Visualizing Emotions in Literature - Thesis

If we assume that books offer us stories told in words and pictures or illustrations, how could we create a book that tells a story by activating our emotional and sensory world, using abstract formations and a variety of colors? This collectible edition is an attempt of alternative typography to the story “Sucker” by Carson McCullers, and gives emphasis on capturing and visualizing the emotional aspects of a story seen through the lens of an original visual communication codex that translates into color fields, shapes and linear representations and patterns. This particular code draws on the theory of color and shape psychology, and has been formulated in such a way that different combinations of shades and shapes mobilize a variety of emotional states reflected in the events and characters of the story. All abstract formations contained in this edition were created digitally, in order to allow the designer more control over shape and color and to be able to apply as accurately as possible all elements of research. The edition consists of a single back cover, which incorporates two joined books. Each of them focuses on a separate aspect of the story, that concerns different heroes but allows space for associations between the two narratives. In addition, the edition is accompanied by a manual, which contains explanatory information about the matching of colors and shapes with emotions, as well as another book with the aforementioned short story “Sucker”. The reader has the freedom to choose from which part of the edition he/she will start reading, either by combining it with another, or by using each one separately.