TORCHIO 24
Torchio 24 publishing house questions book design and the role of the designer as its reader and consumer. In this project, using three works by the same author (Charles Bukowski) it is shown that designing a book doesn’t necessarily mean following of standard guidelines. It shows it is possible to approach every single book in an individual and unusual manner. For this project Maji created name for the publishing house and set the standards for the visual identity, as well as approach to book design in general. The name itself comes form Italian torchio that stands for a 15th c. printer who most often designed layout of the book, printed it, bound it and sold it. Symbolically, this house is torchio because every book is designed, printed, hand bound and sold in-house.
Torchio 24 presents a completely subjective concept on content and its influence on the reader/designer. It gathers differently designed books, visually connects their outward appearance and creates a distinguished identity of a publishing house under the same name. These books are not necessarily designed with the purpose of consuming the original literary text, Instead, Torchio 24 gives a designer the freedom to format the text through typographic intervention and layout, thereby creating a completely new and different literary work.
Visual Identity, the logo, was designed a hand drawn lettering. Out of it a typeface Torchio was made.
The following book is a collection of short stories written mostly int the for of a conversation. It was designed in a way it can be read normally as a book but it can also be opened and serve as poster for a play.
The The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship was written as a diary written in a year. In it, Bukowski reflects on his drinking, gambling and his life in general. The text stimulates readers to reflect on their lives. So... instead of classical pagination, the book was designed to have dates. Since Bukowski hasn't written every day, empty pages are left to the reader as a space to contemplate and write thoughts.
The Pulp is a result of Maji's experience of reading it. The book is incredibly boring and reading it was a challenge. In this process, Maji fell asleep many times. So... Maji decides to start over and record this process and turn it into the layout. This means that whenever Maji was asleep there is no text in layout and the length of the emptiness is equal to the time of the sleep time.
