Atelier Martino & Jaña

Atelier Martino & Jaña, known broadly for their stunning Jazz manual which is featured on Behance have created this insightful, informed and brilliantly executed publication.

As it clearly says below it covers the Verbal Photography of the Moscow Archive of New art. It is the kind of book that interests me, not because of its content, but because of the fact that they clearly have a deep understanding of both the content and the subject history.

I would like, in response to this to think up a way of publishing a book that tells the story of the modernist movement, based on the ideology of Form Follows Function. The Moscow archive of which I assume was based on the works of Russian revolutionary designers from 1910 - 1940 has much in common with the modernist development of the 'Swiss Style,' as the Constructivist movement alongside the Bauhaus and Deutsch designs were the ground work for the modernist design form.

The layout and typography are synonymous of this period of design, and among the creative audience this will have and still is regarded as a useful, informal and inspiration piece of work.

The layout is very clean, despite its experimental traits, such as the references and footnotes, which cleverly blend in and help the eye around the page.

The grid mode is symmetrical, and uses the golden section to carry the body text from page to page, while the photographs are arranged in such a way that they are noticed first, but direct the reader around the page, as if carefully guiding them to all the information in a correct order..,hierarchy.

The page titles are drawn to by the use of reverse-out, composition, bold and scale.

The problem I foresee is that actually making a book such as this would have to go through a printers. It would be unrealistic of me to think that I could have bind a book such as this, especially with my slightly lacking hand made skills. There are ways around this of course, such as making friends with a printer, or getting in touch with someone with the knowhow to help bind it.