Amaya /

Rapture and curiosity. We expect both sensations when considering a book. However million of them have been published, we still want to feel utterly delighted and surprised, in a way. These books envelopes must be unique, stand out from the crowd; it is a key point in the process of catching our moody attention in the shelves of any bookstores or libraries. Once they are in your hand, it’s a balance of words, colours and format that will bring you opening it and discover what’s actually happening behind the cover.
Judith Schalansky achieved my ideal representation of a book. What her Atlas of remote islands suggests, is a total perfection, from it first idea to it realisation. Award as the most beautiful German book in 2008, it has been acclaimed for it delicacy and avant-gardism.
The subheading of the book (Fifty islands I have not visited and never will) highlights with humour the distance graphic designers may have to take with their subjects. Obviously it would have been impossible for Judith to go and visit these islands, but remains that thought which is: How can we talk about a subject we don’t know while keeping a total credibility? In information design, visual techniques of representation (eg. mapping) should be use conscientiously. And Judith takes a great care on pinpointing her island with a great accuracy. Each of them is represented on a globe, for an overall point of view; plus, she added the distance, in kilometres, from the closest countries. The visual system she uses to reflect hills and valleys, though it is fairly poetic, re-use some graphic codes we are familiar with, which makes it perfectly understandable (eg. The density of dots suggests a radical change in altitude / the thin fluo details, in contrast with the grey of the nature, represent a human activity. It could be roads, as well as habitations).
I also fancy the guideline she follows: a mixture of objectivity and subjectivity. One part is pure geographical representation of the islands, historical and social datas such as the number of inhabitants and a time-line of some main events. The other part, by contrast, is a narrative: a story about an event she picked and choose to describe in her words. However it is sticking to facts that actually happened, she gives it a touch of romantic that make it less down to Earth. Eventually her book gains a storytelling angle. It’s not anymore a simplistic representation of islands.
It’s in this field that I would like to heighten my efforts: How to create subjective mapping? Which means avoiding a content that would be purely sticking to a technical representation.
How to mix a subjective and an objective approach? Or how to condense divergent ideas about style in a single project.
How to follow a minimalist approach? Being able to convey lots of information with a purist representation.
How to build a book from A to Z? Judith did actually the whole book, from writing the stories to creating the type (Sirenne) and editing it with a great care on details (Pantone and colour settings).