TransActions Publication

TransActions Publication

TransActions is a socially engaged arts newspaper and dialogue. Artists and Educators Jim Duignan (Chicago) and Fiona Whelan (NCAD Dublin) present a series of perspectives on ethics, the city, aesthetics, labor, education and art through the questions around socially engaged arts between their communities within Chicago and Dublin. Through the form of generated and collected conversations with their communities and transcriptions and distribution of a newspaper, the publication draws on the writings, drawings, photographs, maps, prints, letters, essays, lessons, descriptions and ideas of youth, artists, educators, collectives and folks in a wide range of fields.

Visit the website: www.transactionspublication.com

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The newspaper is large broadsheet format. Once flipped, it reads from both directions—Dublin from one end and Chicago starting from the other with the content from each city meeting in the middle. On the Dublin side, the main text is in blue, and images are monotone red. The colors switch for the Chicago side.

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A Plea for Playgrounds

A Plea for Playgrounds

Booklet designed and printed to accompany the exhibition of playground equipment sculptures created by artist Jim Duignan. The booklet is a modern day reproduction and redesign of the 1905 Plea published by the City of Chicago. The text written by Jennifer Gray highlights the importance of playgrounds in an urban setting and contains historic images of playgrounds from around the city. The entire book is printed as one color, and the cover contains spot gloss to emulate the embossed city seal of the original.

Folk Night Harvest Edition

Folk Night Harvest Edition

18” x 24” Poster, 11” x 17” Signs, 2013

A bianual event celebrating the arts of the people through an evening of performances and visual arts. Handcrafted from found autumn leaves, the background contrasts the rhythm of the typography and sharpness of the vector graphics.

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Design After Loss

Design After Loss

7” x 10” Embossed Hardcover Book, 2012

This self-authored book pays homage to the solemnity of collective tragic events and the natural reaction of groups to memorialize together. The growing shape in the top center of every page is a shadow of each section of the book that has come before. Images are separated from the text with a reverse flip-out disrupting the flow of reading, confronting the viewer with the content, and allowing for moments of reflection.

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Ravinia Festival Poster

Ravinia Festival Poster

A1 Poster, 2013

Ravina is an outdoor music venue outside of Chicago, IL. Reflecting the variety of musical genres featured at the park, images of stringed instruments are layered together to build an amalgamated form. The long thin letterforms were specifically designed for this poster to further reference the strings.

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Preservation Detectives

Preservation Detectives

7” x 10” Educational Workbook, 2011

Part of a preservation initiative at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, visitors with children were given an activity book as an interactive guide to the historic house. Through hand-drawn illustrations and type, historic content and images are become relevant to a younger audience.

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Why Every President Sucked

Why Every President Sucked

13”× 11” Hardcover Book, 2009

A collaboration with author and creative, Eric Olsen, this large-format book aims to halt a voter’s future search for presidential perfection by detailing how each and every former president has failed to live up to those expectations. Combining historic photography with clean shapes, blocks of color overlays, and handwritten typography, the traditional understanding if history is being reexamined under a new, scrutinous lens.

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All Caps Cafe Menu & Brochure

All Caps Cafe Menu & Brochure

4”x 8.5” folded; 16”x 8.5” open, 2009

This series of three menu brochures are for an international cafe that prepares and serves coffee through different cultural techniques: American, Italian, and Turkish. The brochures are printed one color on recycled paper with replaceable menus, reducing production costs and allowing for change.

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