Canongate Books published 12 extracts from the authorized version of the King James Bible in pocket book form. To broaden market appeal and make these well-known pieces of text more relevant to a contemporary audience, we decided to design these books as if they were for modern fiction.

A striking language of black-and-white photography was employed and combined with a strong graphic grid and a clear sans serif typeface. The tonal balance and typography holds the whole series together.

The tonally dark photographs were chosen from stock photography to avoid a particular photographer’s style. Iconographic imagery was used such as a nuclear explosion for Revelation and a road receding into the distance for Exodus.