no, bitch

I was inspired by my shirt with the Hamlet quote on it (on page 4) to explore the numerous ways people say “no.” For consent, the ability to say “no” and to understand when someone means “no,” even if they’re using different words or actions than the letters “N” and “O,” are two foundational characteristics. I wanted to consider the variations in how to say “no” and other phrases related to consent in a fresh, aesthetically pleasing manner, so I created a few gradients to use as my backgrounds. Then I arranged my chosen quotes and phrases on top of them along with some images from pop culture. The front and back covers are black to show that the word “no” has a beginning and an end and does not need any other words to have meaning.

I have worked extensively with Adobe InDesign over the past year and have used Adobe Illustrator since high school, so this project was the easiest to tackle right away. I designed the spreads in Illustrator and used InDesign to lay them out and create the PDF. Most of my work in InDesign deals with text and tables that I create directly in the program, so making everything outside of it and only using InDesign for layout was a different approach than I’m used to.

Pages 6-7 Translation: “No” is a complete sentence. It needs neither explanation nor justification.