Saint Lucy Books
About:
Saint Lucy is an online journal devoted to writing about photography and contemporary art. Founded in 2011 by artist and writer Mark Alice Durant, Saint Lucy features essays, portfolios, and wide-ranging conversations with artists, writers, and curators. Saint Lucy Books is the independent publishing side of the project and creates idiosyncratic art books that combine words and images that investigate the marginal, hidden, and parallel histories of photography. Starting in 2011, I worked with Mark to develop the brand and website for the launch of Saint Lucy.
The name Lucy derives from the Latin word for light – Lux. Saint Lucy (283-304). Saint Lucy is the patron saint of the blind, of eye disorders and the protector of sight. The Catholic Church describes her as “One of the brightest ornaments of the Sicilian Church”. She is often portrayed in religious paintings holding a golden plate upon which her eyes rest.
For the logo, we took inspiration from religious iconography. I illustrated the logo based on a classical image of Saint Lucy and refined it into a simplified, reproducible illustration. The original website was developed in Wordpress, where Mark worked diligently over the next few years to add interviews, essays, and content from contemporary artists, photographers, and writers.
In 2020, we designed a second website for Saint Lucy Books, dedicated as a home for the gorgeous art books that Mark began producing under his own press. I created the site using Squarespace and worked on the branding, art direction and design, while Jill Fannon shot beautiful photos of all the books.
Collaborators:
Mark Alice Durant: author, publisher & founder of Saint Lucy
Jill Fannon: photography
Guenet Abraham: book designer
Joseph Faura: WordPress coding
