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Victor & Susie: a snail tale made of type
Posted by Mark Sinclair, 15 December 2008, 15:35 Permalink Comments (17)
Victor and Susie is a new children's book from design studio Brighten the Corners, illustrated entirely from type. The story concerns Victor – a snail with a hole in his shell – and Susie, who decides to help him get better...
"The main idea was to stress the images and text equally," explains the book's author, Billy Kiossoglou of BTC, "and play with the fact that they're both made out of the same 'ingredients', which are simply arranged and subsequently read differently. Children's books often treat text and images like they belong to altogether different worlds and we wanted to avoid that."
Kiossoglou also wanted to create a narrative that evoked the sense of rhythm and pacing found in comic books. "I didn’t want to rush the story," he says, "but allow time for dialogue, and let Victor & Susie have the odd exchange about little things that weren't really crucial for the story.
"Keeping the conventional third person narrative in the text, as opposed to speech bubbles, meant a parent could read the story to a child, while at the same time, the text treatment was sufficiently unobtrusive, not to annoy a ‘trained’ adult comic reader."
And as for the type used in the book: "There's quite a bit of Futura, for its good circular Os and Cs, VAG for it's rounded edges, a few Greek letters when I needed them, and anything which suited the shape I was looking for," Kiossoglou explains.
Victor & Susie is a pocket-sized 72 page edition, printed on recycled paper. The comic book is available in bookshops or from the Brighten the Corners online shop (£5).
Designed and published by Brighten the Corners
Written and illustrated by Billy Kiossoglou
Typography by Frank Philippin
17 Comments
I really like this it reminds me of the design within childrens programmes that I grew up on, from the animations in sesame street to the likes of bod, these are the type of books that when kids read they remember! Hopefully if I try and order they will be here in time for christmas for my neice and nephew!
2008-12-15 17:26:12
I can see Ricky Gervais reading this on Jackanory.
2008-12-16 11:09:14
It reminds me of The Magic Roundabout, yet it's nothing like it..........totally new and original. Love the concept, love the illustrations.
2008-12-16 11:32:45
Love the illustrations and love the concept..i just love this little book..I need to buy this book..
2008-12-16 13:18:26
feels like the paul rand kids book which looks great but which completely fails to engage kids. a childrens book for grown-ups.
this is nice though (if your a grown-up)
2008-12-16 16:23:31
Brilliant -love the idea of integrating the font in the illustrations- but I do think it should have proper punctuation and capitalization. Otherwise, what educational value does it offer?
2008-12-17 01:21:24
But Andrew - It's not really for children.... so it says anyway...
- but you do have a good point I suppose- I would rather see the " marks used when dealing with speech...
It is a very nice piece of work. 5/5 for top effort and sensibility!
2008-12-17 11:35:23
Very lovely but too bad they didn't hang the quotes. That really bothers me to no end.
2008-12-17 19:07:12
Looks great, and the reasoning behind it makes perfect sense, its even printed on recycled paper. I like it.
Best of all though are the characters; they remind me a little of Lew and Andy. :-)
2008-12-18 13:58:36
Love this book, I bought it from Magma a couple of weeks ago - not realising it was a children's book. I think it's just as suitable for us big kids, it's simplicity is wonderful, not just in the handling of the design/illustration but the story too. It's brilliant, and I now carry it around with me in my bag. Whenever I need cheering up I pull this out and flick through it.. I've had a few people read it over my shoulder on public transport too with mixed reactions... when's the next mini-comic-story-book coming?
2008-12-18 14:29:35
Great writing – the story moves nicely. But, as a new parent myself, I find myself increasingly irked at the strange niche of children's books self-consciously designed to appeal to adult 'cool' design sensibilities – which I now declare this book part of. It's the kids I feel sorry for...
2008-12-18 16:21:44
I think it's a poor man's Paul Rand personally. Plus if you are going to create a book based around type, there can be no excuse for poor punctuation. Surely?
2008-12-18 16:53:30
it is so cold and unemotional and not particularly engaging for children or adullts just the luvvies I guess to get precious about
2008-12-19 00:17:33
Creating an illustrated book from type is a cute idea for artsy adults, but, if it's being marketed as a children's book, I think this is quite badly designed. Using caps type with tight leading will make it difficult for young readers, the colour palette is too old - retro browns and greens, and I doubt young children would "get" the type as pictures concept.
2008-12-20 21:57:24
Really... Some of those comments are exactly the reason i'd never want to be stuck in a confined space with another 'designer'. The spirit in that little book is strong - try and enjoy it as a normal person.
2009-01-12 23:51:37
i think bman is right
the book stands on its own
that it is type based is irrelevant
.,?!
2009-01-13 17:52:54
it is a lovely, well-crafted book, though the care and attention was clearly focused on the design - a typo in the middle ("'Victor is well' she tought') went unnoticed in the production process...
2009-01-19 09:35:52
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