Adultery

This book is at once a memoir and a cultural study, a literary exploration and a survivor’s memoir where the author offers a sexy, nonjudgmental and realistic vision of fidelity and marriage. So I had to come up with something appropriate for the subject. I also had to keep in mind the informal and contemporary jacket that had already been designed.

I knew that I had to use a very limited palette of typographic elements due to the very small trim size. I also wanted to avoid any ornamentation as it might have looked too decorative for the subject. It left type as the only design element at my disposal, so the choice of typeface became very important. First, I considered typefaces by countries of origin: at that point adultery seemed to me to be such a French thing to do, so I looked at French typefaces. From among the available French typefaces I chose Fournier. It is compact enough to be used in a small book, and its italic has a beautiful, crawling, slightly sick slant—it reminds me of plants that are forced to grow in shade and, in search of sun, develop curvy and elongated stems. So I used italic for all the display type. As the display type it also worked well with the handwriting on the jacket.

To convey the idea of multiplicity, I repeated the book’s title and part numbers several times in shades of gray. Such treatment seems to whisper from the pages. The body text was set flush left to keep word spacing consistent. The ragged setting also looks more personal than a uniform justified text block.

Designer: Julia Sedykh
Author: Deb Chasman
Trim size: 4 1/2 x 7 inches
Production coordinator: Alden Detwiler
Jacket designer: Paul Sahre
Pages: 176
Quantity printed: 5,000
Typeface: Fournier
Paper: 55 Glatfelter Sebago
Endpapers: rainbow antique pearl
Binding method: Notch case
Binding materials: 1CG Pearl Linen jet-black cloth, Rainbow antique charcoal sides
Printer/binder: Maple-Vail
Jacket printer: Coral Graphics
Publisher/client: Beacon Press