An Exercise in Restraint

The final project for a Typography class, An Exercise in Restraint, features Beatrice Warde’s essay "The Crystal Goblet" and an excerpt from "The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky". The two pieces of writing are juxtaposed across several spreads, with Chbosky’s excerpt on the verso and Warde’s essay on the recto. Both texts explore the relationship between art and the artist: Warde takes an academic approach, asserting that effective design is invisible, while Chbosky’s excerpt has Charlie, the novel’s main character, claim that a beautiful photograph is not beautiful because of the photographer, but because of the subject. The design of the book acts as a third voice, with the layout and typography of Warde’s pages remaining consistent, while those of Chbosky’s become increasingly elaborate, eventually breaching the gutter and spilling into Warde’s pages.