Adel Cynolter

Design
Illustration
About



Moments Like This 
Never Last

Spring 2026InDesign
 Moments Like This Never Last is a book that highlights how our phones steal life’s small and large moments away from us.

Most of the images in this work are selected from photographer Tyler Mitchell’s book I Can make You Feel Good, a collection of images exploring beauty, desire, and a Black utopia. I pair Mitchell’s photography with Mary Oliver’s poem “What Do We Know” and an article published in Time Magazine written by Andrew Gregory titled “How Social Media is Hurting Your Memory”. The thesis and title of the work comes from a painting of the same name (2012) by Dan Colen depicting a scene of confetti falling. These selections highlight the importance of staying present and experiencing life to the fullest. 


The Case





 The work is housed in a case wrapped in black book cloth with an engraved shape that echoes a smartphone on the front.

In the back of the case, there is a space to hold a smartphone sized flipbook. The colophon is placed inside this space.


The Cover



 The title of the work is spread across the front and back cover. I set up the subject of the book to be about the precious moments of life by showing only the first half of the tile, “Moments like this” paired with an emotionally charged photograph. 

By the end of the book,  the second half of the title, “Never Last” takes on a double meaning. First, that these moments are fleeting so we must appreciate them as they happen, and second, that if we let our phones win we will not even know they are passing by. 


The Format


I emphasize the two competing worlds of the digital and the real with the format of the work.

The main spreads of the book depict an emotionally lush reality. Interrupting this space are smartphone-sized short sheets, printed on a shiny paper. The short sheets interrupt the main spreads the way smartphones interrupt our lived moments.


The images presented on the short sheets are cropped to a square, mimicking the (then) typical Instagram format. Colorful, pixel reminiscent squares slowly take over the images.



The Flipbook


 The flip book features Mitchell’s photography, cropped again to a square. As you flip the book the images scroll past in an Instagram-like fashion. This changes your experience of Mitchell’s photography emphasizing how when you scroll, you remember less.

The flip book is printed on the same shiny paper as the short sheets.