kat catmur
art direction — graphic design — illustration



client—CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS
Ephemera: Next Words Anthology 2015. Book and cover art direction and book design for CalArts MFA writing program. The cover was screenprinted and interior book was printed on a risograph printer. A collaboration with Colomba Cruz.




The paradox of the book is that the works inside it are notall finished pieces, however the very act of creatingthis anthology would suggested that in some sense they are. Perhaps in their union they exist inanother kind of way.

The texts in Ephemera are unconventional and experimental. For the design, we referenced old books, but then through typesetting and illustrations we made everything feel a little off, uncanny even. As if a phantom had wandered through the pages moving things askew; Margins are slightly uneven, ellipses fall down the page, shadows creep in through the gutter. We worked off of these themes of haunt-edness and memory, interpreting them throughdetails and little repetitions (literary glitches) that infiltrate so many of the works. We created a system so that occasionally the ends of paragraphs wouldawkwardly hang over the edge of the margin. Glancing over the page, your eye catches them (the tail-ends of thoughts that stick in your mind) and reads them like a ghost narrative.

The illustrations of nothingness, have no concrete meaning, they depict only relationship and emotion, itis through their association with the text that newmeaning is found.



ⓒ Kat Catmur 2022 — katcatmur@gmail.com — Los Angeles · CA