Unseen Worlds

Unseen Worlds is my capstone project, and it brings together two passions I’ve never had the chance to combine until now: science and design. I started at WashU as a pre-med microbiology major before switching into the art school my sophomore year. This project reflects my full-circle, unconventional journey—from science, to design, to now designing about science. The book explores three invisible realms: microbiomes, the deep sea, and x-ray space. They are all tied together by my fascination with the mystery of what exists beyond our perception. My ultimate goal was to transform those unseen worlds into something tangible, energetic, and alive. Unseen Worlds allows readers to engage with the world in a different way, to see the invisible, and to embrace mystery without the need to find all of the answers. 

View the full process
View the Sam Fox BFA Capstone Show

The book is structured intentionally. The three sections move from micro to macro scale, beginning with microbiomes and ending in x-ray space. That scale is also reflected in the typography. The microbiome section starts with large body text and wide margins, and as we move deeper into the sea and then into space, the type becomes smaller and the margins narrower. There is also an epistemological progression in the structure. Microbiomes are directly connected to human life, so the book begins in the familiar. By the time the reader reaches x-ray space, the content has moved into theoretical astrophysics. The design reflects this shift: it starts out more didactic and accessible, and it becomes increasingly complex as the science does.

Circular glyphs replace standard punctuation throughout the book and are an extension of the book’s themes. Their forms mirror the subject matter, suggesting microbial growths, rising sea bubbles, and distant stars. 

Each of the three main sections is divided into subsections with unique color pairings and typographic behaviors. Color plays a big role in both this book and my personal design style. In this project, I used color to amplify the invisible. The cover and front and back matter are left completely colorless, so opening the book feels like a reveal. It’s a way to make the unseen feel hyper-visible and alive.

Each section opens with a themed foldout page: microbiomes fold inward as the world within, deep sea folds down to the world below, and x-ray space folds up to the world beyond. These physical movements help bring each world to life in a tactile way. 

In microbiomes, diagrammatic illustrations echo scientific diagrams, with small, organic type elements growing across spreads. Captions and footnotes sit in the leading, living within the main body of the text. The deep sea section has flowing illustrations layered with text to evoke water, and pull quotes feel submerged. X-ray space is the most complex and visually wild section, due to its abstract scientific content. The grid breaks down, illustrations become chaotic, and captions are quite literally, spaced out. The final subsection builds from clean linework to solid shapes to full-on intentional illegibility. This is meant to show that not everything needs to be understood and that mystery can inspire awe.