I was asked to design a book on any topic of my choice so long as it was a story of survival and offered ample scientific data for information design. The goal was to convey a clear typographic hierarchy and to apply a careful typographic sensibility to the topic. I chose to design a book about salmon migration because it allowed me to explore concepts relating to river flow, water levels, fish scales and dams. Ultimately, my concept was to create “rivers” in the column gutters so that a reader could move along as the salmon do downstream. These rivers widen and narrow from spread to spread and snake its way throughout the course of the journey.

The title of the book is a classification of Pacific Northwest salmon. They are considered anadromous fish that spend much of their lives in the ocean but migrate back to freshwater to spawn.

Title: Anadromous: Surviving the Journey Downstream and Back Again
Course: Type Systems, Instructor: Carolina De Bartolo
Academy of Art University
Spring 2009

Text: Courtesy of the Washington Dept. of Natural Resources