The Temporal Isle

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On the 24th of September 2013 an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Moment Magnitude Scale [M] struck the remote Southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan

A surprising consequence of the seismic activity was the appearance of an island 380km from the quakes epi-centre, dubbed ‘Zalzala Jazeera’ [Quake Island] by national media, which rose out of the Arabian Sea, approximately 30 minutes after the quake impact, several hundred metres off the Southern port city of Gwadar, along the Jhanda coastline.

The birth of this islet was a rare and captivating event galvanising the scientific community and prompting an instant global reaction. The world’s media were quick to give widespread coverage to the story, eclipsing the tragedy caused by the initial quake. Zalzala Jazeera became an object of wonder, captivating imaginations and raising extensive public interest. Unfortunately, despite its most puzzling appearance, the scientific community now commonly agree that the island will not exist one year from its initial conception. It’s fine-grained sedimentary muddy matter will quickly start to erode due to the repeated motion of the Arabian Sea and weathering from the oncoming monsoon season.

The publication ‘The Temporal Isle’ utilises a number of metaphorical and visual devices to portray the sudden appearance and eventual demise of the islet. Throughout the document the colour black is used to represent the island’s temporality, page by page black moves from top to bottom waning in intensity, with subtle gradients applied across all images, until it eventually vanishes from the page replaced by the figurative ocean. Images of the island are always depicted wholly in black until the final two pages of the book.

In addition to this the featured typeface, Gestalten Sensaway, was used purely on the nature of its fading disjointed aesthetic. A wave motif, rising slowly up the pages headers, has been applied sparingly to intensify the concept of the island vanishes beneath the water’s surface and also as a metaphorical time-line on the centrespread. Overall the colour blue makes a general transition up the page, with pull quote underlines gently rising up their owning copy, as the reader moves from the front to back of the publication.

Finishing touches have been applied such as the staining of blue book binding thread and the use of multiple paper stocks. Overall the visual narrative of the publication is designed specifically to reference the time-line of the island’s existence.