Roden Crater Calendar, 2020

This project was made for my Typography II course, where we were assigned to study a landmark, and for this I chose James Turrell’s Roden Crater, made popular by Kanye West. The Roden Crater is located in Arizona, and has been built over the course of the past 5 decades. It is currently inaccessible to the general public, however Kanye was able to film his project, Jesus Is King, and donated $10 million to the continuation of the project. Turrell has announced that the Roden Crater is expected to be open to the public in the year 2024.

I chose this location to be the focus of my project because of the sheer beauty of the structure, as well as my fascination with its logistical architecture. There are many ancient structures that interact with celestial events, such as the Great Pyramids of Egypt, the Stonehenge, as well as the Chichén Itzá of Mexico, which were built inexplicably by past civilizations. However, there are not that many modern day architects that attempt the same level of science and beauty that these ancient designs carry, but James Turrell has crossed that line with great effort.

I decided that because Turrell designed the Roden Crater with space and light in mind, I was going to make my calendar a celestial calendar. I looked up what each day over the course of the summer of 2020 would hold in terms of celestial events, and charted each day according to my findings. My key for my chosen imagery is shown at the top and bottom of the calendar.

These photos are the research and inspiration behind the design choices that make up my calendar.