Unheimlich by Artur Novikov

Unheimlich (“Uncanny”) is a reference to Sigmund Freud’s term. Artur Novikov (poet) asked me to make a design to embody his description:

This book is about poetry, or should be. All the verses in it are surrounded by a black shimmer, a black outline of ominous consonances, or should be. This book is the author’s attempt to say goodbye to the leitmotif of the uncanny inside his being by transferring the sound overpressure of this to paper. This book is a demonstration of this transference process: it will be carried out before your eyes.

I undertook to embody the uncanny and surround the negative space with a ragged repetition of the title and idea of the book – “Unheimlich”.

Repetition is necessary to emphasize the essence of the term – a meeting with something has already happened, with something very familiar, which leaves an ominous feeling.

This repetition principle is expressed on the front as well as on the back cover to become one unit. The back cover inherits the points from the letter i, extracted from the front cover word “Unheimlich”. It is a reference to a poetic rhyme, when words from one line convey particles of the sounds of words from the previous one.

Thus, Unheimlich is dark poetry and an uncanny encounter with the past.

Dimensions: 5×8 in. (12.7×20.32 cm). Principal type: Neue Montreal by Pangram Pangram.