Pushing the Needle

Book and Interaction Design

Craftivism (a portmanteau of ‘craft’ and ‘activism’) is a tool that has been used across time and around the world to affect social change through gentle protest. With a number of different disciplines, it has been used to build communities, highlight injustices, fundraise, lobby, and memorialize. My design capstone project, Pushing the Needle, explores the intersections of fiber crafts and activism by highlighting real craftivist work and encouraging readers to create activist craft projects of their own.

The book is divided into three sections, each highlighting a different fiber craft discipline: knit, crochet, and embroidery. Each section includes case studies to introduce readers to existing craftivist work, as well as craft project instructions to make projects inspired by the case studies.

The book’s design system pulls heavily from the formal qualities of textile work, incorporating elements like loose threads, frayed edges, woven elements, and soft textures into the book’s typography, layout, binding, and image treatment.

True to the content’s emphasis on handicraft, the book additionally includes a number of hand-crafted elements, including knitted pull-quotes, an embroidered book cover, and a crocheted book sleeve.

As a way to further encourage participation from readers, the book’s content is supported by a digital skills index. Accessed by a QR code on the book’s craft project pages, the app teaches readers the necessary skills to complete the craft projects in the book by providing them with both written instructions and video demonstrations.