I was good either way the topic—up to you guys. Then the fact that you wanted a typographic solution for it was a nice change of pace since I’ve been doing so much of my own personal artwork using AI tools lately.

Typography is my first live so I’m always happy to do it. But I did also use AI. First, the whole layout is based on an AI image I’d generated while I was trying to get the AI to produce some Swiss-style graphic design and typography. Then I used AI to create the vintage images of the guy at a gas pump and a guy who looked a little shell-shocked and uncertain. I tried to get one of those to be a female but I thought those two were the best images of all the ones I’d made so I picked those even though it’d be better to have had some gender and ethnic diversity.

I’d say the references are to The International Typographic (Swiss) Style—a fairly clean simple layout with B&W photos turned into duotones for the final. B&W with a red accent is pretty much along those lines as well.

At first, we had talked about maybe a Pop Art style but once I did some research for inspiration and found that AI-generated layout, I realized it’d be more in keeping with my roots to do a layout in a Swiss-style—my university education in design was all Swiss International style.

But I was also using some typefaces that aren’t too Swiss at all! And combining them in odd ways too, making the reader work a bit to read the message. It’s 8 different typefaces in use in total I believe.

Working we you guys were cool. I appreciate how open you were to my ideas and didn’t do any heavy-handed art direction on the design. And I love how you made the work really shine by adding the animation.