Bank of America: End of Days
The book was created as a reminder of the tumultuous first half of 2020 from the perspective of Bank of America's Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) Desk, which sat at the heart of the financial crisis that was throttled into motion by the COVID-19 Pandemic. This book documents the ABS desk's analysis and their religious daily posting to Bloomberg Terminal as the AAA spreads exploded, air travel halted, unemployment hit 15%, the Federal Reserve intervened, vehicle prices cratered, and Hertz filed for bankruptcy.
“Each day felt like a week, and this week felt like a month. Yesterday we forgot to eat lunch, today we forgot to use the restroom.” − March 13, 2020.
Like the ABS commentary that was posted out of urgency, this book was designed, printed, and distributed in just two weeks. Because the turn around time was so quick, the design, materials, and formats had to be able to be printed in-house and using Bank of America’s print shop. The book is divided into different sized chapters that were stacked by month to create a gradient of urgency that mellows as crisis normalized. The interior of the book, which includes all the post from the ABS desk from March 9–June 20, 2020, mimics the interface and aesthetics of Bloomberg Terminal, the platform on which these post were originally published. The book design attempts to bring the reader back to this place and moment of time where everything felt like it was burning.
