Brief: Design a one-page publication spread using an excerpt from “A Primer of Visual Literacy” by Donis A. Dondis encapsulating the emotion of ‘surprise’ and using a minimal color palette.

Design Concept: I set out to make the viewer feel a sense of joyful surprise, both at first glance and upon deeper inspection, with this design. The first thing one viewer often notices is the upside-down exclamation point, playing with the idea of presenting the opposite of what one expects to see. I also wanted to draw on some of the words and phrases in this excerpted text, such as “contrast” and “polarity” with the color palette, and “energy” and “three levels” with the layout. My goal was for the viewer to understand the nature of type, as defined by Dondis, not just by the written definition but by the design of the page itself.