National Collage Society 40th Annual Juried Exhibition Catalog
Editorial Design
OVERVIEW
For the National Collage Society's 40th Annual Juried Exhibition, I designed a 36-page catalog featuring work from over 90 artists selected from hundreds of submissions nationwide. My goal was to design a catalog that could hold that much variety without flattening it, while feeling true to the medium itself
Approach
Rather than design a clean, gallery-style catalog, I wanted the design to embody collage rather than just present it. The pages are built to look torn, layered, and reassembled. Ripped paper edges, overlapping scraps, doodles, and loose markings run throughout, echoing the DIY, hands-on nature of collage-making. The goal was for the catalog itself to feel like an artifact of the process, not just a container for the artwork inside it.
Final Thoughts
This project was about more than designing a container for other people's work. It was about making the catalog itself feel like part of the collage tradition it was celebrating. Leaning into elements of mixed-media collage pushed me to think about structure and spontaneity at the same time. Every messy mark still had to guide the eye and give each artist's work room to breathe.
It was a good reminder that design doesn't always mean cleaning things up. Sometimes the most honest design choice is to match the energy of the subject itself.