I Love You, For Sentimental Reasons
Collage, Photography
Design a visual coffee table book that captures the timeless emotion of “I Love You (For Sentimental Reasons)” while preserving a sense personal connection using collage as tools of expression. The project needed to visually harmonize with pictures from 1940s, when the song was first released, with contemporary composition techniques to bring new life into the spreads. The work embodied sentimentality while visually telling the love story of the designer’s grandparents, who first danced to this song at their wedding along the California coast. Aesthetic young women in who value beauty and art are the target audience. They see their homes as an extension of their personal style and enjoy curating meaningful objects that feel both nostalgic and artistic. Rather than shelving the book, they display it open to a favorite spread, treating it as a piece of visual decoration that adds sentiment and softness to their space.
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Using “I Love You (For Sentimental Reasons)” as it's emotional foundation, the piece draws inspiration from the era when the song was first released as all the black and white scans are authentic dating back to the 1940’s allowing the textures, tones, and imperfections of the original materials to be seen. The scenes reference the designer’s grandparents’ love story, which unfolded along the cliffs and beaches of California. The imagery centers on the couple in love, collaged with florals and vibrant coastal sunsets. Mountains, rocky shorelines, and florals intertwine as symbolic motifs; the florals speak to tenderness and devotion, while the rugged coastline represents endurance and timelessness. The sunset acts as a unifying presence with it’s gradient light embodying the quiet beauty of lasting love. A collage style was chosen for it's ability to layer emotion, history, and imagery in a single frame. Each spread feels like a visual memory, leading the result to be a tactile, poetic composition that celebrates both a personal family story and the universal sentiment of enduring love.
