I took this book out from the library as it was on the recommended reading list, and also because the concept for the book sounded quite interesting: seventy designers were all given the same task- to lay out the first page of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. The instigators of the project (Lucienne Roberts & Rebecca Wright) stated it as an opportunity for the designers to challenge the conventions of book typography, or to work within them. They supplied the text as it appears on the first page of the current Collins Classic paperback version. An intentionally open brief, the designer's responses vary greatly with different interpretations, but an important part of the brief meant that these design decisions had to be explained through a written rationale.
From the results, Roberts & Wright distinguished different categories to order the designs they had received. The six categories they came up with are: Book, which encompasses designs conceived as systems to be applied to a whole book; Word, which covers designs that deconstruct the text; Interaction, the designs under this heading foreground format and reading; Image - a smaller group - which includes designs where the type is treated as image; Tone, which includes design systems that could be applied to the whole novel but where the typography is as much a graphic interpretation of the text as it is to be read; and finally Story, this includes designs that attempt to encapsulate the entire story in some way.
I found looking at all the different designer's interpretations of the brief really intriguing to see how differently people think and apply their creativity to something. Reading the designer's rationales also made me understand some of the intricacies of typography a bit better and it was insightful to see the research the designer's must have to done to inform their decisions.
From the book I have picked out my favourite interpretations of the task:
I picked these 14 designs as my favourites due to varying reasons; some I picked because visually I found them eye-catching, in the case of the illustrative ones, for example the page design which had been hand wrote and show visible signs of smudging, or ones where multiple different typefaces have been used in a way which displays the type as an image, and others I picked due to the clever idea behind the design - for example the redacted text design, where all the words have been omitted apart from 'My Struggle' which encompasses the whole story plot itself, or Ellen Lupton's design which displays the text in a tweet format, with the first sentences appearing at the bottom, as is the case with social media timelines/forums. I also picked another design that plays on this idea of modernising the text through format, one which has been designed to appear like the page in an e-book with 'brightness' and 'zoom' icons apparent.
I really liked the participatory design incorporated in to this book and is something I may try myself.
