Jules Verne Series
Designer/Illustrator: Ely Sarig
Typefaces: Garamond, Usherwood
Up to this point, FaceOut Books hasn’t featured any projects that weren’t published designs. I ran across Ely Sarig’s designs for this Jules Verne series and was so impressed with the job he did on the design as well as building the final product. I love the slipcase. Thanks to Ely for contributing to our blog. Great work Ely.
—Charles Brock
Designer Bio
I'm 28 years old.
I studied In Bezalel Academy of arts and design in Jerusalem in the visual communication dept. where I graduated with honors.
I work as a creative director in the interactive media field.
I live in the countryside near Tel-Aviv.
What is the background for this project?
The project was made as part of a book design course. The task was to design a book series for a classic author. I chose Jules Verne.
What are the books about?
I focused on three of Verne's classic science fiction novels: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870), From the Earth to the Moon (1865), and The Clipper of the Clouds (1886). The subject of these novels, as much of Verne's subjects, is speculation about the then imaginary technology: Sailing in a submarine, a trip to the moon, and flying in an air-ship.
Were there any steps taken before you started designing?
I spent days researching engineering and industrial design books from the Victorian era. Once I felt that I understood the "language" of the Victorian industrial design style, I started sketching the different machines by putting bits and pieces of different parts together. For these preliminary sketches I also used other reference materials like pirate ships, WWII subs and spacecrafts.
Was there a clear working process that led up to the final?
As this was an academic project, we were required to present our progress along the way. For the initial concept presentation, I created a crude sketch of a proposed cover. It was a general test to see if the idea could materialize into something that really worked. The response was good, and so I began researching and fleshing out the covers. In the last stage I produced the covers and the box set design, focusing on the creation of a single and unique feel for them.
What is the message behind the design?
My concept for the series was to bring the novels to view as exciting Science fiction Novels with a 1800's twist. To do this I set out to emphasis to combination of old and new, Interpreting Verne's fantasies as if I was seeing them through the eyes of the 19th century engineer.
What would you say makes this an effective design?
I think that the strength of this solution is by making Verne's stories seem more exciting and relevant as science fiction works rather then as classics, even though they're more than a 100 years old.
1.12.09 // Jason R. Gabbert said:
Wow, this is phenomenal!
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1.12.09 // Robert Schumann said:
Yes Jason, that's true! Great work!
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1.12.09 // Anonymous said:
Beautiful. Just beautiful.
Mazel tov.
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1.12.09 // Ricardo Cordoba said:
Beautiful work. The fact that Ely also drew the diagrams makes this project even more impressive.
