The New Antiquarians by Michael Diaz-Griffith

The New Antiquarians is a publication by Phaidon, which

features twenty-two young connoisseurs whose spirited interiors exemplify unorthodox approaches to living with history. (…) The book is an exuberant entry point into the world of antiques, highlighting one-of-a-kind collections and the single-minded collectors whose stories suggest compelling new ways of living with the past.

I worked with the writer, art historian and curator Michael Diaz-Griffith, and the team at Monacelli and Phaidon to craft the full visual world for the book, with special attention paid towards creating an object that felt appropriately historic – without leaning too far into pastiche. The book design had to be thematically consistent enough to link together such a disparate set of interior styles, while still leaving room for each subject’s unique perspective to hold appropriate space.

The result was an eclectic typographic and compositional system that spoke to 19th-century book design, balanced out by an approach to color and illustration that varied from chapter to chapter; each collector in the book was paired with a carefully curated archival spot illustration, border, and palette that reflected their particular visual idiosyncrasies and interests.

The book uses an eclectic mix of type that nods to myriad eras and art movements. Body text is set in Henry, 205TF’s take on Garamond, which brings a delicate formality to long blocks of copy (especially when italic), while the chapter headlines, title page, and jacket spine use Albertus in all caps – a nod to the classicism of Roman square capitals. Chapter numbers are set in the Art Deco-inspired Top Tune JNL from Jeff Levine, contributor names in Canada Type’s swashy Monte Cristo, and captions and subheads in the utilitarian Styrene A (Commercial Type).

The book jacket and case further riff on the border motif established for chapter headings, with the former utilizing a reworked public domain illustration from the 19th century to create a cover scene that evokes a stage or a window – supported by a title set in Daylight Fonts’ Ivy DF, with custom ligatures – while the latter takes the frame concept to its logical, slightly absurdist, extreme for the interior embossed hardcover.

Hardcover, 292×241 mm (11.5×9.5 in), 272 pages
Book photography by Brian W. Ferry