wiedler.ch

book (design) story #446

arthur heye:
amazonasfahrt

büchergilde gutenberg, zürich, 1944
printer: unionsdruckerei bern
size: 24 x 17 cm
designer: richard paul lohse

in this book, german adventurer arthur heye (1885-1947) writes about his trip to the amazonas in 1929-30. after 1933 reye lived and published in switzerland. i love the book design by richard paul lohse (1902-1988): his jacket design is inspired by the green djungle and brown river, with a flock of red birds – they look amazingly lively, although lohse actually uses only two "standardised" bird shapes...!

the canvas cover features a single red bird on green, with slab-serif title on the spine, ...

... while the asymmetric title spread combines a photo of the author (?) with informal handwriting.

slab-serif is also used for the chapter numbers.