Book Redesign
"Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald"
by Justin Widmann
A redesign of the classic lyrical piece "Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald" by Ödön von Horváth as part of a school project. We were given almost complete freedom while designing this;
We had to choose our own target audience in which I went for book collectors and people that are generally more interested in the look and design of a book, rather than the actual text / plot. The book lives by the motto "old literature meets new, modern design"
Also we had to choose our own publisher for the book. Note that this is NOT an official slanted product! This was just part of the premise of the project.
With the design I was going for a simple, modern design with no flashy colors.
The cover was meant to be a circular logo in resemblence of a vinyl due to the title of the book being the classic waltz "Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald" by Johann Strauss which also was frequently mentioned in the book.
The letters spell out "GADWW" - basically an abbreviation for the book title. I sketched the letters, adapted them and formed them in Illustrator.
The letters spell out "GADWW" - basically an abbreviation for the book title. I sketched the letters, adapted them and formed them in Illustrator.
Since the book is suppose to be a paperback I wanted to justify the collectors aspect by designing a slipcase with a cutout so you can see the logo on the cover.
The inside of the book is inspired by the cover itself. I was trying to use shapes and black areas to form abstract numbers and letters as seen on the cover. I also tried to utilize a lot of white space combined with strong contrast provided by the black shapes and areas.
I originally wanted to experiment more with the text and layout. Though I am very happy of how it turned out, I could've gone for more experimental stuff, maybe even as far as unreadable text as an aesthetic.
The last slide features an alternative cover which I originally made first. It didn't make the cut for the final product due to it not matching the inside. The names are handwritten and adapted into Illustrator as well.
