This Viewmaster reel is both a typesetting experiment and a dive into optical illusion. I used r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r by E.E. Cummings as the centerpiece — a poem that already plays with form and fragmentation — the perfect fit for a medium that disorients and distorts. It became a way to explore how reading shifts when text becomes physical, dimensional, and a little harder to pin down.
Niche: Art lovers and poetry enthusiasts who appreciate experimental typography, optical illusions, and immersive literary experiences.
Programs: Adobe Illustrator and InDesign.
The process involved laser cutting heavy cardstock to construct the body of the reel, giving it both structure and a sense of weight. Each frame of the reel was printed on tracing paper, allowing for layers of light and shadow to play across the imagery.
The accompanying booklet carries that same sense of material exploration; its cover printed on textured watercolor paper, with translucent tracing paper pages inside. I also added a final layer: a thin, fibrous sheet wrapped around the outside to further blur and distort, reinforcing the optical illusion at the heart of the piece.
