‘The Hollow Men’ Zine

PUBLICATION DESIGN | ZINE


The zine titled 'The Madman' is a conceptual design piece that interprets the final, intensely fragmented section of T.S. Eliot's poem, 'The Hollow Men.' Drawing inspiration from the inherent chaos—the poem's religious allusions, abrupt thought breaks, and extensive use of enjambment—the zine transforms the text into a visual representation of a madman's stream-of-consciousness rant. The design system uses rough, scratchy, and distressed typography, paired with a stark grayscale palette and rhythmic repetition, to build a sense of psychological pressure. This visual and emotional intensity escalates dramatically as the zine progresses, culminating in the poem's iconic final line: "not with a bang but a whimper." The project's tactile nature is key. The zine was physically constructed with roughly torn page edges, evoking the raw, frantic feeling of pages being ripped from a journal to emphasize the raw, unfiltered nature of the speaker's descent.

2025

ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR AND INDESIGN