KEVIN GRADY | JUDGE’S SELECTION

1 PAPRIKA
Louis Gagnon of the Montreal firm Paprika explains how the designers achieved this delicate balancing act: “Since the grid is precise, and we don’t cheat on the grid’s measures, using a vertical illustration gives us the possibility to create an interesting effect while creating a feeling of unity between the different book covers. The illustrations may vary—although we always work with the same illustrator, Alain Pilon—but there is a strong unity between the different covers.”

Grady found Paprika’s design discipline evident and admirable. “In any design program, things do tend to end up in disarray if you don’t keep your guard up,” he explains. “What’s impressive about what the designers did here, is they set up a system that’s robust enough to accommodate variations in things like title lengths. It’s simple, but it hangs together, feels right across the full range and allows for beautiful variation within the grid. They seemed to have been designed in a spirit similar to classic Penguin book formats.” The illustrations themselves are arresting, intriguing and suggestive of content, even as they maintain a balance between uniqueness and adherence to form. “The elements that compose the illustrations are usually strong symbols … related to the text itself,” Gagnon notes. “Sometimes, the title also inspired the choice of illustrations. For example, for the book titled Malacarne, carne means meat in Italian, and malacarne is a slang Sicilian word for a crook.” And then there are the muted, comfortably washed out colors behind the illustrations. While Gagnon describes the palette as a “sober, solid color background,” Grady found the hues evocative on multiple levels. “There’s a nostalgia quotient to the colors,” he says. “These books could have come out sometime in the ’60s, yet they look really fresh today.”

All of these components come together to create books that are completely collectible and feel comfortable in the hand or messenger bag, on the train or curled up in a chair. For Grady, it’s enough that they look good on a coffee table. “Often, I’ll buy an old paperback because I like the cover and then don’t read the book,” he says. “With these, since I don’t read French, I can buy them, not read them and not feel guilty.” by Laurel Saville

Paprika | Designers: Louis Gagnon, François Leclerc | Illustrator: Alain Pilon | Client: Les Allusifs | Contact: www.paprika.com