The Art Institute of Chicago Field Guide to Photography and Media

The Art Institute of Chicago Field Guide to Photography and Media was designed and inspired by the textures and feeling of daguerreotypes, which was the first publicly available photographic process. With that in mind, the cover uses a velvet like texture with debossed silver type to mimic what was traditionally found on these daguerreotypes.  

The typeface used across the publication is Job Clarendon, which pays homage to job printing that was often used in posters and flyers of letterpress printing; making the publication encompass a meeting point for the history of photographs and printing. The typeface was designed by Jonathan David Ross and Bethany Heck, where the style focuses on adaptability, flexibility in weight, bold, and daring; similar to how photographs in the field guide are represented. 

The overall design of the publication takes lessons from field guide books and archival documents, emphasizing the navigation using bold typography and a metallic spot color to grab your attention. The images take up space in an eloquent way, shifting in size and creating harmony across spreads, while also contextualizing the images with captions that sit at the same height lower on the page.