Fig. 99 – 104 Junyao Lin, “_________’s Dream” (2011)

In my dissertation I have reviewed this simple but nice example of graphic design. It was interesting because the artist has attempted to translate the concept of dreams into an editorial design.

In my research for graphic design related to dreams I came across an interesting editorial project titled “_________’s Dream” […]. The project by Chinese graphic designer Junyao Lin features a number of popular short stories, amongst them Alice in Wonderland and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. While the stories can be read in conventional matter, black pages with die-cuts also enable reader to read them in an alternative way. Those words that are visible through the die-cuts merge to a second, smaller story. The artist has chosen this technique in order to imitate how in our dreams, seemingly unrelated bits of information are combined to meaningful stories (Lin 2011). One may know this method from Jonathan Safran Foer’s popular book Tree of Codes (Heller 2010).

The artist has created an interesting publication using collages of black and white images. On one page of his book, a piece of tracing paper works like a veil, clouding our vision to the page underneath. This may have been done many times before, but in this case it actually serves the purpose of the book: It evokes the feeling of being in a dream. The publication shows us how a graphic designer can playfully deal with dreams in a more abstract way. It demonstrates how we can intelligently work with words, symbols and white space in order to re-tell a story. Doing so, the artist manages to communicate not only the feeling but also the logic of dreams.

Lin’s project can be found on Behance.