German Expressionist Cinema: The World of Light and Shadow is a publication created as a response to ISTD 2021 brief no. 2 “Silence is Golden”. It focuses on explaining the history behind German Expressionism in film and introduces three films of the era in more depth: The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920), Nosferatu (1922) and Warning Shadows (1923). The text has been taken from the book of the same title by Ian Roberts, published by Wallflower Press in 2008.
The targeted audience is film students and enthusiasts, who are interested in learning more of this fascinating era of film with a visual ‘coffee table’ book. The aim was to make silent cinema more interesting to younger generations, who may regard films from this period as boring and unwatchable when compared to modern films. German Expressionist cinema first emerged after World War I. The films show nightmarish and distorted imagery as a way to express the grief the war caused on people. The expressivity of a human figure extended into every aspect of the mise-en-scene in the films, the decor reflected the character’s mentality and the character often became part of their surroundings. The films use a lot of exaggerated and distorted elements, creating a the sense of threat and unreality. This was the main approach for my layouts, as well as how chiaroscuro lighting technique was used to show a strong contrast between light and dark.
The visual design of the publication reflects these characteristics. Imagery is layered and merged together with type, in much the same way as the characters blend into their surroundings in the films. Some typography and imagery is made using lo-fi physical techniques, with letters roughly cut out, raised and shone with bright lights to create foreboding shadows. This process mirrors Expressionist ideologies that denied mechanisation and materialism and often used hand-made sets painted with additional shadows instead of more realistic locations.
Digital typography celebrates the Expressionist style as well with Irrlicht typeface (designed by Ari Hausel) keeping the Expressionist aesthetic in the typography throughout the publication. Both versions of the typeface are used in headings and pull quotes. Page format is based on the 4:3 aspect ratio, in which silent films of the time were filmed. Pages are measured to fit into this ratio, keeping in mind that the book size is reasonably small in order to keep printing more sustainable.
