It might be a very ‘designer’ thing to say, but I think typefaces are as expressive tonally as images: the right typeface can evoke a very specific feeling in a design.īook covers are sometimes guilty of hamming it up with books about communism and China I didn’t want the cover to parody Chinese propaganda from the time. I have some of my own reasons for liking it and thinking it feels appropriate, but I’d be really interested to hear how the process worked for you. From a designer’s standpoint, I love the typeface you’ve used here. It was a devastating period of history for young people in China, so to show an intimate portrait of a young person instead of an archival historical photo felt like an appropriate choice for the cover. I think black-and-white, overtly historical photography can distance people emotionally from a subject, whereas portraiture is immediately engaging. The first thing that comes into my head when I think of the Cultural Revolution is black-and-white photography, crowds of people in uniforms, Tiananmen Square but what Branigan does so well is to tell the human, personal stories. When you’re designing, are you holding thoughts like these in your head? Are you trying to hit a specific tone? Or put another way, what are the difficulties and joys of designing a cover for a book about complex and highly emotive issues that may not be well understood by most? And the Cultural Revolution is a topic that most Westerners don’t really understand – as Tania Branigan points out, Michael Gove thought it just meant something like a sudden aesthetic shift rather than a violent humiliation and execution of those deemed ‘counter-revolutionary’. Red Memory seeks to explain historical, political and sociological phenomena through the lens of individual experiences. The way that these scripts obfuscate the portrait feels pertinent for a book about such a chaotic, manipulative period of history.Ī portrait from the work ‘Chinese Historical Figures: 1966–1976’ © Weixin Xu. Traditional Chinese art has vertical scripts running alongside the painting with information on the painting and artwork, but Xu Weixin uses horizontal scripts that run directly through the painting, with biographical information on the person in the portrait. His paintings address the cultural narrative of China and often include portraiture of ordinary people rather than political leaders or historical figures. Tom: Xu Weixin is a brilliant Chinese contemporary artist. As I looked more closely, though, I discovered my assumptions were wrong. Would you mind telling us a little bit about the portrait on the front cover ? The first time I saw it, I thought the JPG had become glitched, or maybe the streaks were because the photograph had got damaged in storage.
A perfect combination for a book of secret histories. Your designs have a clarity of vision, but there’s always something surprising or hidden in there too. I was thrilled when you accepted the brief for this book. If for any reason we cannot deliver to the intended recipient, we will always leave a calling card and try to find a friendly neighbour or enclosed porch to safely leave the flowers with.Jonny: Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us, Tom.
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