Fear and Freedom — Reed Smith

As an artist and designer, I've come to understand my tendencies towards self-constraint and self-acceptance. I have had to learn about these tendencies and how to embrace them as I continue to progress and produce work at a professional rate. In an exercise of self-journaling, I created this "Fear and Freedom" zine to write and bring visual identity to these themes of self-growth and understanding present in my life. In my creative process, I started by reflecting on what fear and freedom felt like. I envisioned freedom as an open, spiritual, and expansive force, while fear took the form of confinement represented by jail cell bars and rigid lines.

To further bring this vision to life, I found inspiration in sacred geometry for its combination of mystical expansion and rigid, constrained structure. To replicate and expand upon these associations, I incorporated these visual elements and used linear structures radiating from a central point to convey parallel themes of self-expansion, containment, and creative release. This composition, combined with white and blue colors reminiscent of the sky, resulted in a design that effectively conveyed my ruminations on fear and freedom. The final product, a series of 25 zines, was distributed to my classmates for discussion.