Book Design & typeset
Paper Trail By Julia Bird & Mike Sims
Blown Rose
Paper Trail grew out of a silent conversation in poems between Julia Bird and Mike Sims. They swapped 14 miscellaneous objects by post, along with the poems they inspired, and they didn’t speak about this exchange until it was complete, eighteen months later. They teamed up with artist Roy Willingham to create an artwork for each poem, and I was commissioned to package it all together as a limited edition artists' book.

I created a visual narrative to mirror the story of Julia and Mike's project by incorporating abstract representations of the objects that inspired each poem. A simple design structure throughout the book enables the reader to follow each object-poem-illustration scenario in the same way; creating 'scenes' and 'chapters' that can be read separately and as part of the overall project. The detachable jacket is printed in 5 colours and the exclusive use of GZA, hints at the many historical reference points found throughout the collection.
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