Reclaiming the Expectations of Women in the 19th Century
Caroline Severance was an abolitionist and women’s rights activist from Cleveland, OH who was active during the mid to late 1800s. She worked with many of the well-known activists of the time, but is not well recognized for her accomplishments. For the 2018 International Society of Typographic Designers Student Assessment, I chose to focus on Brief 2: Writing Women Into History.
This project passed the 2018 ISTD Student Assessment — a rigorous juried examination — my design, research, strategy, design development, technical, and production specification was found to be of the highest design and typographic standard. The passing of this project granted me entry to the ISTD’s professional association. The ISTD helps to establish, maintain, and promote typographic standards through the forum of debate and design practice.
Services:
Typography
Layout Design
Bookmaking
Caroline had very progressive views for her time and my goal was to reflect that in my designs. As the founder of women’s clubs, one of her notable tactics was to draw women in by talking about topics that were stereotypical, such as “Liberation from Tight Corsets.” She would then use those topics as a jumping-off point to talk about larger social issues, with the hopes of converting these women into activists.
The cover of the book is pink, pretty, and features a title that may have been expected in the 1800s. If you tear back the first layer of the cover, it reveals a more progressive message to encourage women to be more active in helping to change society for the better.
Throughout the book, the same idea of hiding and revealing content is represented with the use of french folds. The main spreads are rather straightforward and clean in design. French folds can be torn at the perforation to reveal more progressive messages and unique designs that challenge expectations.
The book starts off clean and orderly, but as you reveal more content with the cover and french folds, the book can start to look raw and rough. This further aligns with the overarching concept — Caroline wanted to challenge the norms and it wasn’t always pretty. You have to go past society’s expectations to reveal new ideas.
