The Kudzu File

Unpacking the Kudzu File

The Kudzu File is a response to Brief 4 from the 2025 ISTD (International Society of Typographic Designers) Student Assessment Scheme, 'Not Just Fleurons'.

The process I undertook for this project was iterative and focused heavily on physical prototyping and materiality. I started from a detailed collection of research about the Kudzu vine and its status over the years and across the globe. From here, I planned a collection of artefacts with varied formats to communicate this story by personifying Kudzu as the subject of an investigation.

This project was highly conceptual, blurring the line between design and art. This project is intentionally not sequential or orderly, allowing the audience to immerse themselves in the story as an active participant in discovering their own relationships with nature. By personifying Kudzu, the audience is forced to take a social perspective and consider the unique role that flora plays in each of their lives. One benefit of the varied formats within this project was the ability to offer a spectrum of perspectives, signalled by shifting the tone of visual language from bureaucratic to humorous to cryptic.

The final outcome was crafted from a wide variety of materials including parchment, vellum, card, gloss, and bulky news paper stocks. All elements were 'bound' together in a green folder, mimicking an investigative file. To emphasise the mysterious tone, the project was photographed using a digital camera in a dark office setting, acting as a promotional shoot titled 'The Night the Kudzu Has', taking reference from James Dickey's poem 'Kudzu'.