Bracket: On Farming
Client—Infranet Lab / Archinect
Date—2011
Production—Ingoprint
Publisher/Distributor—Actar
8 by 10.5 in., 272 pages, Sewn signatures with paper cover, belly band and tipped-in section dividers

It was very exciting to have had the opportunity to work on the inaugural edition of the Bracket book series with editors Mason White and Maya Przybylski. The series, which looks at emerging thematics in our global age that are shaping the built environment, is structured around an open call for entries in order to seek out new voices and design talent in architecture, urbanism, and digital culture. The first issue of Bracket, On Farming, looks at the capacity for architecture to address ideas and issues of productive landscapes and urbanisms.

Considering the book as a serial publication we looked for ways, with the initial volume, to create a strong identity with clearly defined areas for issue-to-issue variability. The cover design is rule-based, having specific parameters for how certain types of information may behave spatially and in relation to each other. However, the belly band and related section dividers are considered a blank slate, or the space where each issue has the opportunity to form its own identity. The book's interior combines black and white and color printing on three different paper stocks to give it a high degree of texture, working to add a secondary rhythm to the progression of projects. We also used a fluorescent green ink in On Farming to recognize, but question, the cultural associations of "green" and "farming."