The Mosaic Experiment
Designer: Arthur Cherry
Illustration: Keith Alexander
Publisher: The House Studio
Typefaces: San Marco, Helvetica
Specials: The original concept was to have an embossed beard but it in the end it didn’t happen.
Photos of cover and interior: Brandon Hill Photos
I love beards! I love book covers! I love Arthur Cherry! I love this post!
—Jason Gabbert
This book is about revisiting ancient Old Testament Bible practices that are still relevant today.
The constraints for this book were minimal. The only thing that was required was the type style.
When I started work on this project I only received a title, subtitle, and a brief description of what the book was about. Not much, but I had an idea rolling around in my head. I began to think of ideas and looking for inspiration. For the first time I tried a moodboard on http://www.imgspark.com to collect some inspiration.
My first thought was to use something that represented the ancient, but still maintained a look for today. The initial concept was to use a beard. I thought the idea of a beard was perfect. It worked well with the Mosaic idea and the idea of bringing something back that for ages has been of a lesser class.
It just so happened that, as I began working on this book, I was also preparing to enter my very own 4 month documentation of beard growth on whiskerino.org. Maybe I didn’t need the moodboard inspiration after all?
I collaborated with Keith Alexander to come up with a quick concept that we could submit to the client. These are the first couple sketches:
After he sent me a few quick illustrations I started designing the cover.
I ended up submitting these three covers to the client.
The first response, as I remember, was something like, “NO WAY, a beard!” To my delight, I soon learned that the intro to this book had a reference to the very same beard-growing contest I was about to take part in. It was a perfect match. After some debating, the beard concept won out. I went back to Keith and we worked out a final design for the cover.
On this project, I had the opportunity to design the interior pages also. The inside pages are not only set up like a reading book but also as a journal to doodle and write notes down when doing an experiment. It makes for a minimal design that was contrasted with Middle Eastern pattern styles. Like the cover, the interior is set in San Marco and Helvetica.
It is always nice when life experience leads to inspiration.
