I love hands-on creative projects.
When I’m not teaching, writing, or designing on the computer, I love making things with my hands. Whether it’s seed bead earrings, murals, taking photos of vernacular typography on my travels, or creating composite photography, you can usually find me involved in some kind of creative project in my free time. Check out a few of my recent projects below.
Projects
Here + There Composite Photography
Exploring the Space Between Two Places through Photo Montage
In January 2021, I started a personal project called Here + There. For this project, I used composite photography to explore themes of identity and place in my own life. Each composite photo combined images from at least two places that I had lived. My initial focus was on scenes from Southeast Asia and Virginia (my two most recent places of residence). I posted these images to my Instagram account, @ekvernen, using the #herethereimage hashtag.
As I continued experimenting with these images, I decided that it might be interesting to expand this idea into a workshop for local students from refugee or immigrant backgrounds. The Here + There (CWS) workshop, Here + There (Skyline) workshop and Dreams Unfolding workshop are the result of these further explorations.
Seed Bead Earrings
In 2024 I started making and selling seed bead earrings at two locations in Harrisonburg, Virginia. You can see the variety of patterns I’ve created on my Instagram account, @ekvernen. Commissions are available upon request!
Vernacular Typography
Documenting Hanoi’s Vernacular Typography through Photography
I lived in Hanoi from 2016–2020, and in this time the urban landscape drastically changed, as much of the city’s vernacular signage was taken over by a bland and uniform version of corporate advertising. During this time, I began to document some of Hanoi’s distinctive hand-lettered signs and typography on my Instagram account @ekvernen. Check out my images using the #hanoitype hashtag and enjoy experiencing some of the authentic local typographic flavor of Hanoi.
Fint out more—watch my typewknd 2021 presentation about this project!
