ptsd: dissociative subtype
Type Design, Typography, Editorial Design, Scrapbooking
Type Design, Typography, Editorial Design, Scrapbooking
For this project, we were given inspiration from the 1000s journal projects and told to create something adjacent with a topic that resonated with us personally. I chose the topic of PTSD, specifically the subtype often known as the dissociative subtype. Through 8 spreads, I convey my personal experience with the subtype and how I view a panic attack through that lens. The booklet features tactile spreads, all handmade, later scanned in. In a way, it is informative to the next person who doesn't know PTSD was littered with subtypes and, firstly, an ode to younger me, promising a creative outlet for the ordeal that occurred.
SPreads ────⋆༺·
The cover and back are gradient mesh replicas of frosted glass. I wanted to portray the discomfort of a body's layout being stretched against an uncommon material with rubber bands.
The next page is a letter of my run-on thoughts while I thought about what to say as a descriptor of this subtype. The next page is printed on transparent paper with the 'textbook' definition of dissociation.
The next page is a letter of my run-on thoughts while I thought about what to say as a descriptor of this subtype. The next page is printed on transparent paper with the 'textbook' definition of dissociation.
I chose to include my Spotify receipt for a month of listening, indicating that music is a massive tool for dissociating. Layered with the normalcy of feeling like everyone is watching you, through drawn eyes and frantic words.
The next is my take on the uncanny valley feeling of innocence being used as currency.
The next is my take on the uncanny valley feeling of innocence being used as currency.
Dissociation is often associated with gaps in memory. Dark spaces, chasms that you forget. In my case, half my childhood. I decided to burn holes in paper, peppered with hand-drawn scraps turned quote. Immortizing my whole childhood self in print, since she drifts through my mind in fragments.
I quite enjoyed digging through the trash looking for the perfect container for my dead drawn fish. Finding a styrofoam, flimsy saran-wrapped box felt perfect. The feeling of being trapped but witnessing everything, when you feel like speaking up but can't. Pairing juxtaposing typefaces, typed and drawn, with a passage in the back.
I quite enjoyed digging through the trash looking for the perfect container for my dead drawn fish. Finding a styrofoam, flimsy saran-wrapped box felt perfect. The feeling of being trapped but witnessing everything, when you feel like speaking up but can't. Pairing juxtaposing typefaces, typed and drawn, with a passage in the back.
NOT is on a transparent page, since the overlapping thought of it being your fault vs. not occurs much too often.