Holistic Herbalism: Medicine and Mysticism

Book design/ Typography/ ISTD Student Brief 2021 submission.

This publication was awarded ISTD Membership with Commendation in July 2021.

Holistic Herbalism: Medicine and Mysticism sets out to celebrate our human connection with nature, and to inspire a spiritual connection with the world around us. As an herbal guidebook and cookbook, it encourages readers to use herbs and other plants in their everyday lives. The herbal uses in this book vary from headache-healing teas to self-care baths and even protecting the home from negative spirits.

This publication takes its inspiration from early herbal and botanical guidebooks. Therefore, the main body text is sympathetic to the early manuscripts as it is set in the classical, humanist typeface, EB Garamond. The body text is comprised of two alternative texts that are in opposition to each other. One text represents the medicinal approach to herbalism while the other takes a spiritual approach. Using the variety of styles available with EB Garamond, the two texts can be viewed side-by-side, appearing similar but still differentiated by style.

To create uniformity and assist in the composition of the spreads, justified text is used in the treatment of the body text. This approach is also sympathetic to the early herbal manuscripts found as part of the research stage. In order to break away from the rigidity and geometry of the justified text blocks, decorative type, such as glyphs from the typeface Mrs. Eaves, were dispersed throughout the text to act as floral pillcrows.