Joe Zeff Design is proud to present its latest iPad app, a collaboration with the Maryland Institute College of Art that demonstrates the power of Adobe Digital Publishing Suite when placed in the hands of students without traditional publishing backgrounds.
The Mutant Library showcases the work of 14 graduate students in MICA's Graphic Design program. Krissi Xenakis, an art director at Joe Zeff Design who received her MFA in Graphic Design from the school, returned to her alma mater for a weekend in March to present a workshop on digital publishing. After she returned to work Monday and showed her colleagues what the students had done, we immediately reached out to the university to find a way to share with the entire design community.
Krissi collaborated with director Ellen Lupton and graduate student Emma Sherwood-Forbes over the next six weeks to turn the students' work into a wondrous app. Each student presents a digital narrative that takes the user on a serendipitous journey, reinterpreting their favorite books through movement, color, typography, illustration, patterns and sound. "All I did was show them the tools," Krissi said, "and they created these unique, wonderful moments."
As the digital newsstand fills with replicas of print editions, traditional publishers could learn a lot from the spontaneity and spunk of the students' work.
As Joe Zeff writes in the introduction, "There is no yesterday in the world of digital publishing, only today and tomorrow. It is an industry fueled by innovation, with little regard for convention. In the past we learned right from wrong from our elders. Today we take cues from young designers who exercise creative impulses with little regard for rules. And it’s just as well, as those rules no longer apply in a democracy of digital publishing where every voice is just as loud, whether coming from a monolithic skyscraper in Manhattan or a funky coffeehouse in Baltimore."
Based in Baltimore, MICA is consistently singled out by magazines as being one of the best design schools in the country. JZD is proud to have two MICA alumnae, Krissi and Emily Ragle, on its staff.
Download the app here and behold the voices of tomorrow, today. Congratulations to the 14 students who participated in The Mutant Library, and many thanks for showing us digital old-timers what we should be doing next.
JZD at Adobe MAX!
We're excited to be presenting our work at Adobe MAX 2013 next week in Los Angeles. Joe Zeff will lead a panel discussion called "Digital Publishing Suite Agency Spotlight" along with representatives of Bates Creative, The Designory, Storycode and TBWA\Chiat\Day. For details on Adobe MAX, visit here.
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