Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) Prospectus
- Data Visualization & VR design
When Karlsonwilker was commissioned to design a new edition of Maryland Institute College of Art's (MICA) prospectus, we wanted to show and share its vibrant student work and campus life in a way that involved the community. Hence, we devised the Campus Recording Apparatus (CRA). In spite of its authoritarian-sounding name, the CRA was a playful system of interactive sensor stations that tracked a variety of non-tangible data - from sound to motion to mood- and rendered it in colorful student-designed graphs. Over the course of two weeks, the students interacted with the CRAs to produce a constant data stream and supervised the recording process. The information was then processed and rendered in real-time, resulting in 68,000 abstract composite images of the campus at specific moments that were used as one-of-a-kind book covers.
"We looked for a design firm that could help us create something that was really contemporary. Karlssonwilker really blew us away. We loved that their prospectus design involved our students and became a showcase for their talents and what they're able to do."
Cover No. 25,560
The abstract recordings can be deciphered using the key on the inside front cover.
Typographic illustrations, drawn in VR using Masterpiece VR and Oculus, are used in the table of contents and section openers.
These obscure forms hint at typography, allowing the reader to decode, but ultimately functioning as playful textures that introduce key aspects of MICA.
Featured heavily throughout the new Prospectus is Pantone 805C, a color that is hated by screens, but loved by the human eye.
Some of the typefaces used in the book are contemporary greats like Milieu Grotesque, Klim Type Foundry, Binnenland Typefaces, and TypeSupply.
Each cover composition was saved with a location, time, and date, resulting in 68,000 composite images of the campus at specific moments. Thus, every book is a one-of-a-kind artifact made by the MICA CRA and each copy offers an abstract, decodable glimpse into life on campus.