While commercial book design has grown increasingly more ambitious over the years, real-world economics and corporate review boards still greatly limit what can be done in the publishing world today. Design students, we often forget, can easily side-step both with their class projects, especially as they usually only have to design a single copy. Even so, graphic design student Stefen Clark’s final course project, Illegality, is a triumph of book-design creativity.
The tome is all about prisons and the prison system, with much of it inspired by actual prison visits made by Clark. The result is a Russian-nesting-doll of a book. Paul Murray over at The Book Design Blog observes:
It “features many hiding places and hidden messages within. It even includes a book that’s smuggled inside a book that’s smuggled inside another book that’s presented inside a safe!”
If the images below leave you wanting more, be sure to head on over to The Book Design Blog for an even closer look at this design masterpiece.
