Aftermath: Thesis Book Design
In September 2021, one of my closest friends took his own life. The loss came as a shock and was devastating to all who knew and loved him. With my senior year about to begin, I was forced to navigate not only my grieving process but its forced compartmentalization. During this time, I felt intensely alone and completely consumed by suicide grief, but with life chugging on, I never got the chance to process my feelings. When Spring term came around, I was finally given an open outlet to dive back into and process this grief, culminating in my Senior Capstone entitled: Aftermath. Aftermath uses text pulled from a wonderful book by Ann Smolin and John Guinan called Healing After the Suicide of a Loved One. I chose to focus on five key stages of grief: denial, guilt, anger, depression, and healing. I began by creating collages using found images, and vintage illustrations, as well as creating hand-stamped typography. Using copy from the source text alongside collaged elements and fragments of poetry, I created this book not only as a tool for others experiencing suicide grief but also as a cathartic tool in my own grieving process.
