NhuPhuong Au

graphic design

In God We Trust
In God We Trust is a Letterpress and Watercolor Book design touching on the idea that in the absence of religion that we venerate secularism. It also touches upon originalism vs. living constitution debate that I see mirrored in the arguments between Catholicism and Protestantism. It can be considered either a work of love or satire depending not only on the interpretation of the viewer, but of my own feelings. In God We Trust also plays on the American mythos, or the story that we tell of ourselves and our history. I fell in love with letterpress when one fateful winter evening I went to Carolin Park and got a small letterpress Christmas card. I was fascinated with the moveable type and the way these men did their work. It clicked in my head that this was my passion. I spent my Fall 2022 semester learning to work with the machines and the history behind them. This project is done with letterpress rather than just regular printing, not only for a love of history, but to reference how the Bible was not only one of the first books to be printed with the printing press and to evoke the feeling of an illuminated manuscript. In God We Trust contains watercolor illustrations of American historical moments, monuments, and landscapes in order to play back on the themes of the American mythos in the project.