The Shepley Bulfinch Summer Design Fellowship poster is mailed out mid-January to every accredited architecture school in the North America. Years ago the firm established a ten-week, all-expenses paid Design Fellowship for young architects to work with us over the summer. The application is open to all students who are, at date of submission, enrolled in an accredited professional degree program in the field of architecture. The brief for the poster included this application requirement: Central to your application is a response to the following: You’re having breakfast and hear a loud buzzing sound. What’s going on? Format your response on an 8 x 8” pdf.

As a starting point we decided to focus on the fellowships submission requirement of responding to a sound on an 8 x 8 inch square. We placed the square dead centre to make it the main focus of the poster, and for it to occupy the central point when folded. Surrounding that square, and radiating out from it, are graphics inspired by sound. With these we intended to abstractly create visuals that represent sound. We liked how this focus on the white square created intrigue, but also required some thinking and space for the viewer to ask themselves what is it the buzzing.