'Breaking Through'
Retrospective book for the 50th anniversary of the Rice University School of Engineering and Computing.
Publication, Type Design
→ The Brief
As the Rice Engineering school was nearing its 50th anniversary, they desired to look forward – and backwards. With an impressive history of innovation, an anniversary milestone, and a renaming the school to add ‘computing,’ they wanted a book that was a visual retrospective on their impressive accomplishments as they look forward.
→ The ApproachWe worked with the Rice team to comb through select images from throughout their history, create a narrative structure for the book, and develop and visual language that represented the campus, its history, and Rice University. Without anyone at Rice Engineering familiar with the bookmaking process, aligning and educating to create a timeline and roles for their team was a key part of the client relationship.
The numerals reflect the 45, 90, and 180 degree angles of the sculpture installations by Michael Heizner that resides in the courtyard at the center of the school’s campus
The custom-designed numerals are placed throughout the book as dividers for the decades.
Project Credits
Designed at Pentagram
Partner, DJ Stout
Project Lead, Connor O’Neill
Book Photography Nick Cabrera