North Archive
A cover system for twelve books about buildings that no longer stand.
A cover system for twelve books about buildings that no longer stand.
Client
North Archive — architecture publisher
Role
Series design, typography, cover system
Year
2025
Location
Copenhagen
(01)
Overview
North Archive publishes monographs on lost and demolished architecture. Each volume needed its own presence on a shelf while clearly belonging to one long, patient series.
North Archive publishes monographs on lost and demolished architecture. Each volume needed its own presence on a shelf while clearly belonging to one long, patient series.
(02)
The challenge
Most of the buildings survive only as drawings and a handful of photographs. The covers could not lean on imagery, so the typography had to carry the weight of the architecture itself.
Most of the buildings survive only as drawings and a handful of photographs. The covers could not lean on imagery, so the typography had to carry the weight of the architecture itself.
(03)
The approach
Each cover is a plan drawing reduced to a single structural line, printed in one ink on uncoated board. Titles sit on a fixed 12-column grid borrowed from the original survey sheets; volume numbers run large down the spine so the series reads as one continuous elevation.
Each cover is a plan drawing reduced to a single structural line, printed in one ink on uncoated board. Titles sit on a fixed 12-column grid borrowed from the original survey sheets; volume numbers run large down the spine so the series reads as one continuous elevation.
“The covers do what our authors spend three hundred pages trying to do.”
Henrik Aas, editor (fictional)
(04)
The outcome
The first four volumes shipped this autumn. The spines line up into a skyline when the set is complete — a detail readers spotted before we announced it.
The first four volumes shipped this autumn. The spines line up into a skyline when the set is complete — a detail readers spotted before we announced it.
Credits
Credits
Editorial direction: Henrik Aas · Paper: Munken Pure 300 · Binding: Smyth-sewn
Editorial direction: Henrik Aas · Paper: Munken Pure 300 · Binding: Smyth-sewn
