A Dictionary of Snow

RISD 2022, 3.5 x 4.8 Inch
Instructor: Rene Payne

A experimental book design to deconstruct the word, snow.

This project is inspired by the urban legend of Eskimo words for snow that people mistakenly believe there are more words for snow in the Eskimo language than the others due to its environmental factors, and such a theory is often used to support the linguistic-relativity hypothesis that the language a person speaks shapes the speaker’s view of the world. Corresponding to the problem caused by constructive determinism, my project aims to tell a story of destructing the word “snow” by breaking the relationship between signified and signifier. It starts with a specific definition of snow and ends up with a blank page to show the elimination of the signified, and the semiotic “snow” lost its presupposed essence. The entire deconstructing process aims to trigger the emotional resonation with the snow from individuals and free the signified from the signifier.