Jayme Yen
Yale School of Art

Interchanges

Biography: Jayme Yen was born and raised in Los Angeles, but now lives in the more intemperate climate of New Haven, Connecticut, where she is working on an MFA in graphic design at the Yale School of Art. She is currently the art director of The Next American City, a magazine focused on topics relating to the city and urban design. Although most of her work has taken form in print, she is exploring interactivity and installation design. One of Jayme’s dream projects is to design exhibitions and collateral for museums. Her other dream is to form a rock band.

Objective: This illustration is part of a larger exploration into rationalist/functionalist environments. As a part of our everyday lives, the highway is a route, a path, but otherwise an ignored space. It ferries us where we want to go, and then it is forgotten. This is partly due to scale: From inside the car, it's difficult to see the intricate shapes a highway generates as it weaves itself through the landscape. My intention was thus to draw more attention to the highway as form, and then take it a step further and imagine it as a series of unending connections.

Tools used: This project was created primarily using Adobe® Illustrator®. Images of highways were placed in Illustrator and traced using the Pen tool, and then the images were deleted. Lines then were extended or shortened, connected and disconnected, to create the final "superhighway." Illustrator made this process extraordinarily easy.