Poets of the Cascadia Subduction Zone
Client: Adelia MacWilliam, Cascadia Poetics LAB, Seattle, WA
Timeline: February 2023
Format: 11 x 17 poster
Overview: The poster was created for Poets of the Cascadia Subduction Zone: A Reading, held at the Salt Spring Island Public Library. The event brought together poets from across the Cascadia bioregion, with a conceptual focus on geography, fault lines, and the shared terrain—both physical and cultural—that shapes the region.
The client requested that the design incorporate a scientific map of the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Rather than treating the map as a neutral backdrop, the poster uses it as a central organizing element—foreground the region’s tectonic reality as both subject matter and metaphor.
Design Approach: The source map presented a visual challenge: highly saturated colors, pixelated resolution, and dense scientific markings. Instead of softening or disguising these qualities, the design embraces them. Rectangular color fields were introduced to create structure, isolate information and establish visual rhythm across the composition.
Typography was layered in contrasting styles—distressed, stencil-like display type paired with more restrained supporting text—to echo the tension between instability and order inherent in the subduction zone itself. Two colorway versions were produced, each calibrated to different tonal emphases within the map while maintaining a cohesive overall system.
The resulting poster transforms the technical data into a bold, collage-driven composition that remains legible and grounded in place—connecting poetry, geology, and regional identity through a shared visual language.