There’s a saying: good design should be invisible. In artist's book design the designer should beinvisible.
It has to be about the artist and his/her artwork, not how cool you can make a book tostand out. That approach works for other situations.
Designing an artist's book is tricky. It has to be an extension of artwork, yet not be artwork. Itshould be like a frame for a painting. You don’t look at the frame, you look at the painting.
The example I’m going to show is an artist book for Olga Simón and her Jardín Polar (Polar
Garden).
The challenge was to design a book as an object. To be a ‘frame’ for Olga Simon’s work.
First of all, I have to say I loved her work and really took my time looking at it, studying it,reading the texts she wrote. It was a part of Cuadernos Kursala project from 2010.
Let’s cut to the chase.
What I had on my hands was a PDF file with texts and - rather abstract - photos. Having readthe texts, I discovered those were macro images (oh, my beloved macro) of a letter torn intopieces and frozen in ice cubes, a symbol of words preserved through time.
It has to be about the artist and his/her artwork, not how cool you can make a book tostand out. That approach works for other situations.
Designing an artist's book is tricky. It has to be an extension of artwork, yet not be artwork. Itshould be like a frame for a painting. You don’t look at the frame, you look at the painting.
The example I’m going to show is an artist book for Olga Simón and her Jardín Polar (Polar
Garden).
The challenge was to design a book as an object. To be a ‘frame’ for Olga Simon’s work.
First of all, I have to say I loved her work and really took my time looking at it, studying it,reading the texts she wrote. It was a part of Cuadernos Kursala project from 2010.
Let’s cut to the chase.
What I had on my hands was a PDF file with texts and - rather abstract - photos. Having readthe texts, I discovered those were macro images (oh, my beloved macro) of a letter torn intopieces and frozen in ice cubes, a symbol of words preserved through time.
Design had to be subtle, ‘white on white’ to go in sync with the artists’ delicate work.
I chose the cover to be faux leather textured, white, to give it solemnity of an art book, yet thebinding had to be wired.
There is a twist with layout and paging. Two images are put on each page, on top of the other.
The page is split across, so that the reader can alter the order they view artwork.
At the same time this free flow is interrupted every now and then with a whole unsplit page oftext, each piece is the artists’ narrative of her work, her inspiration and what the project is about.
Only in the end does the reader discover that the abstract images they are viewing are icecubes with a torn frozen letter inside.
I chose the cover to be faux leather textured, white, to give it solemnity of an art book, yet thebinding had to be wired.
There is a twist with layout and paging. Two images are put on each page, on top of the other.
The page is split across, so that the reader can alter the order they view artwork.
At the same time this free flow is interrupted every now and then with a whole unsplit page oftext, each piece is the artists’ narrative of her work, her inspiration and what the project is about.
Only in the end does the reader discover that the abstract images they are viewing are icecubes with a torn frozen letter inside.
Key words: ice, polar, white, bnw, silver, winter, frozen.
Color scheme: white, greyscale, silver.
Material: faux leather white hardcover, wire-o binding, coated paper 250 g/m2.
Printing: offset, hot stamp (on cover).
Color scheme: white, greyscale, silver.
Material: faux leather white hardcover, wire-o binding, coated paper 250 g/m2.
Printing: offset, hot stamp (on cover).
