Tiny Books Publishing
Tiny Books Publishing
Tiny Books Publishing
Tiny Books is launching a mini-format series of Nordic literary masterpieces, designed for readers seeking a break from screen time.
Tiny Books is launching a mini-format series of Nordic literary masterpieces, designed for readers seeking a break from screen time.
Tiny Books is launching a mini-format series of Nordic literary masterpieces, designed for readers seeking a break from screen time.
Project
Course Project
DIS Copenhagen
Graphic Design Foundations
Project
Course Project
DIS Copenhagen
Graphic Design Foundations
Project
Course Project
DIS Copenhagen
Graphic Design Foundations
Skills
Visual design, branding
Skills
Visual design, branding
Skills
Visual design, branding
Timeline
Aug 2024 - Sep 2024
Timeline
Aug 2024 - Sep 2024
Timeline
Aug 2024 - Sep 2024
Prompt
Prompt
Prompt
scroll→
A new publisher, Tiny Books, is launching a mini-format book series featuring works by well-known Nordic authors. A creative concept is needed to
show a different and attention-grabbing take on book design. The design must be eye-catching to build awareness of the publisher and promote the series. It should be cohesive across all books while giving each one a distinct look that reflects its content.
The series targets those looking to reduce their phone dependency and form new habits away from constant online presence. These books offer a
meaningful alternative to mobile use on the go. Portable and compact, they fit in your pocket, providing captivating stories and thoughtful reflections for commutes or breaks.
A new publisher, Tiny Books, is launching a mini-format book series featuring works by well-known Nordic authors. A creative concept is needed to show a different and attention-grabbing take on book design. The design must be eye-catching to build awareness of the publisher and promote the series. It should be cohesive across all books while giving each one a distinct look that reflects its content.
The series targets those looking to reduce their phone dependency and form new habits away from constant online presence. These books offer a meaningful alternative to mobile use on the go. Portable and compact, they fit in your pocket, providing captivating stories and thoughtful reflections for commutes or breaks.
A new publisher, Tiny Books, is launching a mini-format book series featuring works by well-known Nordic authors. A creative concept is needed to show a different and attention-grabbing take on book design. The design must be eye-catching to build awareness of the publisher and promote the series. It should be cohesive across all books while giving each one a distinct look that reflects its content.
The series targets those looking to reduce their phone dependency and form new habits away from constant online presence. These books offer a meaningful alternative to mobile use on the go. Portable and compact, they fit in your pocket, providing captivating stories and thoughtful reflections for commutes or breaks.
Deliverable
Deliverable
Deliverable
From the selection of texts, I chose The Sailor Boy's Tale by Isak Dinesen, Speed of Life by Michael Strunge, and Butterfly Valley by Inger Christensen, each dealing with one concept of transformation:
Pocket full of change —
Buried at the bottom of your pockets, you might find a receipt from yesterday’s cafe where you just got broken up with, or a coin that made the final decision on which university you would attend. Tiny as they may be, these casual scraps are the carved memorabilia of some of the most ephemeral, yet transformative moments in our life. Next time you reach into your pockets, let this handful of mini-format Nordic tales help you embrace the nature of change.
From the selection of texts, I chose The Sailor Boy's Tale by Isak Dinesen, Speed of Life by Michael Strunge, and Butterfly Valley by Inger Christensen, each dealing with one concept of transformation:
Pocket full of change —
Buried at the bottom of your pockets, you might find a receipt from yesterday’s cafe where you just got broken up with, or a coin that made the final decision on which university you would attend. Tiny as they may be, these casual scraps are the carved memorabilia of some of the most ephemeral, yet transformative moments in our life. Next time you reach into your pockets, let this handful of mini-format Nordic tales help you embrace the nature of change.
From the selection of texts, I chose The Sailor Boy's Tale by Isak Dinesen, Speed of Life by Michael Strunge, and Butterfly Valley by Inger Christensen, each dealing with one concept of transformation:
Pocket full of change —
Buried at the bottom of your pockets, you might find a receipt from yesterday’s cafe where you just got broken up with, or a coin that made the final decision on which university you would attend. Tiny as they may be, these casual scraps are the carved memorabilia of some of the most ephemeral, yet transformative moments in our life. Next time you reach into your pockets, let this handful of mini-format Nordic tales help you embrace the nature of change.
Overview
Book cover
Book cover
Book cover
Page samples
Mockup
Book poster
Series poster
Overview
Book covers
Page samples
Mockup
Book poster
Series poster
scroll→
Overview
Book covers
Page samples
Mockup
Book poster
Series poster
Process Presentation
Process Presentation
Process Presentation
1
2
My concept for this project is “Pocket Full of Change”
To me, the Tiny Books branding of “pocket-sized” felt very casual and normal
Think about all the things that you accumulate in your pockets - receipts, scraps, coins - these are all simple and raw artifacts of the experience of living
In considering this, then, the texts that I chose to string together for this series also all relate to very natural processes of the living experience - coming of age in The Sailor-Boy’s Tale, metamorphosis in Butterfly Valley, existential crises in Speed of Life
So, because these texts reflect the changes that come with everyday life, it makes them perfect to read during your everyday life
Hence, there's multiple types of "change" you might find in your pockets
3
4
When I first began this project, I had no idea what to focus on
I read all of the texts, and I knew change and transformation seemed to be a common theme, but I didn’t really know how to make it tangible
Even when looking at previous book covers, it seems that not many of the themes themselves were reflected visually either
So I began simply by identifying motifs that I found were visually or metaphorically beautiful from one text, and tried to build from there
5
In my first iterations, I really loved the blue silk handkerchief in The Sailor Boy’s Tale
Visually, it was beautiful, of course, but I also really liked the idea that it was a gift that demonstrated Simon’s devotion to Nora
I played around with various ways to incorporate it, and took some inspiration from these book covers too
So I had a few versions with a sailboat swimming in a sea made of the blue silk
From there, because I was already playing with materials as a visual cohesion, I tried to look at other ways I could incorporate that into some of the stories, like It’s Quite True, where I tried using denim as an honest material for a story about rumours
These ended up feeling too visually motivated with not quite enough relation to the central theme though
6
I then scaled back to trying out just symbols and text here, with the sailboat and the feather replacing the apostrophe mark
But this had the opposite problem of feeling too literal and simple
7
At this point I was getting pretty frustrated, because I still felt like I lacked a sense of direction in where to go, so I just took a break from it during our one week study tour
It turns out though, that not thinking about it helped me think about it
During the tour, I was part of the group assigned to do a short presentation on Museum Jorn, and I really enjoyed learning about how CoBrA moved more towards a childlike method of making art in the postwar period as a way to denounce the civilized western world, and specifically how they used color and brushwork to do this
This tension between the rigidity of society versus our innate tendencies is very much reflected in the texts that we read, and is a big part of what makes change and transformation so complex
For example, The Sailor Boy's Tale details certain rites of passage for Simon's manhood, and yet there is something innocent in him that resists at first
8
When we returned from the trip, I played around more with color
More specifically, I played around with complementary colors in an attempt to try and elicit that tension in change
This definitely was a deviation from existing book covers for these texts, but I liked the vibrancy
For The Sailor Boy’s Tale, I chose the orange and the blue of the handkerchief to represent Simon and Nora, as their meeting really catalyzed many of the changes for Simon
For Speed of Life, it was difficult to convey speed literally, so after seeing previous covers that had depicted it in an urban city, I chose external symbols from the pedestrian lights, which fit well because they were red and green
And finally, I had the most trouble with Butterfly Valley because it was already so literal, but I chose yellow and purple for the swallowtail butterflies that were mentioned
I also added lines to make the change feel more dynamic
9
I also played around with the layout and spread of colors
Here, the motifs extend outside of the color boundaries indicating visual growth
10
These designs began to grow on me, but they still felt a little static
I looked at some inspiration to see how I might complexify them
There were some texture ideas but they also looking too naturalistic and scientific
I also continued looking at other book accounts but many were still very dependent on illustrations or photographs
11
Instead, thinking back to the Jorn museum where we had the chance to use crayons, I began playing with oil pastels to give it that fleeting essence
I first sketched the existing covers entirely with oil pastels, but found that it was a little too messy
12
So I began just creating some graphical elements using the oil pastels
The orange and the pedestrian were much easier to do, but the butterfly had me stumped for a little
I played around with many different ways to draw butterflies, but they each just looked too cliche
I went back and reread the poem, and found that Inger Christensen doesn’t necessarily describe them by their individuals, but rather what they represent in masses
As a result, I made quick marks to visualize them in a swarm, which was much more powerful than focusing on their individual shapes and designs
13
What ultimately resulted, was a very organic set of graphic elements, which fit perfectly into my interpretations of the texts as relating to not simply change and transformation, but change and transformation of the natural living experienceSo I began just creating some graphical elements using the oil pastels
The orange and the pedestrian were much easier to do, but the butterfly had me stumped for a little
I played around with many different ways to draw butterflies, but they each just looked too cliche
I went back and reread the poem, and found that Inger Christensen doesn’t necessarily describe them by their individuals, but rather what they represent in masses
As a result, I made quick marks to visualize them in a swarm, which was much more powerful than focusing on their individual shapes and designs
14
Following the decision on the graphic elements, I took a look at how to approach font
I originally had mainly serif fonts because that felt very classic, but I leaned more towards this hand written script at the end because I felt it tied nicely with the casualness of the oil pastel
Because many people experience have experienced the themes of these texts, I wanted the text almost to feel like a letter - very personal, and making the reader feel understood
15
Once I had all these pieces, I began piecing them together
I had so many iterations with only minor tweaks, but it really helped to print everything out so I could actually see what it looked like in real life
Printing it out was actually what helped me choose between my two layout formats, where one had the color to be the full height of the book while the other had the color to only be a constrained box
Both depict the motif growing out of the boundaries of the color, but the full height one looked better in the small-format print
Printing it out also helped me identify that my original text for the Tiny Books publisher was not legible
16
These are my final book covers, as well as some of the guiding words I followed throughout my process!
We have The Sailor Boy's Tale with the contrast of the orange and the blue, and as mentioned, I chose those two motifs because of the significance of the meeting between Simon and Nora for change through coming of age
Speed of Life draws from the connotation of the blurry change of speed with familiar pedestrian lights
And Butterfly Valley depicts how change is powerful in these fluttering swarms
17
Once I landed on this book design and this concept, I used that branding to guide my posters
For my book poster, I really wanted to let the colors and motif shine, and so I edited the orange to saturate the entire page for an overwhelming effect
I also emphasized the oil pastel graphic elements even more by creating my own text with oil pastel and using that
It follows the AIDA model because the "Taste Fate" is supposed to grab the viewers attention, and the book cover itself is intended to be of interest and desire, and the final action can be found in the bottom link
18
For my series poster, I played more with the concept of "Pocket full of change," and that sort of casual, everyday idea
I also wrote out my own text for that, in addition to placing in scraps of paper and a coin that I had
Because I had such a diverse color palette for the three books, I made the poster itself black and white
Working with those photorealistic elements of the coin and the scraps of paper was a little difficult just because my covers themselves are a little bit more flat in color, so I had to play around with composition to make it fit together, hence that black box
19
20
21
1
2
My concept for this project is “Pocket Full of Change”
To me, the Tiny Books branding of “pocket-sized” felt very casual and normal
Think about all the things that you accumulate in your pockets - receipts, scraps, coins - these are all simple and raw artifacts of the experience of living
In considering this, then, the texts that I chose to string together for this series also all relate to very natural processes of the living experience - coming of age in The Sailor-Boy’s Tale, metamorphosis in Butterfly Valley, existential crises in Speed of Life
So, because these texts reflect the changes that come with everyday life, it makes them perfect to read during your everyday life
Hence, there's multiple types of "change" you might find in your pockets
3
4
When I first began this project, I had no idea what to focus on
I read all of the texts, and I knew change and transformation seemed to be a common theme, but I didn’t really know how to make it tangible
Even when looking at previous book covers, it seems that not many of the themes themselves were reflected visually either
So I began simply by identifying motifs that I found were visually or metaphorically beautiful from one text, and tried to build from there
5
In my first iterations, I really loved the blue silk handkerchief in The Sailor Boy’s Tale
Visually, it was beautiful, of course, but I also really liked the idea that it was a gift that demonstrated Simon’s devotion to Nora
I played around with various ways to incorporate it, and took some inspiration from these book covers too
So I had a few versions with a sailboat swimming in a sea made of the blue silk
From there, because I was already playing with materials as a visual cohesion, I tried to look at other ways I could incorporate that into some of the stories, like It’s Quite True, where I tried using denim as an honest material for a story about rumours
These ended up feeling too visually motivated with not quite enough relation to the central theme though
6
I then scaled back to trying out just symbols and text here, with the sailboat and the feather replacing the apostrophe mark
But this had the opposite problem of feeling too literal and simple
7
At this point I was getting pretty frustrated, because I still felt like I lacked a sense of direction in where to go, so I just took a break from it during our one week study tour
It turns out though, that not thinking about it helped me think about it
During the tour, I was part of the group assigned to do a short presentation on Museum Jorn, and I really enjoyed learning about how CoBrA moved more towards a childlike method of making art in the postwar period as a way to denounce the civilized western world, and specifically how they used color and brushwork to do this
This tension between the rigidity of society versus our innate tendencies is very much reflected in the texts that we read, and is a big part of what makes change and transformation so complex
For example, The Sailor Boy's Tale details certain rites of passage for Simon's manhood, and yet there is something innocent in him that resists at first
8
When we returned from the trip, I played around more with color
More specifically, I played around with complementary colors in an attempt to try and elicit that tension in change
This definitely was a deviation from existing book covers for these texts, but I liked the vibrancy
For The Sailor Boy’s Tale, I chose the orange and the blue of the handkerchief to represent Simon and Nora, as their meeting really catalyzed many of the changes for Simon
For Speed of Life, it was difficult to convey speed literally, so after seeing previous covers that had depicted it in an urban city, I chose external symbols from the pedestrian lights, which fit well because they were red and green
And finally, I had the most trouble with Butterfly Valley because it was already so literal, but I chose yellow and purple for the swallowtail butterflies that were mentioned
I also added lines to make the change feel more dynamic
9
I also played around with the layout and spread of colors
Here, the motifs extend outside of the color boundaries indicating visual growth
10
These designs began to grow on me, but they still felt a little static
I looked at some inspiration to see how I might complexify them
There were some texture ideas but they also looking too naturalistic and scientific
I also continued looking at other book accounts but many were still very dependent on illustrations or photographs
11
Instead, thinking back to the Jorn museum where we had the chance to use crayons, I began playing with oil pastels to give it that fleeting essence
I first sketched the existing covers entirely with oil pastels, but found that it was a little too messy
12
So I began just creating some graphical elements using the oil pastels
The orange and the pedestrian were much easier to do, but the butterfly had me stumped for a little
I played around with many different ways to draw butterflies, but they each just looked too cliche
I went back and reread the poem, and found that Inger Christensen doesn’t necessarily describe them by their individuals, but rather what they represent in masses
As a result, I made quick marks to visualize them in a swarm, which was much more powerful than focusing on their individual shapes and designs
13
What ultimately resulted, was a very organic set of graphic elements, which fit perfectly into my interpretations of the texts as relating to not simply change and transformation, but change and transformation of the natural living experienceSo I began just creating some graphical elements using the oil pastels
The orange and the pedestrian were much easier to do, but the butterfly had me stumped for a little
I played around with many different ways to draw butterflies, but they each just looked too cliche
I went back and reread the poem, and found that Inger Christensen doesn’t necessarily describe them by their individuals, but rather what they represent in masses
As a result, I made quick marks to visualize them in a swarm, which was much more powerful than focusing on their individual shapes and designs
14
Following the decision on the graphic elements, I took a look at how to approach font
I originally had mainly serif fonts because that felt very classic, but I leaned more towards this hand written script at the end because I felt it tied nicely with the casualness of the oil pastel
Because many people experience have experienced the themes of these texts, I wanted the text almost to feel like a letter - very personal, and making the reader feel understood
15
Once I had all these pieces, I began piecing them together
I had so many iterations with only minor tweaks, but it really helped to print everything out so I could actually see what it looked like in real life
Printing it out was actually what helped me choose between my two layout formats, where one had the color to be the full height of the book while the other had the color to only be a constrained box
Both depict the motif growing out of the boundaries of the color, but the full height one looked better in the small-format print
Printing it out also helped me identify that my original text for the Tiny Books publisher was not legible
16
These are my final book covers, as well as some of the guiding words I followed throughout my process!
We have The Sailor Boy's Tale with the contrast of the orange and the blue, and as mentioned, I chose those two motifs because of the significance of the meeting between Simon and Nora for change through coming of age
Speed of Life draws from the connotation of the blurry change of speed with familiar pedestrian lights
And Butterfly Valley depicts how change is powerful in these fluttering swarms
17
Once I landed on this book design and this concept, I used that branding to guide my posters
For my book poster, I really wanted to let the colors and motif shine, and so I edited the orange to saturate the entire page for an overwhelming effect
I also emphasized the oil pastel graphic elements even more by creating my own text with oil pastel and using that
It follows the AIDA model because the "Taste Fate" is supposed to grab the viewers attention, and the book cover itself is intended to be of interest and desire, and the final action can be found in the bottom link
18
For my series poster, I played more with the concept of "Pocket full of change," and that sort of casual, everyday idea
I also wrote out my own text for that, in addition to placing in scraps of paper and a coin that I had
Because I had such a diverse color palette for the three books, I made the poster itself black and white
Working with those photorealistic elements of the coin and the scraps of paper was a little difficult just because my covers themselves are a little bit more flat in color, so I had to play around with composition to make it fit together, hence that black box
19
20
21
scroll→
1
2
My concept for this project is “Pocket Full of Change”
To me, the Tiny Books branding of “pocket-sized” felt very casual and normal
Think about all the things that you accumulate in your pockets - receipts, scraps, coins - these are all simple and raw artifacts of the experience of living
In considering this, then, the texts that I chose to string together for this series also all relate to very natural processes of the living experience - coming of age in The Sailor-Boy’s Tale, metamorphosis in Butterfly Valley, existential crises in Speed of Life
So, because these texts reflect the changes that come with everyday life, it makes them perfect to read during your everyday life
Hence, there's multiple types of "change" you might find in your pockets
3
4
When I first began this project, I had no idea what to focus on
I read all of the texts, and I knew change and transformation seemed to be a common theme, but I didn’t really know how to make it tangible
Even when looking at previous book covers, it seems that not many of the themes themselves were reflected visually either
So I began simply by identifying motifs that I found were visually or metaphorically beautiful from one text, and tried to build from there
5
In my first iterations, I really loved the blue silk handkerchief in The Sailor Boy’s Tale
Visually, it was beautiful, of course, but I also really liked the idea that it was a gift that demonstrated Simon’s devotion to Nora
I played around with various ways to incorporate it, and took some inspiration from these book covers too
So I had a few versions with a sailboat swimming in a sea made of the blue silk
From there, because I was already playing with materials as a visual cohesion, I tried to look at other ways I could incorporate that into some of the stories, like It’s Quite True, where I tried using denim as an honest material for a story about rumours
These ended up feeling too visually motivated with not quite enough relation to the central theme though
6
I then scaled back to trying out just symbols and text here, with the sailboat and the feather replacing the apostrophe mark
But this had the opposite problem of feeling too literal and simple
7
At this point I was getting pretty frustrated, because I still felt like I lacked a sense of direction in where to go, so I just took a break from it during our one week study tour
It turns out though, that not thinking about it helped me think about it
During the tour, I was part of the group assigned to do a short presentation on Museum Jorn, and I really enjoyed learning about how CoBrA moved more towards a childlike method of making art in the postwar period as a way to denounce the civilized western world, and specifically how they used color and brushwork to do this
This tension between the rigidity of society versus our innate tendencies is very much reflected in the texts that we read, and is a big part of what makes change and transformation so complex
For example, The Sailor Boy's Tale details certain rites of passage for Simon's manhood, and yet there is something innocent in him that resists at first
8
When we returned from the trip, I played around more with color
More specifically, I played around with complementary colors in an attempt to try and elicit that tension in change
This definitely was a deviation from existing book covers for these texts, but I liked the vibrancy
For The Sailor Boy’s Tale, I chose the orange and the blue of the handkerchief to represent Simon and Nora, as their meeting really catalyzed many of the changes for Simon
For Speed of Life, it was difficult to convey speed literally, so after seeing previous covers that had depicted it in an urban city, I chose external symbols from the pedestrian lights, which fit well because they were red and green
And finally, I had the most trouble with Butterfly Valley because it was already so literal, but I chose yellow and purple for the swallowtail butterflies that were mentioned
I also added lines to make the change feel more dynamic
9
I also played around with the layout and spread of colors
Here, the motifs extend outside of the color boundaries indicating visual growth
10
These designs began to grow on me, but they still felt a little static
I looked at some inspiration to see how I might complexify them
There were some texture ideas but they also looking too naturalistic and scientific
I also continued looking at other book accounts but many were still very dependent on illustrations or photographs
11
Instead, thinking back to the Jorn museum where we had the chance to use crayons, I began playing with oil pastels to give it that fleeting essence
I first sketched the existing covers entirely with oil pastels, but found that it was a little too messy
12
So I began just creating some graphical elements using the oil pastels
The orange and the pedestrian were much easier to do, but the butterfly had me stumped for a little
I played around with many different ways to draw butterflies, but they each just looked too cliche
I went back and reread the poem, and found that Inger Christensen doesn’t necessarily describe them by their individuals, but rather what they represent in masses
As a result, I made quick marks to visualize them in a swarm, which was much more powerful than focusing on their individual shapes and designs
13
What ultimately resulted, was a very organic set of graphic elements, which fit perfectly into my interpretations of the texts as relating to not simply change and transformation, but change and transformation of the natural living experienceSo I began just creating some graphical elements using the oil pastels
The orange and the pedestrian were much easier to do, but the butterfly had me stumped for a little
I played around with many different ways to draw butterflies, but they each just looked too cliche
I went back and reread the poem, and found that Inger Christensen doesn’t necessarily describe them by their individuals, but rather what they represent in masses
As a result, I made quick marks to visualize them in a swarm, which was much more powerful than focusing on their individual shapes and designs
14
Following the decision on the graphic elements, I took a look at how to approach font
I originally had mainly serif fonts because that felt very classic, but I leaned more towards this hand written script at the end because I felt it tied nicely with the casualness of the oil pastel
Because many people experience have experienced the themes of these texts, I wanted the text almost to feel like a letter - very personal, and making the reader feel understood
15
Once I had all these pieces, I began piecing them together
I had so many iterations with only minor tweaks, but it really helped to print everything out so I could actually see what it looked like in real life
Printing it out was actually what helped me choose between my two layout formats, where one had the color to be the full height of the book while the other had the color to only be a constrained box
Both depict the motif growing out of the boundaries of the color, but the full height one looked better in the small-format print
Printing it out also helped me identify that my original text for the Tiny Books publisher was not legible
16
These are my final book covers, as well as some of the guiding words I followed throughout my process!
We have The Sailor Boy's Tale with the contrast of the orange and the blue, and as mentioned, I chose those two motifs because of the significance of the meeting between Simon and Nora for change through coming of age
Speed of Life draws from the connotation of the blurry change of speed with familiar pedestrian lights
And Butterfly Valley depicts how change is powerful in these fluttering swarms
17
Once I landed on this book design and this concept, I used that branding to guide my posters
For my book poster, I really wanted to let the colors and motif shine, and so I edited the orange to saturate the entire page for an overwhelming effect
I also emphasized the oil pastel graphic elements even more by creating my own text with oil pastel and using that
It follows the AIDA model because the "Taste Fate" is supposed to grab the viewers attention, and the book cover itself is intended to be of interest and desire, and the final action can be found in the bottom link
18
For my series poster, I played more with the concept of "Pocket full of change," and that sort of casual, everyday idea
I also wrote out my own text for that, in addition to placing in scraps of paper and a coin that I had
Because I had such a diverse color palette for the three books, I made the poster itself black and white
Working with those photorealistic elements of the coin and the scraps of paper was a little difficult just because my covers themselves are a little bit more flat in color, so I had to play around with composition to make it fit together, hence that black box
19
20
21
