When We Were Romans
Author: Matthew Kneale
Designer: Emily Mahon
Illustrator: Ian Dingman
Publisher: Doubleday/Nan A. Talese
Typefaces: Filosofia
Specials: 4/c matte, die-cut, printed case
Genre: Fiction/Literary
I've been a fan of Emily's work for a few years now. This is such a beautiful package to see in person. I love the die-cut and printed case. Thanks Emily for sending us a copy and thanks for taking the time to give us some insight into this great project.
—Charles Brock
Similar in tone to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, When We Were Romans is a story told through one child’s voice. The child, Lawrence, takes us for an adventure with his sister and his mother, who suffers from mental illness. His mum decides to pack up the family car for a trip from their country home in England to Rome. For the trip, Lawrence can only bring a few special toys and his pet hamster. After many actual and imagined circumstances along the journey, Lawrence realizes that his mum’s thinking isn’t rooted in reality, and he is forced to grow up fast.
Even with the underlying sadness of the subject matter, this is a fun, special book and I wanted to package it with that in mind. I knew this called for an illustration. I wanted to create a whimsical cover and thought the hamster wheel could be the centerpiece of Rome, similar to the Coliseum in its central position in the city. Their old yellow European car was key to the story, and the idea of using a starry sky as the background related to Lawrence’s imagined constellations. I liked the idea of the car driving in circles around what looks like a simple wheel, and the revealing of another world with a die-cut, once the jacket is removed.
I spent time researching illustrators, European cars, the Roman cityscape and, of course, hamster wheels! I was looking for an illustrator with a sophisticated yet childlike quality to his work, and someone who used watercolors, with nice line-work and a beautiful muted palette. I had seen Ian Dingman’s work online and in magazines and had to go digging to find his website again; he seemed perfect for the book.
After piecing together some sketches of my concept, using stock art and my very rough drawings, I presented these to the publisher, along with Ian’s samples (the original concept had to be approved before going forward with the illustration). Fortunately, the editor had faith in me and the illustrator and recognized that our design could work. The only issue was that the budget was modest because of the low print run, but I convinced the publisher and editor to use a die-cut and printed case, as long as there were no other effects.
I hate dictating concepts to an illustrator, but for this book, I had already presented sketches of my idea, so we had to keep within that framework. But Ian was extremely accommodating and came up with some variations on the concept. His sketches were tight and just what I had envisioned.
For the type, I wanted to keep things very simple, since the illustration was involved. Oh, and because there was SO much copy that had to go on the front cover to sell it. Ah, yes, marketing!
I learned in design school that if you’re going to use a die-cut, you have to build in a surprise, a payoff. I’ve seen die-cuts that don’t expose anything new and that seems to defeat the whole purpose. It’s a trick of sorts. I’d like to believe this one was successful…
6.01.09 // Ian said:
Beautiful. The illustration that is revealed, truly does add another layer of meaning. The whole thing has the feel of the Royal Tannenbaum's. That quirky surreal feel.
It's funny with a book like this where the title and image and overall approach is so disjointed yet solidified by the clever use of illustration and in this case a die cut that hints at a multi layered aspect of the story.
