Emily Bluedorn

Hello! I’m a designer and developer who recently graduated with an MFA in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design. I also co-run a literary micro press and moonlight as a painter.

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Choo Choo Press

A zine press run with Taylor Zhang—a writer, editor, & educator. The press generates both prose and poetic publications rooted in themes of minutiae, desire, and states of liminality. Engaging with the written text of our authors, I develop designs that enhance and complement their words in a highly collaborative process. We design, print, bind, and publish each of our zines, and promote them with in-person readings and on digital platforms.

Household Management Typeface

A display font based on a hand-crafted decorative type specimen found in the first edition of ‘Beeton’s Book of Household Management,’ published in 1861. This typeface, with its ornamental curves and flourishes, is intended to deliver truths and bold claims with the sweetness of the most well-mannered delivery. A spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down.

I produced both a 6.5 x 8.24 in. bound specimen, and a larger format two-color screenprinted poster to showcase the type and its inspirations.

Updike Prize for Student Type Design finalist

With a Trace

A box publication full of papers, thread, glue, pictures, words, and ideas for my MFA Compendium, produced at the Rhode Island School of Design in the spring of 2023.

A Compendium is defined as: A brief compilation or composition consisting of a reduction and condensation of the subject matter of a larger work.

Through its pages, I explore the work I make and why I make it. I’ve titled the inquiry With a Trace, in an attempt to capture both my creative past, and my desired future.

Valentine Generator

Inspired by the valentines of Esther Howland featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Open Access collection, I created a digital valentine generator site. This generator features a set of illustrated stickers, based on the symbols routinely featured on Howland’s Victorian valentines. It also allows users to change the color, the pattern of the lace, and to add a message. I also printed a set of risograph posters based on submissions that I collected from others.

RISD Grad Show 2024

In collaboration with Gabriel Drozdov—a designer, developer, and educator. We created the brand identity, accompanying promotional assets, and website for the 2024 RISD Grad Show that took place at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

The design has a variable color-palette and modified display type that pulls color hex codes from the graduate student work that is featured in the show. Thus, the identity reflects the multi-faceted, diverse, dynamic nature of the RISD graduate community itself.

American Idiom Short

An animated short exploring American idioms through a closer look at the legacy of the Gorham Manufacturing Company and the family behind it. Designed within Blender and After Effects, the 3-D rendered animation investigates the complicated legacy of Jabez Gorham and the ‘American Dream.’ Ultimately, I screened the film as a projection against the brick wall of the building Jabez once built for his family.

Idioms are hidden histories buried in words. Ghost of linguistics past.

Like scratches in silver, nicks in wood, or particulate matter in dirt, they tell stories about what happened before, and what is still happening now.

Partner & Partners Site

A portfolio site for the NY based studio Partner & Partners, which I collaboratively designed and developed using Wordpress during my internship with them.

Bethlehem Zine

An art-book publication of the paintings I generated during a summer 2023 residency at Directangle Press in New Hampshire. The Risograph printed pages attempt to explore ideas of home, environment, and local histories through image-making.

Providence Papercuts

A set of papercut illustrations inspired by my College Hill surroundings during my time living in Providence, Rhode Island.

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