Client:
Waran Flow
Year:
2023
Designers:
Magdalena Giertuga, Natalia Jakóbiec, Katarzyna Pełka-Bura, Marcin Krater, Joanna Sowa
"A la sombra de la Alhambra / In the Shadow of the Alhambra" is a bilingual anthology of Spanish poetry encompassing authors from the 19th century to contemporary writers. The titular Alhambra is a palace complex in Granada, in the historic region of Andalusia. The word "al hamra" comes from Arabic and means "red." The architecture of the palace is the main inspiration for the publication. The site features many architectural and decorative motifs that form an intricate mosaic of geometric, non-figurative shapes. In summer, the buildings are bathed in heavy, warm, and contrasting light. On the other hand, the palace spaces include open gardens that provide shade and moments of respite on hot days. All these elements influenced the design decisions made for the book.
The hardcover is red and enriched with embossing inspired by patterns from the Alhambra. The mass-colored paper has a pleasant-to-touch texture that stimulates the senses. The publication combines two typefaces: Minion, a serif font used for setting poems and continuous texts, and Modernist-Milk, a contrasting and sparkling font used for headings, poets' names, and pagination. The book is interspersed with illustrations dedicated to selected poems.