Typographic Fungi Calendar, Graphic Design II

The task was to create a calendar for the year 2024, utilizing a different font from an approved list for each month. Each month’s title page had to have some typographic representation of the first letter of each month. We spent the entire semester creating this 9” x 6” 100 page InDesign Document.

I chose to purchase some pre-made petri dishes one of which was Sabaround Dextrose Agar (SDA). This kind of agar is used for the cultivation of fungi, specifically dermatophytes, but it was also the variety of agar to which I was most accustomed from my short laboratory science career. I also had potato agar plates, as it is a much more forgiving medium, but I ended up choosing the SD plates because I felt the fungal growth was more interesting.

I swabbed various things that I knew would have fungal spores and mixed them in a small container of distilled water, and then painted the each letterform onto the petri dish with an inoculating loop. Each title page for the month was meant to show the passage of time, so each dish was photographed at different stages. For example, the January dish was photographed first and only after about a week of growth, whereas the December dish was photographed last after being set in a dark closet to grow for the duration of the semester.

Since the document is so large, below are a few samples of my favorite plates and other content in the calendar.