I stumbled upon a new series of John le Carré books by David Pearson @typeasimage. The typography and colors were just spot on. With very limited means, the designer managed to evoke the atmosphere of the bygone era; I thought I'd like to do something similar with Chandler.
I first read Chandler in the Polish communist-era editions of the "Z jamnikiem" series. Wonderful paperback designs from the scarcity economy era! The glue crumbles, so most of them are in tatters. Monochrome covers, mandatory snippet of the novel's text on the front and an unusual squat format – I absorbed all of this into my project.
I spent hours watching film noir title sequences from the 40s, the craftsmanship of Hollywood letterers is striking: variety and imagination in forms. I knew I had to refer to this somehow, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up: that's why each volume of our edition has the title written in a different typeface. Sometimes these are typefaces from that era, sometimes inspired by it.
And finally, the interior design – thanks to the Internet Archive I delved into the designs of the cult series Dell Mystery; therefore, our edition will have a layout (from the look of the title pages to the characteristic location of the page numbers) inspired by it! And the whole thing I obviously set in Paperback typeface by John Downer: a beautiful take on Scotch Roman (which also inspired W.A. Dwiggins in the 30s when designing the New Caledonia typeface, quite popular for the next decades in the American publishing world.)
I tell you: research is pure fun, intertwining various threads is now the coolest part of my job. You can probably see about 5% of it, but the awareness that IT ALL CONNECTS, that I leave nothing to chance - well, that's something
I first read Chandler in the Polish communist-era editions of the "Z jamnikiem" series. Wonderful paperback designs from the scarcity economy era! The glue crumbles, so most of them are in tatters. Monochrome covers, mandatory snippet of the novel's text on the front and an unusual squat format – I absorbed all of this into my project.
I spent hours watching film noir title sequences from the 40s, the craftsmanship of Hollywood letterers is striking: variety and imagination in forms. I knew I had to refer to this somehow, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up: that's why each volume of our edition has the title written in a different typeface. Sometimes these are typefaces from that era, sometimes inspired by it.
And finally, the interior design – thanks to the Internet Archive I delved into the designs of the cult series Dell Mystery; therefore, our edition will have a layout (from the look of the title pages to the characteristic location of the page numbers) inspired by it! And the whole thing I obviously set in Paperback typeface by John Downer: a beautiful take on Scotch Roman (which also inspired W.A. Dwiggins in the 30s when designing the New Caledonia typeface, quite popular for the next decades in the American publishing world.)
I tell you: research is pure fun, intertwining various threads is now the coolest part of my job. You can probably see about 5% of it, but the awareness that IT ALL CONNECTS, that I leave nothing to chance - well, that's something
