We Are Moving
Out Of The Attic
Services:
Editorial Design
Graphic Design
The publication is based on the ISTD brief Open and Close, in which we were invited to re-interpret a classic book through design and typography. It has been awarded with an ISTD membership in the 2023 Student Assessment Scheme Awards.
The publication tells the story from Catherine Earnshaw’s perspective and explores female liminality in the patriarchal scheme, while comparing different women’s experiences and observing the way they all connect. The book's design is inspired mainly by the original edition of Wuthering Heights, and there are small graphic elements throughout the book that represent a stitch, reflecting Emily Brontë’s needlework. These cross stitches also conform to a typeface. To design a feminist book with what was back then another tool of the patriarchy symbolized quite well the importance of giving new meanings to those things that were once used to disempower us.
Everything in Wuthering Heights, from the opening to the close, is a consequence of Cathy’s actions and desires. And yet, the version of her story gets to us through two different narrators, processed by judgments and prejudices. The book is, basically, the evolution of Catherine’s villainization. It’s no surprise, then, that she is often described as Wuthering Heights’ madwoman, a hysterical and starving girl whose madness simply led to her death. The book is divided into four acts, each with a colour to help represent the evolution and self-growth from suppression to freedom.
But how exactly did such madness begin? What led her to self-starve, confine, and long for an afterlife in her much-loved Wuthering Heights? Was she actually mad, or was her supposed “madness” actual proof of sanity when her feelings were invalidated and wronged? The power of this character resides, amongst other things, in the way her feelings and misadventures interconnect with ours, just by the simple fact of sharing a lifetime of being a woman. This beautiful way of relating to a fictional character of the Victorian period is the main root from which this book grows.
The publication, whose main target is women between 20 and 30 years, aims to serve as a reminder that, even though we can be villanized and gaslighted for what we feel, only we can validate our part in the story. For this, I did a lot of research on feminist interpretations of Victorian literature and Emily Brontë, from where I can stand out The Madwoman in the Attic, by Susan Gubar and Sandra Gilbert, that inspired the name of my project.
I also did some primary research doing a survey of women from 18 years old. Their contributions were inspirational, and I was very grateful for the incredible insight they gave me, for they made a lot richer the content of this book.
