Each year, the RISD Design Guild is tasked with directing and designing the annual yearbook for the graduating class of students.

The 2023 Yearbook is divided into three separate books: a collection of interviews with faculty members [1], a catalog of student portraits [2], and a photo index documenting our campus [3].

As you turn the pages of these books, you’ll find occuring elements: countersigned photos, insightful words, impressed stamps, and innocous data. This is a visual language found in travel documents – passports, visas, and licenses – all of which illicit transitions. These details might appear repetitive or benign, but their power comes from the information they denote and the experiences they suggest. To showcase our experiences, hand-made stamps are used to affix each student with their own personal history at RISD. Each surface is equally certified, and each person is adorned with the testament of their choices. Regardless of variability, we all share in turning the page of this chapter into the next.

This yearbook repurposes these design elements and transitional nature for a more pertinent application– celebration and validation.