A Monument to Adam
Accordion Book
This accordion book is a typographic exploration of Mark Twain’s short story “A Monument to Adam” written in the late 1870s. With the recent publishing of Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man, there was a fear that evolutionary theory would become the norm, and that humans would forget their biblical father, Adam. To combat this, and to attract tourists to the tiny town of Elmira, New York, Twain suggests that the city erect a monument of Adam. The plan comes close to fruition but in the end, it is never built. Each panel of this design follows a 3-column typographic system, with its layout and typeface Clarendon paying homage to the popular printed broadsides of the 1800s.
Front side
Reverse side
Typographic Animation
In addition to the static accordion booklet, this typographic animation gives life to the text of the sixth panel, the concluding words from Mark Twain’s story, “A Monument to Adam”. The accompanying music is the 1890s waltz, “The Sidewalks of New York”. This animation is created in a style meant to feel like an old vintage film reel, and its sepia-toned colors also create that sense of age.
