For Stefan Sagmeister’s “Touch Someone’s Heart” class first year MFA Design students created a variety of projects, including the theme of “What I Learned in My Life, So Far.” Over the next few days we will survey some of them.

Justin Colt shows two projects here.

“I focused on my Grandfather, Hans Prauser. For many years he has been working to collect the stories and memories of his life, into a book to pass on to his children and grandchildren. The text documents his childhood growing up in Germany, being drafted into World War II, and eventually immigrating to the United States. The stories are incredible, and should be shared with friends and family as intended. Without him knowing, I created a hand bound copy of his book, Unforeseen. All images are old photo scans of my grandfather, and all typefaces used throughout are from German type foundries close to where he grew up.

When finished, I shipped the book to him in Atlanta, and presented it via Skype. While I had created just one hand bound version, the intent was to then be able to collaborate with my Grandfather to edit and work together as a team. We would then produce a run of books for our friends and family. His reaction was exactly as I had hoped; sincere appreciation for what I had created, and enthusiasm to work together and distribute. We’re currently working together to edit and design, and are will self publish within the next few months.”

For the final project, Colt chose the phrase “I often take for granted what I wanted so badly.”

“It is created by sequencing over 2,000 photos to create a time-lapse video of ants devouring typography. Working with ants had obstacles beyond what I had expected, from their constant attempts to escape to their picky eating habits. In the end, we all got along and only a few went missing. The rest were released into a nearby park to retire.”

Watch his video.