We were asked to design a book where the main character should be a fantastic creature like unicorns, mermaids, etc.
The Minotaur is a mythological creature, half-bull, half-human. He lives in a labyrinth underneath King Minos’s palace. Theseus is the hero who killed the Minotaur. Ariadne is Minos’ daughter and she fell in love with Theseus. She decided to help him to find the way back from the labyrinth after killing the creature. This is a complicated and dark story full of infidelities, betrayals, wars, etc.
The book layout is conceptualised as a labyrinth. This is highlighted by the text treatment, the concertina bookbinding, and the pop-up illustrations. Dramatic black & white collages, with a touch of red, support the infidelities and betrayals concept. To represent the dark face of the story I used letterpress for the chapter’s title. The book cover is made with plywood as a conceptual way to represent wood timbers and maze corridors. Moreover, it is engraved to illustrate the idea of the marks made by the minotaur’s horns.
The project was inspiring and challenging; it allowed me to experiment and combine a range of techniques outside the graphic design boundaries.
