Analog Typography Process Shots

Type as Image: Analog Experiments

concentration

direction

gradation

repetition

space

texture

anomaly

Experimental Typography: Digital Iterations

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Anomaly, Concentration, Direction, Gradation, Repetition, Space, Texture

Final Saddle Stitch Book: Welcome to the Freak Show

Freak Shows, also known as sideshows, lasted from about 1850 to the early 1970’s. These were exhibitions of human oddities and exotic performances. The part of the culture that I am focusing on takes place in the early 1900s to 1940s and consisted of the iconic “Freak Show” acts. The displays usually consisted of ten acts and were referred to as ten-in-ones. Ten shows for the price of one admission. Freak shows are broken into two basic categories; the made freaks and born freaks. Born freaks have human deformities. These are acts such as conjoined twins, giants, midgets, and the bearded lady. Made freaks are physically altered individuals. A subset falls under this and consists of strange performances, usually used as filler entertainment. Made freaks would be heavily tattooed, pierced, or would to acts like sword swallowing, fire breathing, or snake charming. As mini attractions, people like fortunetellers, ventriloquists, or magicians often traveled with the sideshow.

Due to the many changes that took place in popular culture and entertainment in the late 60’s, the way freak shows were viewed took a dive. It became taboo and as a whole, Freaks were transformed into objects of sympathy rather than fear or excitement. No longer did society find it kosher to make a spectacle of deformity, oddity, and genetic mutation.

Snake lady- usually an attractive quirky woman that charmed pythons and boas while dancing. 

Contortionist- the “elastic” human. They bend their bodies into odd positions.

Bearded Lady- a spectacle of a female with a beard.

Ventriloquist- an act of dark comedy

Sword swallower- well just that. They swallowed up to ten swords at a time

Strongman- usually lifted odd things like barrel kegs, humans, cannons, or more conventional things like large barbells.

Conjoined twins- a display of human deformity

Human pincushion- a heavily pierced person usually with large needles or nails in odd  areas of the body

Fortuneteller- usually a gypsy woman that traveled with the show reading palms or looking into crystal balls to see the future

I carefully chose the artifacts in the layouts to display a wide array of acts that would be seen during the time period but also that are iconic of the culture. I chose the acts that people would recognize and identify with immediately. The idea was to show all three sides of the show. The human deformity, physical alteration, and unconventional entertainment. There are nine spreads exhibiting the bearded lady, contortionist, conjoined twins, ventriloquist, fortuneteller, sword swallower, pincushion, snake lady, and strongman. Formally a few guidelines I set up for my spreads were 1) full bleed images and 2) thirds. Each layout consists of two large images that each take up 1/3 and the last compartment is usually divided into three or four smaller images. I feel like the last third makes for nice asymmetry and adds a sense of oddity to the book. It was also an important concideration to make the book cohesive with a unified color pallet that popped but stayed true to the aged imagery. After doing this, knowing where to refine my cover was made obvious. The greens, blacks, cool greys, tans and warm orange-reds were all taken from the spreads and added to my cover. The final cover was composed of an interplay between analog and digital methods of construction. 

Freak Show Booklet Progress: mock up layouts and cover iterations

I feel like I have made some serious progress from the initial iterations to the "final" mockup. The cover has been through a lot of full color iterations to get to the darker, dulled down, sepia toned cover seen in the post. There was discussion about the theme being broken from cover to layouts because of the color palette. It was decided that continuity needed to be changed either in the layout color palette or the cover color palette. Since the photos are all trying to stay true to the vintage feel of the old sideshows, I made the decision to change the colors of the cover. The process consisted of many sketches and hand done typography in the style of old hand painted signs. There was interplay from analogue to digital and back again. The layouts have two basic rules. 1. splitting the spread into three main compartments. 2. photos must be sepia or black and white and consist of a aged feel. Rule one has been bent in layouts like the snake lady and conjoined twins. The spread stays true to the three sections and just splits one third in half. After analyzing the book as a whole, there were a few things I felt needed to be changed. Originally there was a spread that had an artifact called, pickled punks. After considering concept and theme more and more I figured that both due to continuity and lack of imagery, pickled punks need to be scratched. I went to my tenth artifact, the ventriloquist. I think in the long run I can benefit from the change. Also a few photos have been swapped out because of low resolution. The transfer from screen to paper is always an interesting one.