Stephanie Spurrell
This project is paying homage to, and, celebrating the life of Stephanie Spurrell.
My late grandmother, a 75 year old seamstress who spent 60 years of her life sewing, from age 15 right until the day she passed away, it was her life. In order to do this I created a book celebrating her lives work as a seamstress by interviewing her from September till December and putting all of our conversations into a book with added information from other family members about her craft.
The book is divided into chapters which are named after her own terms for the stages of the process within her work. Each chapter is introduced by her own unique definition and the term against the technical definition. The chapters take you through elements of her craft and periods of her life as a seamstress with reflection of her 60 years spent dedicated to perfecting her craft. It also explores her experiences and memories, expertise and knowledge combined with a reflection upon how this craft has changed through the words and opinions of Stephanie.
For the typography I used all British typefaces and created a hierarchy using ‘Stephanie’ throughout the various conversations. One element is her voice when talking to me about her life as a seamstress, the second is her significant statements, the third is her own definitions of the language of a seamstress and the fourth is conversations with family members reflecting on her exceptional abilities.
I decided this is an important craft to celebrate as it is exceptionally skilful but also importantly, it is slowly dying out, gradually being replaced by sweatshops and mass production. The design of my book has been based around these concepts as well as the close and personal relationship between myself and the craftswoman celebrated. I approached this through the use of typography, photography, layout and also the materials I used.
To emphasise my concepts I have used entirely hand made cotton based papers for my publication and created a fabric cover to case the book as well as some pages made from her own pattern cutting papers. I wanted every element of my publication to echo the materials of her craft and to be created in a careful and considered manner, to reflect her own work. For the photography I wanted to created a series of portraits and still lives to use for chapters and as backgrounds to create a reminiscent and intimate reflection of her discussion and her craft as well as capturing her age, to do this I also used out of date film which I developed myself.
I wanted to capture the woman Stephanie was and display her age, presence and character aswell as her work as a craftswoman. I have used these images throughout the book to record her tools, some of which she has owned since the day she started, and also her as an individual as well as her hands – arguably her biggest tool.
I also wanted the experience of reading the book to reflect how Stephanie works with materials and moves them through different motions whilst sewing, using this idea I designed each page composition to encourage the reader to interact with it. The essential concept of my publication is to invite the reader to learn about Stephanie and her incredible 60 years as a seamstress perfecting her craft, and connecting this remarkable skill to the incredible individual who dedicated her life to it.
This project gained a pass from the International Society of Typographic Design.
Full project images - https://www.behance.net/gallery/51505743/ISTD-2017-Makers-Brief-Winner-Stephanie