Sea Change

Every year at work, we strain to make our annual report as interesting as possible. I already know what you're thinking: oxymoron. I looked through tons of samples and the most "entertaining" ARs seem to be laden with extra pages containing art with a brilliant quotes with low transparencies, so that they appear to whisper inspiration… on beautifully textured paper. I love this look, but it's a no-go when you are trying to save money and time.

Trying to borrow inspiration from the text (aka a list of items we did last year), I stumbled on the phrase "sea change" and was struck clueless. SEA CHANGE? A moist, salty version of regular change? So I did what all good researchers do and Wiki'ed it. Turns out this is from Full Fathom Five, a section of The Tempest.

Full fathom five[1] thy father lies;

Of his bones are coral made;

Those are pearls that were his eyes;

Nothing of him that doth fade,

But doth suffer a sea-change[2]

Into something rich and strange.

Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:

Ding-dong.

Hark! now I hear them — Ding-dong, bell.

This was awesome not only because Jackson Pollock based his best-known piece of work on it, but because it applied directly (not to the forehead) to the theme that transformation, though painful, will improve things. And then you get to ring a bell according to Shakespeare. I did my best to use a mix of these themes for the cover, resulting in a message that says, "Even through sea change, our focus should be on students."

Feel that kelp!