A New Look for an Old Book

Thought this was interesting article from fontfeed.com. It makes you remember that design applies to pretty much everything out there...

A Fresh New Look for The Bible

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Fonts in Use | Yves Peters | October 3, 2008

We’re doing a little balancing act today. As we’re barely a month away from the American elections, it was to be expected that polit i cally charged subjects might pop up, even on a primarily type-​oriented blog. We are ultimately part of the world. So we thought it would be a sound idea to post two entries with different world views one after the other, to prevent people from accusing us of any bias. ;)

UK publishing house Hodder & Stoughton have published a new paperback edition of the Bible with a remarkable cover designed by Crush Design & Art Direction Ltd. On their website the Brighton based creative agency explains:

“We were set a tough challenge with this brief to create a fresh new look for The Bible and make it a best selling summer read. Our illus­tra tions made this book the summer’s must have accessory for any non card carrying Christian.

Crush was formed ten years ago in Hoxton, London and relocated to Brighton in 2001, but their client-​base remains primarily in London and overseas. Founder Carl Rush attributes their success to being “a small company with big ideas and a great working atmos phere; we have music playing, good vibes and work bloody hard putting in long hours”, he admits. Crush is made up of five designers and illus trators working for clients that span TV, music, publishing, adver tising and packaging. Their illus tration agency AgencyRush got them the commission from the religious division of Hodder &Stoughton.

The idea behind this edition of the Bible was to encourage people who might never have owned a Bible to feel comfortable buying a copy. Whether or not you believe in its content, you can’t deny its signif i cance – even in today’s world – yet many people would probably be reluctant to buy a more tradi tional looking Bible. Eventually 4000 copies were sold; the booksellers liked the innov ative approach and seemed very happy to stock the Bible. Crush experi enced a fantastic reaction from the public sending them e-mails, asking where to get the book and commenting on how strong the cover is.

The complete cover illus tration without any typographical elements (click the image for a full resolution version).

The inspi ration for the cover illus tration came from the back cover copy lines. Carl Rush considers them one of finest write ups he has seen, and would certainly make him inter­ested enough to read the book. The text mentions “Mankind’s poisoning of a beautiful world” and asks “The cause of wars and intol erance, or the most important book ever written? How well do you know the bible?” So the idea germi nated to conjure up a really contem porary image of the Garden of Eden. On the flip side of the image Crush tried to illus trate the possible “poisoning and destruction of a beautiful world”. Therefore the illus tration shows Adam and Eve fat with the overindul gence of a consumer society gone out of control. The trees have died from pollution and skulls illus trate the destruction of the animal kingdom.

Carl Rush admits that the question he heard the most was: “How did you get away with this design?” The studio proposed three visuals and the client picked Adam and Eve – it’s as simple as that. They didn’t make Crush change a thing. Indeed – as unbelievable as it may sound – there were no correc tions. Crush just put some more detail into the image and polished it. Unfor tu nately they didn’t get to add the type as it was taken care of by the publisher’s in-​house art department. Carl told that if it was up to him he would have kept a very simple sans serif, so he’s not sure what font they used.

Detail of the cover illus tration
The cover is an arresting design. The first thing that hits you are the glowing colours and the surprising vertical division in a positive and a negative mirror image. The illus­tration style is an unexpected blend of naive art and infor mation design reminiscent of the pictograms developed by Otl Aicher for the 1972 Munich Olympics. Examining the illus tration up close reveals a number of intriguing details begging for inter pre tation. Crush definitely succeeded in what they set out to do – the eye-​popping cover looks fresh and inviting. And even if some people may dismiss it as eye-​candy, it is damn good candy, and a very effective design.