ALS LAGE LANDEN TE KLEIN ZIJN: 15 Bizarre Levens in het Buitenland — Book Cover ✻ 2023
Hannah Huber - Storyhouse Works
Bonifacius (Bonny) Wassing's book 'Als Lage Landen te Klein Zijn: 15 Bizarre Levens in het Buitenland' is about the stories of 15 Dutch and Flemish people who have led unconventional, eccentric or mysterious lives abroad. They led their adventurous lives of their own free will, sometimes unwillingly. They were doctors or artists, worked in the trade or were simply held hostage. Many are relatively unknown in the Low Countries, but they live on in the collective memory in the country where they stayed. Available only in Dutch at the moment, Bonny's book is both available as paperback and e-book version.
Bonny had in mind to create a coffee table book for his collective stories and under Hannah Huber's project management, I was in charge of the cover design, with Lisa Hall of Lemonberry laying this beautiful book out. This amazing, very realistic illustration of one of the characters in the book, Maria, was created by Sylvie Wewe and Bonny wanted us to use this illustration on the front cover. My idea was to make the portrait flow into the back cover, using a contrasting turquoise colour on the background, together with gold that resonates with that time period. For the typeface I have gone for a modern sans-serif font, creating contrast again with the visual.
I really enjoyed working on this layout, as it was an out of standard project, both in dimensions and context. You can find more information on Storyhouse Works website.
Initial sketches for the cover design