Lucienne Roberts

This is a wonderful book. It was so taking that not only did I willingly read a passage from Dickens, I read it dozens of times.

The editors gave 70 graphic designers a brief to re-design the first page of the first publication of Great Expectations. The results are fascinating not only in the overall appearance of each page, the type & layout & occasional image, but in the way these affect the reader's perception of Dickens' words. The designs range from a variation of Pip's introduction in 'All the Year Round' through play with word and letter frequency, and from page 1 as internet thread to illegible page. Almost all merit a very close look and only a very very few pages seemed lazy or unattractive.

And Page 1, the book itself, couldn't be bettered. In the front are succinct descriptions of the brief, the commonalities/differences between the submissions, the design of the book as a whole, as well as remarks from a professor of 19th-century literature. In the body are explanations from the designers of how their pages came to look as they do. In the back, a glossary. It's a remarkably well thought out book showing a careful consideration of every single element in it, wholly satisfying in appearance and content, and I'm delighted that I came across it.… (meer)