altering light levels, often adding a filter, and finally editing the transparency of the photograph.  Some photos were more complicated to edit, for example, to create the porch photo I added the light fixture from a separate photo, and then created a spotlight to make it seem as though the light was actually shining from the porch.  For the image of the drain, I had to transform the flowers individually from a separate photo and then add shadows in order to make it appear that they were floating in the water.  After working with each image in Photoshop, I placed them one by one into Illustrator documents.  I then formatted them to the proper size for my book (six by nine inches), and locked them in place.  Once the background was set, I added the text on top.  I did this by typing the poem, and then creating outlines and ungrouping the words so that I could move each letter individually.  I chose to use Myraid Pro font because it is clean and easy to read, but it is also an interesting and modern looking font.  I felt that all I needed to use was one font—there was no need to complicate the poem by using multiple typefaces.

I chose to create a very traditional book because I believe that this simple poem is best illustrated in traditional ways.  If I had chosen to make a very complex book form, with many folds or pop outs I think it would have detracted from the simplicity that makes this poem so effective.  The feeling of quiet and calm that I tried to portray with my images works with the traditional book format.  To construct the book I printed the images on thicker drawing paper.  I cut out the pages to the proper size, then stacked them and glued them together one by one.  I then constructed a cover from Bristol board, and glued that to the binding on the packet of pages.  Finally, I trimmed the cover to the proper size.