In Kafka's Footsteps

By David Hunt

Nancy Jin awoke one morning from a dream and found herself transported back to Prague.

"I woke up and thought, 'Oh good, I'm still in Prague. I didn't really have to go home.'"

But, like all dreamers, she faced the truth – eventually – and got out of bed. Home is an apartment a few blocks from North Carolina State University, where Jin is completing an undergraduate degree in graphic design this year. But her first home was the historic city of Huhhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia, where she spent the first 10 years of her life.

Nancy Jin came home from Prague with a better understanding of European history, culture and society. View a photo gallery of images from books designed by Jin and her classmates during the Graphic Design Summer Studio in Prague.

Like a growing number of students, Jin has a multicultural outlook and appreciates NC State's opportunities for global travel and study. Her recent trip to Europe took her to the university's Prague Institute – in the medieval center of the "City of a Thousand Spires" – where she joined a select group of students for a course combining history, photography and design.

The course work was challenging; students had to read the works of nine Czech authors and then create a book illustrating selections of their writings using photographs, personal journal entries and graphic design elements. As they explored Prague and other nearby cities, they often found themselves walking in the footsteps – literally and figuratively – of Franz Kafka, Jaroslav Seifert and Milan Kundera. The entire project, including the concept, photography, design and production, had to be completed in just six weeks.

None of the students complained.

"It opened our eyes to the outside world," Jin says. "Everyday in Prague I woke up feeling really inspired."

Her book, titled, "Clash of the Purgatories," includes gritty photos of Prague street scenes, revealing a starker, harsher side of the one of Europe's most beautiful cities.

"My theme is the idea of the internal versus the external," Jin explains. "The external of Prague is repressing, like the public transportation that pushes you in with other people. The book reflects that; the design is chaotic, but on a grid. It's a metaphor for communism. The internal of Prague is the spirit of Prague, the individualism."

Scott Townsend, an associate professor of graphic design who co-taught the course with adjunct professor Maura Dillon, says the design project took students outside their comfort zone.

"It was a lot of work – hard work," he says. "But it didn't just give them another academic take on things. We have a lot of really good graphic design courses on campus in Raleigh, but there's an experiential level of learning at the Prague Institute that takes students in new directions."

He was impressed by how the 15 students in the course were able to understand and interpret writers representing a range of cultures, political and social backgrounds, and eras.

"They are really interested in literature and writing and critical thinking and they are very capable of integrating them," Townsend says. "It was natural and fluid."

But it wasn't enough for students to have an intense personal encounter with the culture, literature and people of Prague; they had to communicate that experience through images and words.

"They were trying to make it more than a picture book," says Dillon. "They had to integrate different kinds of ideas – from the Czech writers, from their own writing and photography – and put them together and make it work. A book only works if the reader understands it."

Students took different paths to developing their books.

Prague is home to one of the most extensive collection of Art Deco and Art Nouveau architecture and design.

"Some focused on own writing, some focused on images, and some focused on the Czech literature they had read," Dillon explains. "Some laid it out like a map, others added a tourist angle to it. Some had a beginning, middle and end; a few did a timeline and others had photo essays inserted throughout the book."

But all showed curiosity and openness, Townsend says. And that will serve them well as they pursue careers in graphic design.

"The definition of what a graphic designer does has really expanded," he says. "A graphic designer today is really a creator or co-creator of ideas."

Turning the pages of her new book, Jin says she learned valuable lessons, about graphic design and about life, during her time in Prague.

"The most important thing I learned about photography was idea of sequences - how pictures can tell a story. When you juxtapose images, you create an overall feeling that goes beyond the individual photos," she says.

The lessons won't be lost. Jin kept a daily journal during her six weeks in Prague, documenting her experiences, feelings and reflections on a new and sometimes surprising culture.

"I was aware every moment that I had limited time and I really wanted to make the most of it."

With her senior year at NC State and the prospect of launching a career in graphic design filling the next couple of years, Jin admits she probably won't get back to Prague anytime soon. Except in her journal – and her dreams.

Designs from the Graphic Design Summer Studio in Prague are on display through Friday, Nov. 7, in the S. Aaron Allred Gallery, located on the lower level of Kamphoefner Hall (behind Brooks Hall, off Pullen Road) on the NC State campus.

Links:

• College of Design

• Prague Institute

• Study Abroad