PILCROW is a juried publication collecting visual responses to design challenges. The concepts below were submitted to the publication for review as single pages and/or spreads. Requirements for submitting artwork to the publication can be found here.

Reviewing the supplied text and imagery, this notion of taking things out of context and putting them into another began to surface. Specifically in regards to the paragraphs, the supplied text as part of the design problem and parameters, that were chosen as inspiration, I began to wonder how the text was assimilated into its final form.

In an attempt to sort things out, I began by organizing the data and grouping it into columns and sections that had a semblance of similarity; subject, verb, noun, pronoun, adverb, adjective, conjunction, preposition, etc. By drawing a line from the word as it was placed in its column group to its place in the final text as provided, a real sense of randomized selection was visually present. From a readability standpoint, the text was completely nonsensical, very much like spam. Looking closer, I found that even as random as it seemed, there was an inherent pattern, there was subject verb agreement; the same number of nouns as there were verbs, etc., begging the question, “Is there pattern in randomness?”

Going forward with the process, the idea of restructuring data, word, text, visuals – a recontextualizer or data aggregation matrix – and assimilating them into another message became clear. There was a point where as long as there was enough data, it could be recomposed, deconstructed and reconstructed in a seemingly infinite number of ways. The provided compositions are the result, some going so far as to create their own underlying structure and pattern.