Isaac Ruiz investigates "suburban infrastructures and western culture of America” using design and typography

Isaac Ruiz’s interest in graphic design developed from being “computer savvy at a very young age,” he tells It’s Nice That. “I think my design interests started when I would play Tycoon games on my PC.”

While growing up, Isaac “started to get more into film and literature and found a way to translate those passions through type and image when I was 17, and learning the ropes of Adobe programs while in high school”. Now, Isaac is studying an undergraduate at Art Centre College of Design “with an emphasis on graphic design”.

His projects have developed from his decision to become a designer passionate about “storytelling through design and typography”. A recent publication design from Isaac Do Humans Dream Of Perfect Lawns is an example of both his design ability and ever-growing interest in the medium. “For this particular project it was very personal, it gave me the opportunity to design something I was always interested in, which was basically the environment I grew up in most of my life.”

The publication is “an exploration of the suburban infrastructures and western culture of America,” referencing architects and artists such as Ed Ruscha and Stephen Shore. “Suddenly, suburbia itself has become more than just an accommodation and a canvas into which television and popular culture, authors, and artists alike have created which is now a part of the American mid-west conscious.” The colour palette of the book is dark, by printing text and images often on black or dark green. Isaac’s use of bold typography throughout Do Humans Dream of Perfect Lawns allows the book to tell a story, academically and narratively, but still with a strong design emphasis.

On designing the book Isaac says: “The process was really just me discovering more about where this concept came from and then suddenly I found myself researching science fiction, Ed Ruscha, and television (all of which I adore), and they all somehow connected and so that began my design narrative.” The content of the book takes the reader on a journey “weaving through fact and fiction” by “blurring the lines and showing how American suburbs became this sort of “fill in” canvas for artists…in the 1950s all the way through to today”.