The Book of Wonderful Characters, Second Edition
Second Edition Project is an idea to redesign and republish selected books from the 16th to 19th century that have not been re-edited since their first edition.
The Book of Wonderful Characters, Memoirs and anecdotes of remarkable and eccentric persons in all ages and countries was first published by J. C. Hotten, London in 1869.
Libraries around the world are systematically making digital archives of all the books ever written. Thanks to creating open cultural resources, we now have common and free access to various and unique artistic works. Long-forgotten masterpieces gain new life and new audiences. Second Edition books tell stories about ordinary, timeless every-day occurrences. At the same time, due to their archaic style, they gain new fun meaning, becoming an excellent entertainment for the reader. Visually, Second Edition is an attempt to create a unique graphic form, recognising and combining traditional and contemporary approaches to design and typography. The project is a design study about the importance of classical typesetting methods and modern approach to design. It’s a visual compromise showing how both ancient and contemporary design approaches can coexist beautifully.
Inspiration for creating these books came from the initiative of the Public Knowledge Foundation. Its website, www.publicdomainreview.org, showcases miscellaneous public domain works selected by curators. Books chosen for the project came from that particular collection. Second Edition books are created using the OCR method (Optical Character Recognition) through which the scans of all the pages are converted into text files. Unfortunately, the process is still far from perfect, and the files contain numerous spelling mistakes, some of which cannot be corrected automatically. Crafting each book is an arduous and time-consuming task, and I kindly ask readers for their understanding and lenience when and if spelling errors are encountered. All books are already out of copyright and are accessible as public domain
Ada Pawlikowska is a graphic designer, living and working in Gdansk, Poland. Ada is graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, where she also currently teaches Typography in the Graphic Design department. Her main fields of expertise and interest are typography, print and editorial design.
