“Our Nation’s Sons“, is a street art project created by Joe Caslin, for his MFA in Illustration. His aim was to portray the often misunderstood and misjudged youth in a way to make society see them for who they really are. Teenage lads, with human faces, the rising hope of tomorrow’s world. His drawings were blown up to scale and pasted on the streets of Edinburgh, making a walk around the city a surprisingly exciting experience.

The publication was designed by Sofia Valvi, a Greek graphic designer, who’s creatively balanced but bold work we have seen again in the past on graphic art news.

The specifications she had to deal this time were quite opposite from each other: on one hand the publication had to be something as plain and mundane as a daily newspaper. Something that felt familiar and that would reach everyone; on the other hand, it had to look exclusive, even luxurious, without actually being expensive.

Under these specs, it was decided that the design ought to be grayscale, following the colour scheme used on the illustrations, only black was to be used.

Putting most of the weight on the photos of the pasted drawings in their surrounding environment, or the drawings themselves, and balancing the amount of white space with the use of short articles, the result is clean, legible, elegant but most importantly it does not distract the reader from the protagonists of the project, the illustrations themselves.

GRIDS

SPREADS

DETAILS

ACTUAL SIZE ARTWORK

FILM

Our Nation’s Sons from Scott Willis on Vimeo.

Credits:

Created for: Joe Caslin

Artworks: Joe Caslin

In Publication Photos: Joe Caslin, Márton Zsichla, Sejin Moon

Film: Scott Willis

Moral support: KEIK Bureau

Fonts:

Neutraface

PF Litho