The brief in this project was to create a box set for a commemorative series of books by our favourite authors. I chose Nick Hornby. All of his books centre on dysfunctional men who hide their fears and problems behind an obsession. Because of this, I designed the books so that they too would be covered by the obsession of the protagonist for that book.

The Arsenal FC obsessed hero of ‘Fever Pitch’ is covered with an Arsenal jersey. If printed, the cover would be thermo-embossed to feel like the material of the jersey, with the titles applied separately as they are done in reality.

For ‘High Fidelity’ I used vinyl records to cover the book as this is the central theme in the book. If printed, the cover would be thermo-embossed with concentric grooves to feel like the 12” vinyl records.

Image 4 also shows how the interior pages would work, in this case hand-written notes would be used to introduce the chapter, using the first paragraph as text. Each book is narrated by the protagonist, so I felt it appropriate that each chapter feature some element of hand-writing to underscrore the confessional nature of the text.

For ‘About a Boy’, our fashion obsessed hero gets covered with a pair of jeans, with the titles done on the label. If printed, the cover would be thermo-embossed to feel like denim, and the label would be printed and sewn on.