Public Poetry | Poster and Transit Application
Developed as a competition entry for Kent State University’s Wick Poetry Center, this Traveling Stanzas design proposed placing a poem about recovery on city buses; it was not selected and was never installed. My design connects the poem’s language to the body through a torso I drew, overlaid with repeated hand lettering I also did myself.
The repeated text creates an image texture, while a separate, clearly organized setting of the poem preserves a place for attentive reading. Contrast between the dark field, anatomy, and typography establishes a hierarchy within a deliberately layered composition. Adapting the poster to a wide transit format required reconsidering scale, cropping, and text placement while retaining the relationship between language and bodily experience.
The project explores public communication as an encounter with literature: visual form invites attention, but must also leave room for the poem’s voice and attribution.
Proposed transit application: A horizontal composition adapts the illustrated body, repeated handwriting, and poem to a transit surface.
Poster: Expressive illustration and text texture surround a distinct reading area for the poem and its attribution.
