The brief
Field Press publishes eighteen titles a year on four presses in two countries, and every cover had been art-directed alone. On a shop table the catalogue looked like eighteen publishers. The founders wanted a house, not a style.
How it went
- 01
Interrogate
We laid all eighteen 2023 covers on the studio floor and photographed them from above. Nothing repeated. Not the spine type, not the margin, not the logo position. The catalogue had no memory of itself.
- 02
Position
A press is a machine before it is a brand. The identity had to be a set of measurements an intern could apply on a Tuesday and a guest designer could not accidentally break.
- 03
Design
One grid: 12 columns, a fixed 18mm foot, and a single rule above the imprint. Title, author and series sit in fixed slots; the image is the only free variable. The imprint mark is 6mm and never moves.
- 04
Ignite
We reset the backlist rather than launching with new titles only. Eighteen covers rebuilt on the grid, shot together, and shipped as one table. Booksellers noticed the table before they noticed the logo, which was the point.
What we made
- Imprint mark and spine system
- One cover grid across all series
- Series typography and colour coding
- Backlist reset — 18 covers rebuilt
- Catalogue and rights-fair print system
- A 34-page manual an intern can run
What it moved
- 18
- titles rebuilt on one grid
- 34
- pages of manual, no exceptions clause
- 06
- millimetre imprint mark, fixed
“We asked for an identity and were given a measurement. It has held for two seasons and nobody has asked to break it.”
Publisher, Field Press
Credits
- Design direction
- Marek Voss
- Typography
- Hanne Sørlie
- Production
- Ilse Brandt