Dichter bij het verleden
2019-2023
Poetry collective ‘dichter bij het verleden’ set out to gather stories from an older generation throughout the Dutch province of Groningen. People would reveal their life experiences in the north of the Netherlands and the collective would listen and write. Their goal was to convert these stories to poems and put them in a Poetry collection.
Goal
Make a balanced and colorful design for a poetrie collection, supported by a lot of visual content.
SCope
The poetry collection wasn’t supposed to be as simple as black texts on white paper. The project team wanted it to be colorful, yet balanced, keeping the focus on the poems. Given the fact that the poems were based on stories there would also be some imagery to add to the collection.
RESULT
The design holds a simple and colorful continuity with small outbursts of themed spreads every now and then.
I found a balanced design by creating basic text spreads where the right page would always have a different color background. This gives the poems enough space to be the centre of attention and keeps the design simple and energetic. Every couple of pages a themed spread would present itself, completely styled for a specific story and image.
The cover was designed in collaboration with Nouschka van der Meij; artist and member of the ‘Dichter bij het verleden’ collective.
Dichter bij het verleden
2019-2022
Poetry collective ‘dichter bij het verleden’ set out to gather stories of an older generation throughout the Dutch province of Groningen. People would reveal their life experiences in the north of the Netherlands and the poets would listen and write. Their goal was to convert these stories to poems and put them in a Poetry collection.
My task was to design a book for around 120 poems.
THE CHALLENGE:
Creating a simplistic yet energetic design for a poetry collection
THE scope
The poetry collection wasn’t supposed to be as simple as black texts on white paper. The project team wanted it to be colorful, yet balanced, keeping the focus on the poems. Given the fact that the poems were based on stories there would also be some imagery to add to the collection.
THE result
The total design holds a simple and colorful continuity with small outbursts of themed spreads every now and then. It’s meant to keep the reader interested till the end of the ride.
I found a balanced design by creating basic text spreads where the right page would always have a different color background. This gives the poems enough space to be the centre of attention and keeps the design simple and energetic. Every couple of pages a themed spread would present, completely styled and focussed to a specific poem and image.
The cover was sketched by Nouschka van der Meij and illustrated by me.
Nouschka van der Meij
'Dichter bij het verleden'
Working with Thijs on the design of our poetry book was great! He worked fast and created exactly what we wanted, and even more. He was always ready to think with us about solutions to design problems we encountered. Thijs was very enthusiastic and involved, which made every step of the way fun and productive.
Care to share a story?