When Spider Lake won Book of the Year at the British Book Design and Production Awards, and the judges said it was ‘devoid of boundaries and designed with boundless imagination’, our day was made! The precise mandate we had given ourselves–to put no limits on our creativity–was being recognized in the highest court of Book Design. 

 

The book tells an intimate, filmic story of a family’s yearly reunion, at their compound by a lake in Michigan. Since the shimmering water of the lake was visible from any angle we were photographing, we knew we had to create a book that looked like a self-contained slab of water, to sit sparkling on a table, luring passers-by into its shimmering depths. So for the cover we used a textural photograph of the lake’s waters to make three distinct foil blocks (one for front, back and spine) and an irregular, light-refracting surface like that of Spider Lake (check out a full breakdown of the design process by our brilliant designer Billie Temple here.) 

 

By creating bespoke ephemera to expand upon the story, and weaving thematic color grades and artwork through the design, we evoke one long idyllic summer–hazy, unending and timeless.