Isabella Levethan is a designer based in San Francisco, currently working at Godfrey Dadich Partners.
Invisible Spaces: Attempts at Utopia
The word utopia is commonly understood to mean an ideal or perfect place, but in reality, the root of the word means ‘no place’. This thesis explores various manifestations and interpretations of utopia in art, architecture, and literature, focusing on examples that embody the idea of utopia as a nonexistent space.
The book’s contents examine utopia at multiple levels, with each section exploring attempts to create utopias that are imagined, unbuilt, or otherwise impossible creations. The book itself plays with ideas of space, using the content to both create and subtract space on the page to create unconventional layouts that challenge spatial norms. This thesis aims to show that we are continuously inspired to create our own vision of utopia, despite its impossibility.
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Dream Sequence
How do you translate the experience of being in a place without physically being there? In order to communicate the unique environment of the Hi-Pointe Theatre, a historic arts movie theater in St. Louis, I created a booklet inspired by scientific specimen guides that recreates the physical environment of the Hi-Pointe. The book is highly interactive, inviting the viewer to engage with pull-outs, swatches, and removable parts. It is through these nuanced, magnified snapshots that the viewer pieces together the experience of being at the Hi-Pointe.
