Amelia Whitt | Process Book

Amelia Whittington graduated with a BFA in graphic design from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in 2022. She is a highly creative individual who is interested in publication and print design.

With over five years of recognized work, she is passionate about design and eager to take on projects that challenge her and encourage growth.

101 Inventions That Shaped the World

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O.H.S.O. Brewery

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Choose Chicago

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2032 Olympic Bid

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Peak Chew

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CRACK Magazine

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The Power of Perfume

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Gasoline

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Hollywood on Lake Michigan

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To accompany the National Geographic’s list of 101 Inventions That Shaped the World, a visual design system for 101 posters and an accompanying catalog was produced. Of this system, two posters and their corresponding editorial spreads were produced: #34: traffic signals and #59: duct tape.

GDUSA 2021 Winner

The concept for this campaign was to make these seemingly ordinary inventions extraordinary. By featuring the history behind these influential inventions, a story and narrative could be formed for each of the 101 items.

The visual treatment for images was reliant on two things: texture and colors. Each object was abstracted with bright colors and tight zoom-levels to cause intrigue and a new appreciation for these everyday inventions.

The close-up composition not only allows for interchangeable parts in all of the 101 posters, but also a challenge for the viewer as they work to puzzle the images together in this new context.

Published in the 2022 SCAD Port City Review

The planetary circles are designed to give an otherworldly and alien impression so as to give the viewers a new appreciation for everyday life.

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Exhibited in the 2022 SCAD GRDS Showcase

Branding & Identity Poster Editorial

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SOME FORM OF A TITLE UP HERE TO MEET THE MARGINS

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SOME FORM OF A TITLE UP HERE TO MEET THE MARGINS

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SOME FORM OF A TITLE UP HERE TO MEET THE MARGINS

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101 Inventions that Shaped the World

Presented by National Geographic

This remarkable history of science and invention chronicles the most revolutionary inventions throughout time—from the conquest of fire to scientific leaps towards the stars and everything in between. Some highlights include: In-depth features on the most revolutionary developments. Profiles on radical thinkers and groundbreaking inventors. Easyto-grasp information on the most impactful inventions in science.

101 Inventions that Shaped the World Presented by National Geographic

This remarkable history of science and invention chronicles the most revolutionary inventions throughout time—from the conquest of fire to scientific leaps towards the stars and everything in between. Some highlights include: In-depth features on the most revolutionary developments. Profiles on radical thinkers and groundbreaking inventors. Easy-to-grasp information on the most impactful inventions in science.

101 Inventions that Shaped the World Presented by National Geographic

This remarkable history of science and invention chronicles the most revolutionary inventions throughout time—from the conquest of fire to scientific leaps towards the stars and everything in between. Some highlights include: In-depth features on the most revolutionary developments. Profiles on radical thinkers and groundbreaking inventors. Easy-to-grasp information on the most impactful inventions in science.

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Public Sans ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234 567890-!#$%^&*()<>¡?\;/’–”:~`{}

Roboto ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234 567890-!#$%^&*()<>¡?\;/’–”:~`{}

Halyard Display/Micro ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234 567890-!#$%^&*()<>¡?\;/’–”:~`{}

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O.H.S.O. stands for “Outrageous Homebrewers’ Social Outpost”. This is the core value of this Scottsdale, Arizona brewery and restaurant chain.

OHSO is not just a bar and grill, but a neighborhood and community hangout spot for those who like to take the scenic route in life.

This conceptual project took three OHSO specialty beers and sought to revitalize them with a fresh new look. The OHSO brand identity was also updated. Taking inspiration from OHSO’s current tone and themes, the logo was inspired by the founder’s passion for cyclist culture. The gears of the symbol can read as the sprockets on a bike or as a bottle cap.

The shape of the hand-designed logotype was inspired by 20th century European bike race posters.

There are three flavors that received an updated look: Boom Dynamite is a strong and heavy IPA, Popcycle Blonde is a refreshing blonde ale, and 89 Ale is a rustic and earthy American steam beer. These three flavors were designed to work together while still holding their own personalities.

The labels are inspired by the Arizona desert landscape with geological features in mind. The shape and color palette was created from scientific drawings, gemology, and topography. All three of the labels were created from one sketch of a mountain landscape and this sketch was then abstracted and reorientated to reflect each individual beer flavor.

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Exhibited in the 2022 SCAD GRDS Showcase Branding & Identity Package Design Merchandise

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CHOOSE

CHICAGO Choose Chicago is the official tourism and marketing organization for the city of Chicago. In this conceptual campaign two typographic posters are used throughout the state of Illinois and in travel magazines to encourage people to explore all that Chicago has to offer.

The pair of posters are an homage to Millennium Park. This iconic park is in the heart of downtown Chicago and acts as a gathering space for people to experience culture, community, and nature. The contrasting posters take two different color schemes to show the cityscape during the day and night. The daytime scene is inspired by the warmer tones of summer and the cool lake breeze. The nighttime cityscape is inspired by the glow of neon signs and the city’s Jazz clubs and history; it is designed to be back-lit when displayed.

The typographic structures create their own skyscrapers in the composition, creating windows and doors to the city’s residents. The diagonal and orbiting lines are reminiscent of the train tracks and The Loop. The year 1833 marks the city’s founding date.

Part of my process included building an intricate grid from an image of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion as designed by Frank Ghery. The arching lines of text and the title are designed on the grid that forms the bandshell and centerpiece of Millennium Park.

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Poster Marketing

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Located in the central Sichuan region of China, Chengdu and Chongqing are neighboring cities divided by rivers and connected by bridges and culture. This conceptual bid proposal for the 2032 Summer Olympics honors the two cities with a brand identity designed for the world stage.

Chengdu is the capital of the Sichuan province and is known for their diverse and modern economy and spicy Sichuan cuisine. Chongqing neighbors Chengdu and is situated upon the Yangtze River. It is recognizable by its huge quantity of bridges, all designed in various architectural styles.

Together, the cities have a population of over 47 million people.

Inspiration from this identity mark came from synthesizing landmarks and city symbols with the spirit of the Olympic Games. In the final emblem the flower represents the hibiscus flower of Chengdu as well as the agriculture and nature that surrounds the cities. The flower is composed of the five Olympic rings intertwined and united. The bridge is significant to both cities, and it specifically resembles the Anshun bridge in Chengdu. The bridge brings people together and encourages teamwork and community.

Together, the colors reference the Olympic rings and the Chinese flag.

The reds and yellows create unity between the flower and the bridge.

In the combination mark, the typography is rounded and friendly, with a strong emphasis on ligatures that help create rhythm. This brand identity signifies the partnership between Chengdu and Chongqing, and invites the world to gather and connect at the Summer Games of 2032.

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Branding & Identity Merchandise Marketing

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Peak Chew is a fictional chewing gum for mountain sports and climates.

When in high-altitude locations it isn’t uncommon to chew gum to help aid vertigo, ear-popping, indigestion, and dehydration. Peak Chew offers a sugar free gum that can be packed for the trails when participating in skiing and other winter sports.

The core design concept is a revival of the vintage ski resort aesthetic and fashion from the 1950’s — 70’s. The brandmark is an experimental handdesigned logotype with geometric points to demonstrate the intense feeling of winter climates and flavorful chewing gum. The packaging utilizes archival photography and materials with photos of people on the slopes and vintage ski lift tickets.

The overall gum packaging can be easily packed into a ski suit or hiking pack for accessibility on the trails; it can also be opened one-handed.

The covers feature flavor-coordinated color schemes and a collage of vintage ski enthusiasts looking towards their next adventure. The interior packaging is reminiscent of a ski resort map with colorful trails pointing to the flavorful destination below.

The lift tickets compose the color scheme and are collaged together to create an individual look and wrapper for each flavor. The three flavors are Arctic Mint, Warm Spice, and Mtn. Berries (a blackcurrant flavor). The lift tickets were originally photographs of an online seller’s collection of vintage ski passes. These images were then digitally altered and separated into limited color palettes for a graphic and easily reproducible image.

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Branding & Identity Packaging

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exterior

ARCTIC FRESH SUGARFREE CHEWING GUM

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STICKS

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Crack is an independent music and culture magazine established in 2009 and based in the U.K. They report and offer articles on latest album releases, rising artists and musicians, and profiles of the top names in independent music. This publication offers three artists in different categories of articles. The editor’s choice is an album review for The Smile’s first album; The rising artist profile is of a South Korean techno artist duo called Salamanda; And The two profiles’ opening spreads are typographically focused and reflect the artists’ indivudal aesthetics. It was also important Crack’s contemporary photography felt cohesive in the spreads. Salamanda’s interview spoke a lot about the influence of film, video games, and pop-culture in their work.

The design direction is centered around a large bitmap portrait of the duo, and an early 90’s computer glow.

Perfume Genius speaks about his experience with gender and his physicial form. His music is dark, baroque-inspired, and sensual. A gothic typeface with an ornamental obelisk glyph references the theme exploration of knives and masculinity in his latest album.

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Editorial Typesetting

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Issue 110 | March 2020

U.S. Girls: A fresh perspective Ms Nina has logged on Amnesia Scanner: Reprocessing realities Aesthetic: Bbymutha

The Body Electric Perfume Genius

Rough Spreads

The original drafts

The Body

Perfume Genius is finding a new freedom in physicality — and nobody is more surprised than him

Words by: Eve Barlow

It’s Valentine’s Day morning at a café by the East LA River, and Seattle native Mike Hadreas shows up looking every inch the rugged heartthrob. His jeans are a vintage wash, his tank top is soft against his chest, his hair peppered with grey. He struts in leather boots with piercing blue eyes like a Hollywood pin-up. As alternative pop star Perfume Genius, Hadreas performs in many guises: shiny oversized suits with stilettos; costumes that flash David 23 CRACK / MARCH 2020

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Bowie by way of a Victorian workhouse; marriages of lipstick, manicures and skin-tight metallic vests. Today he abandons androgyny. He is 39 years old, and also somehow a boy.

“It’s very confusing,” he says, contemplating his gender presentation.

His fifth album, Set My Heart on Fire Immediately, due in May, feels like an extension of this playful new chapter. Not least because the artwork for lead single Describe features Hadreas

wielding a sledgehammer, while the LP’s gatefold image sees him draped over a motorcycle in an image reminiscent of Kenneth Anger’s 1969 art film Scorpio Rising, a meditation on homoeroticism, bikers and 60s pop.

“I wanted to be covered in dirt, that’s how I feel right now,” he shrugs when questioned. “I don’t know what the ingredients are, or what’s seasoning it. I actually like being a man. I don’t know why! I feel like one – a man.”

A few years ago, for the first time in his adult life, he was in remission. Dance allowed his relationship with his body to change. Hadreas demanded more from it. In class he would cry from elation, he admits. Sat across the table from me, he starts extending his arm like a ballerina and folding it in front of his face to explain. “I’d look at my arm, consider my arm, and start crying, ‘I’ve never been present with my arm!’” He scoffs at how ridiculous it sounds. “Like – be nice to your arm.”

The show inspired a physical intimacy

“I’m ready for a big feeling. It doesn’t matter what it is. As long as it happens. Right away!”

For Hadreas, gender is continually in flux, and something he occasionally talks about with frustration, as if reaching for a language that’s always being rewritten. “I’m figuring it all out as I go. I’m figuring it out in front of people,” he says. His last record, 2017’s shimmering and baroque No Shape, was worlds away from the emotionally raw, trauma-steeped records with which he made his name. Instead, it gloried in the love for his partner Alan Wyffels, elevating romance to decadent heights. But the way he presented then doesn’t feel like him anymore. “It feels weird to be so specific about clothes and presentation, it’s a tender thing.”

Perhaps it’s easier to say that he simply finds a strange satisfaction in exploring and subverting, well, whatever it is.

“I just want to carry a sledgehammer around now, I want to fight people,” he laughs, before qualifying, “that’s not purely a masculine thing but I’ve been taught that it is.”

Self-exploration has always been a core element of the Perfume Genius project, with its earliest roots in recovery. Hadreas began recording music

in 2005, after spending 20 days in a Seattle rehab centre for drug addiction, following a four-year stint living in New York City. He set tales of his troubled youth – abuse, suicide, ill mental health – to piano and posted them to MySpace. These emotionally spare tracks would become his debut album Learning and, listening to them now, feel like a form of therapy. Accordingly, follow-up Put Your Back N 2 It radiated with warmth and a profound hopefulness, while Too Bright, released in 2014, and No Shape, out three years later, captured an artist coming into his own. On defiant single Queen he even weaponised his queerness to exact revenge on heteronormative society: “No family is safe/ When I sashay”.

Hadreas spent most of the 2010s in Tacoma, Washington, building a home with Wyffels, a classically trained musician who often plays in Hadreas’ live band. This newfound domesticity suited their sobriety but it soon began to feel claustrophobic when they came off the road. “There wasn’t a lot of good food there, I don’t want to be too shady,” he quips. The couple moved to

Los Angeles two years ago where they have friends and more excuses to leave the house. Then, last winter, Hadreas returned to New York City for one of his most ambitious projects yet.

The Sun Still Burns Here is a collaboration between Hadreas and choreographer Kate Wallich. Running in Chelsea’s Joyce Theatre across one week in November last year, the performance piece was described by Wallich as an “opera Janet Jackson musical ballet” and featured music exclusively composed by Hadreas, including the dramatic nine-minute opus Eye in the Wall. He even performed in it, alongside Wyffels and Wallich’s dance company The YC. Hadreas had never danced professionally before – he and Wyffels learned together. It was embarrassing, he admits. “We’re not super young anymore! It shook a lot of stuff out of us. For me I’ve always had a weird relationship with my body because I was sick growing up. I’m still sick.” He’s referring to Crohn’s disease, which he has suffered from since he was a child.

Corset & Leather Belt: Vintage

Vest: Jean Paul Gaultier Vintage Cage Vest: Artifact New York Trousers: Wales Bonner Scarf: Linder

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between Hadreas and other people.

He developed a passion for weight transference; lifting, being lifted. “I liked carrying people,” he smiles. “It’s healing. It’s a nonsensical bizarre thing to crave but when people get close to me now, I just want to pick them up!”

He revelled in being responsible for the physicality of others, the harmony of it. New song Your Body Changes Everything on the album is about just that: “And now you’re right above me and your shadow suffocates,” he sings.

“I was truly in remission in a way I hadn’t been – and that’s over now.”

He sighs, momentarily tearful that the illness returned just as he was exploring his own physicality. “I was getting off on how much control I felt I had over [my body]. I learned when I was young that your body just does stuff.

You have no control. You’re almost riding it, you know? If I exercise things will grow. Just because I am sick again, in my body and spirit, I know that I have access. That will make it easier to go back.”

Throughout our conversation I sense a defiance to Hadreas’ spirit. His demeanour is intense and fragile, but strong. He experiences moments of connection and joy, making small talk about inconsequential things: the size of the table, the weather, a small dog that comes over to greet us. He isn’t trying to be opaque when discussing some topics – like gender, or his health – he just seems incapable of articulating them fully. Maybe the music speaks for him, and maybe that’s always been the case. We reminisce about a time we met previously, at Latitude Festival in 2012. It was in a caravan that a music blog had set up for sessions with performers and Hadreas had come to perform Madonna’s Oh Father on his keyboard. I’ve never forgotten it, the most nervous performance I’ve ever witnessed. He shook throughout, working through whatever was affecting him that day with that song. Today he is less nervous than he was then. Yet, in spite of his willing company, his radiance, his talk of sledgehammers and physicality, a shade of self doubt lingers. He seems conflicted. He scratches his hands. “I’m not very confident talking about how I feel right now. I don’t have a handle on it,” he says, eyes darting. “It’s not fun. But it’s thrilling.”

Set My Heart on Fire Immediately sees Hadreas reuniting with producer Blake Mills for an album that leans into moments of swooning Americana – a conscious decision, he explains.

The opening track Whole Life sets the tone, sounding a little like an update of Unchained Melody, and there are nods to 50s American pop circa the Everly Brothers, Elvis and Buddy Holly throughout. Crucially, the nostalgic charge is subverted by the subject matter – paeans to queer desire written in classic melodies. “There’s something about me doing that,” he smiles. “I’ve listened to those songs my whole life but don’t feel included in them.” He was inspired by swaggering cowboys PERFUME GENIUS 26

“I wanted to feel everything and you can’t. I was scared to let any of that back in because you become insatiable – I feel that feeling right now.

I feel danger, but I also feel joy.” who were vulnerable and unafraid to share, writing himself into the history he was raised on. On reflection, Hadreas himself admits that No Shape was written from a place of restraint aspiring to freedom. Set My Heart on Fire Immediately is the response: full-bodied, unsuppressed.

Of the tracks on the album, Jason is his most direct and confessional. Hadreas documents a sexual encounter aged 23 with a man called Jason. It was Jason’s first time. “Jason there’s no rush/ I know a lot comes up letting in some love/ Where there always should have been some”. In the morning as he left, Hadreas took $20 from Jason’s jean pocket. Reflecting on it now, he felt he had performed a service. “What was needed from me was a kindness to someone who was figuring something out. I felt like I was able to do that, even if just for 30 seconds,” he says.

“That relationship was brief, but I think about all my relationships, even if it was just a night. I’m hungry for all of it right now.”

This potent sexuality courses through the album. On Describe, Hadreas talks about his stomach rumbling for someone (“Can you just find him for me?”); the cinematic, strings-adorned Leave sees the singer, “begging like a dog, ignore me”; Just a Touch makes mention of a “secret” lover. It all sounds forbidden. Within this context, the album’s title becomes a demand – a call to burn down everything and start over. “I’m ready for a big feeling,” he says, by way of explanation. “It doesn’t matter what 27 CRACK / MARCH 2020

it is. As long as it happens. Right away!”

Hadreas cackles. When I ask him what it is he craves, he moves his arms up and down trying to reach for something above him. He’s worried that the emotion he chases is the longing itself, and despite his declarations of being satisfied, he’s finding that maybe he’s not satisfied at all. “It’s never enough,” Hadreas says, of life. “The anticipation of trying to be adjacent to some big thing. That’s the reason I did drugs, I wanted to feel everything and you can’t.

I was scared to let any of that back in because you become insatiable – I feel that feeling right now. I feel danger, but I also feel joy.”

As Perfume Genius, Hadreas has become a symbol of radical queer survival, turning his lived experiences into something liberating, transcendent. It saw him writing candidly about loving another man before queer culture went fully mainstream. “That’s always going to sit heavy with me,” he says. “‘Cause I still need it. When I watch a TV show and two men kiss I still cry. The show could be horrible, I could hate them both, but I’m like, ‘Ah it’s happening!’”

These small victories mean a lot when you grow up the only visibly gay student in high school, the target of bullying so severe you’re forced to eventually drop out. “Surviving anything is something you carry by yourself.

We carry it together too, but it feels very lonely.” His extroverted, candid character onstage has afforded him a strength that has started to seep into

everyday life and has helped to heal old wounds. “I used to be nervous to order at a restaurant. Sometimes I order for everybody now. Maybe I’ve gone too far!” he laughs.

Indeed, it’s been ten years since he first began uploading songs to MySpace. Hadreas is proud of his ability to keep showing up, over and over.

“I feel relentless,” he says. “I’m always trying to get better in my own way.

That wasn’t always an interest of mine.

I keep holding onto the good things that I’m learning, to the love that I’m given,” he pauses. “Even though I’m feeling really unhinged right now.” He tells me that, in this state, he finds comfort in poetry, Texas singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt, Gossip Girl (“I had never seen it!”). And, of course, writing songs, which “does something that I can’t figure out how to say or do.”

Then, he tells me how, the other night he decided to get out of the bath and walk to the living room, then back to the bath, and back to the living room, for 45 minutes. “It was the most satisfying thing I’d done all week.” We giggle over the absurdity of it. “I don’t know why! Something’s rewiring.” It must have been a shock to the body, getting in and out of the water, I say.

“Oh, I didn’t get in. I went towards the bathtub,” he smirks. “I acknowledged where I’d been. Then I returned again.”

Set My Heart on Fire Immediately is released 15 May via Matador

Mask: Nick Rademacher Shirt: Desiree Klein Trousers: Helmut Lang SS 2004 Mummy Trousers: Artifact New York Shoes: Vintage

Photography: Charlotte Patmore Styling: Jessica Worrell Makeup: Lilly Keys Hair: Fitch Lunar

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The Power of Perfume Perfumes and smells are an ephemeral experience as old as time. This exhibition chronicles perfume from its roots as chemical and botanical components to the emotional and cultural impact perfumes and scents hold on us. This series includes an informational poster and an interactive paper sculpture.

The poster uses more than 500 individual pieces of data and information that map conceptual scents to their core ingredients and origins. The poster is divided into three sections from left to right: conceptual scents, families, and origins. The conceptual scents are where you find highly specific yet ordinary smells such as pearls, tape, and blood. From there you follow the map to the families, these are the 16 categories of smells that house individual scents and ingredients. They are organized between base, middle, and top notes, which dictate the strength of the smell. And finally, each individual ingredient is mapped to their chemical origin.

These origins are plant, animal, synthetic, or other-natural sources (mostly organic matter compounds).

In the interactive paper sculpture the viewer is urged to consider what makes perfume so significant and valuable to our culture. The paper contracts and expands like a pair of lungs as the sculpture is manipulated and explored. The explosion of colors and textures reflect the sense experience of scents.

The creative process included schematic sketches and paper prototyping.

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Poster Print Exhibition

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Gasoline

As a spiritual successor to the previous project, The Power of Perfume, Gasoline continues the investigation into what fascinates our culture about perfume, scents, and ephemeral senses. This project uses environmental designs and posters that are specific to the location of gas station pumps.

The main concept is to intersect something as soft and romantic as perfume with the noxious fumes of gasoline.

The messaging of Gasoline encourages the viewer to engage with the routine and ritual of pumping gas whilst being acutely aware of the sense experience. The imagery does not cast a positive or negative opinion of the substance or its smell, but the swirls of color and bubbling oil give an impression of its toxic and volatile potential.

The posters and imagery are made from true photographs of oil and water. The colorful background is reminiscent of a shimmering oil spill in a body of water and the type glides on the surface as it is swirled and mixed with bubbles of oil. To capture these images I printed on sheets of transparent film and then backlit and photographed them under a dish of water and cooking oils. The process of capturing images of the oil and water interactions led to unique and entirely random compositions of bubbles and distortion over the type.

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Poster Environmental

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Oil and Type Experiments

These are actual photographs that have been cleaned-up digitally.

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A re-imagining of the book Hollywood on Lake Michigan written by Arnie Bernstein and Michael Corcoran. This book acts as an intensive tour through the city of Chicago’s history through one hundred years of film.

The full scope of the project includes two volumes of cover designs and ten interior spreads.

The cover features bold typography and colors influenced by Americana and Hollywood aesthetics. The spotlight on the text reveals an image of skyscraper windows that wraps around the whole book jacket.

The book includes chapters on the history of film production, interviews with artists in the industry, and specific locations of interest around Chicago.

The historical chapters utilize archival imagery to narrate the story, while the more contemporary chapters focus on architectural photography as well as stills from famous Chicago-based movies.

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Published in the 2022 SCAD Port City Review Publication Typesetting

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Grid Experiments

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These were my starting points for how I could arrange type and images in a dynamic composition.

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ameliawhitt.com 74

Amelia Whittington

ameliakatw@gmail.com