Mower

Mower is a chapbook created as a visual experimentation in risograph printing, with an educational lens on an extremely mundane household appliance: the lawnmower. The goal of this project was to make a small, simple booklet that effectively communicates an idea—in this case, the idea that lawnmowers are cool. Mower uses a limited colour palette of fluorescent pink and orange (courtesy of risograph printing), and features digital collage work overlaid with bold typography and optical illusions. Drawing elements from absurdism, this book not only tells a narrative about lawnmowers but actively recontextualizes them in tongue-in-cheek ways.

As this project was fairly open to begin with, multiple very different but equally non-serious concepts were prepared. These included a “weirdly detailed book about lawnmowers”, a book of inanimate objects with googly eyes and a story about a court of law run entirely by cats. A look was also taken at the visual cues involved in psychedelic work. Moodboards were created for each concept, and soon aspects of each concept were combined into the direction taken for Mower. While adhering to the lawnmower theme, googly-eyed inanimate objects as well as the whimsy and sense of unnerve from the cat court and psychedelia concepts were added.

The bulk of this project’s visuals are digital collage elements. Each image sources from the internet was digitally altered through colouring, texture, or image manipulation. These images were then further abstracted via the riso printing process and ink overlapping. Collage elements are paired with a lawnmower mascot based on classic cartoon aesthetics (often nicknamed “rubber hose” animation). Based on the previous idea of goodly-eyed objects, this friendly face was sketched out traditionally before being recreated in vector format through Illustrator. Multiple different expressions and slight variations of poses were created for each spread of the final book. The mascot character ultimately serves as a juxtaposition with the at times absurd and unnerving content throughout the book, and speaks directly to the reader as a guide.

Mower uses a simple 4x4 grid on each page. Though grids with fewer modules can be a bit restrictive, this choice was made in order to keep a consistent, streamlined composition throughout all spreads as the overall book size is fairly small (6.5” x 5.5”). A mild challenge was determining where elements from different ink colours needed to be on spreads in order to overlap in the most effective way; it was essential that elements from each colour were placed intentionally so as not to obscure others. The fonts used in Mower are simple yet elegant, in order to place more focus on the bold visuals of the book. Headers are set in Agrandir Variable, and body copy is set in Helvetica Now Text. Lots of the design system otherwise comes from repeated use of optical illusion motifs, as well as the pink and orange colour scheme.

After finalizing layouts, the next step in the design process was an intensive one—printing. Due to the nature of risograph printing, two versions of Mower were created, each in complete grayscale; one represented orange inks where the other represented pink inks. Multiple test prints were done to check booklet order, registration and ink spread. Many pages featured slight imperfections which varied from copy to copy, but this was anticipated and even welcomed! Especially with the overall absurd direction of the book, slight imperfections were included in order to add a sense of character and hand-creation to the books. When spreads were printing as intended, each page dried for over five days before being saddle stitched and trimmed. The entire printing and binding process took about a week, and over ten copies were printed.

Mower is a project I am very happy with, as I was able to investigate multiple areas of design I enjoy (editorial, typography, printmaking) as well as illustration. Through this project’s process, I took advantage of risograph printing and pushed use of colour and ink overlays more than I ever have before, and I absolutely intend to experiment further with this printmaking method. This experience was a creative endeavour that grew organically from different ideas in the conceptual phase, and I have found it very rewarding to see the progress of the overall project. Starting with concepts as simple as “inanimate objects with googly-eyes” and moving along to a fully-fledged book was very indicative of the approach to design I enjoy working with—design that runs with ideas and builds to a greater end product. Most importantly, I genuinely had fun creating this book. An overall goofy concept lended itself to a sweet, simple piece that explores what a lawnmower can be.