I was asked to mentally and physically record things I saw, heard, touched and smelled as I went about my daily routine. These recordings became the fuel for writing and designing a book that would reflect a central theme developed from the daily observations. As a concept, I wanted to explore ways of going up and down a street in both literal and figurative senses.

Where I live in San Francisco, I walk a 15-block section of California Street between Van Ness Ave. and Market St. quite a bit. The street ascends up and over Nob Hill and descends down into the Financial district. In addition to the obvious physical aspect of walking up and down, I wanted the book to also explore the social and economic shifts that become apparent when crossing from one neighborhood to the next. In the end, the book manages to address both the physical and the metaphorical aspects all the while featuring photographs I took looking up into the sky as I went down the street.

Title: UP/DOWN the Street
Course: Typographic Experiments
Instructor: Stan Zienka (Attik)
Academy of Art University
Fall 2009