inside lakeside STUDENT SHOWCASE

Artist

NATE CHAOWEERAPRASIT ’22

On the first day of school, 147 incoming 9th graders were greeted with a special campus map waiting for them in their Bliss Hall mailboxes. The useful — if somewhat cheeky — visual aid was the work of Nate Chaoweeraprasit '22, who created the map for the summer 2022 issue of Imago, the Upper School’s literary journal.

Nate drew inspiration from the minimalist work of Italian designer Massimo Vignelli and his iconic 1972 New York City subway map. Using the software programs Procreate and Adobe Illustrator, Nate created a diagram of the Upper School campus incorporating signature Vignelli touches: ultra-efficient geometric lines; blocky figures; eight-color palette; and Helvetica typeface. The map simultaneously evokes students’ everyday commute crisscrossing the campus and the idiosyncrasy of the school environment, down to the nicknames students assigned the portable buildings at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As Vignelli himself had to explain following the controversial reception of his ’72 subway map, Nate’s interpretation is more figurative diagram than literal map, made to ease travel from point to point rather than pinpoint locations for lost and wayward travelers.