I was asked to design a typographic work that explores the subject of fads.
Researching a wide variety of unusual fads through the years, I found one that was
… very extreme.

The Radiation Girls

The Radiation Girls were a group of workers during the 1930’s. There was a factory of 70 female workers who jobs were to paint radium onto the dials of wrist watches. The radium was used to illuminate the dial in the dark. The women ingested the radium by licking the ends of their paint brushes to create a tip. Unfortunately, the workers did not know the dangers of the radium and contracted radiation poisoning which gave the workers cancer and brittle bones.

Further research I discovered the scientists and bosses who ran the factories knew the radium was poisonous but failed to tell the workers.

Concept and Output

My final piece is a handmade accordion book that tells both the workers side of the story and the scientists side of the the story. The truth against the lies.

I decided to base the concept on the effects of a radioactive atomic bomb. The front side of the accordion fold has both stories meeting in the middle resulting in a deconstructed typographical ‘explosion’ of lies. On the back is the impact or fallout of this destruction resembling fallout after a radioactive explosion.