Notebooks, sketchbooks, and journals capture the first drafts of our work—and our lives. We try out ideas; dash off early versions of drawings, paintings, and other works of art; or jot down memorable quotes. Sometimes we leave these handmade artifacts alone for years, even throw them away; other times, we record deep musings that we return to repeatedly. Regardless of their purpose, journals fascinate us when they capture a mind in motion.
For our second summer pocket-sized edition of Hue, we devoted every page to sketchbooks, journals, and other records of engaged brains. Why notebooks, and why now? Today, artificial intelligence is finessing our emails, revising documents, and taking us through endless iterations of designs. By contrast, the imperfection of sketches feels particularly human.
We gathered pages from every corner of the community—alumni and students, faculty and staff—insisting on diversity of theme and major. Businesspeople develop entrepreneurial concepts just like a fashion designer sketches a dress, and we were delighted to allow these various processes to bump up against one another. Likewise, we juxtaposed the raw talent of current students with work by pros, including legendary Illustration alumnus Antonio Lopez (1943–1987). The result is a snapshot of FIT, unresolved yet endlessly fertile.
—Alex Joseph