Great minds do not think alike.
For this project I looked at ‘learning disabilities’ and how we perceive them, focusing on dyslexia. I am interested in a theory of neurodiversity, this views atypical ways of thinking and learning not as disorders but as normal deviations in human brain wiring, with both pros and cons. I wanted to advocate that conditions like dyslexia, ADHD, autism etc are varying severities of normal different patterns of brain function and are not inherently broken or wrong.
I decided this two-sided story should be exactly that, a back-to-back (dos-à-dos) book contrasting the two viewpoints.
‘Defunct’ treats learning disabilities as defects that make sufferers dysfunctional or broken. This negative side focuses on disadvantages and drawbacks. This half should be a painful mess to read, discouraging the reader as much as possible from reading the text, steering them toward the positive half.
‘Default’ treats learning disabilities as normal and focuses on the positive attributes of dyslexic thinking. Simple playful type compositions and a lighthearted, happy go lucky colour palette make this positive half much more optimistic.
