C by Tom McCarthy (ESAD Matosinhos)
Student assignment from ESAD Matosinhos 2021: “redesign a paperback pocket book or travel book. The chosen work must be timeless and have gathered consensus regarding its quality.”
From the selection list of the El País newspaper I picked C by Tom McCarthy. The novel tells the story of a boy who spends his childhood between silence and the noise of static, and all his life was marked by the mysteries of communication: by codes used during the First World War, by seances in London after the war, and by enigmas of Egypt. C is “an ambitious and original novel in its historical and psychological scope”.
For the book’s core I chose Feijoa, from Klim Type Foundry, a contemporary and well-designed typeface. I chose it because it is serifed, which makes it easier to read in long texts.
For the rest of the book (in titles, subtitles, pagination, among others), I used Neue Haas Grotesk, an older design, however, modern. The choice of this font is also due to the fact that it is a grotesque, associating it with something austere and sober at the same time.
The C on the cover is a cut circle (very similar to the C in the Futura typeface), representing the life cycle of the main character and how it was shortened by not so good events throughout the story.
