Philosophy, Time, and Hot Pink Play-Doh: Designing New Classics
The top five philosophy books on Indigo pretty much look exactly the same. Here’s how I designed a book cover that stands out on the shelves and speaks to a new generation of readers.
Picture a philosophy book. What comes to mind?
Muted colours. Lots of beige and grey and brown. Maybe some navy blues or deep greens, if we’re getting fancy. For type, we’d have something serif and glossy. A geometric sans serif, if we’re feeling modern. Academically set, kerned within a millimetre of its life. Imagewise, we’d probably have an old white man’s head on there somewhere, maybe a Greekesque bust. Something classy that shows how smart this book is.
I love Greek busts as much as the next person, but I can’t help feeling like we’re missing out by upholding this boring book cover standard.
This past week, I got really hung up on the concept of time. Specifically, time as… bubblegum. I know it’s weird, but stick with me on this (get it?).
Philosophers and physicists alike talk about time as nonlinear. As something stretchy and malleable, something that sticks, balloons, and pops. Something that, to me, sounds like bubblegum.
This got me thinking– what would a philosophy book that fit my life look like? A book written by and for nerdy women who like to see the fun in things. Who want to see complex topics represented in ways that relate to our lives and appeal to our lived experiences. Who are looking for books that make us think without feeling inaccessibly stuffy and pretentious.
This is how I ended up spending a Sunday afternoon, accompanied by the sweet sounds of Caamp, creating just that.
Design Process
Elastic Time is a fictional book written by fictional author Beatrice Gum. The cover is fresh and innovative, designed to stand out on a bookshelf and take its place as a new classic in the philosophy section.
I started with what I knew I wanted in this design– to capture a happy, nostalgic feeling.
In my head, this is hot pink. It’s fun. It’s playful. It evokes the feeling of blowing (and popping!) a bubblegum bubble.
This quote by Carlo Rovelli summed it up perfectly; “‘How long is forever?’ asks Alice. ‘Sometimes, just one second’, replies the White Rabbit. There are dreams lasting an instant in which everything seems frozen for an eternity. Time is elastic in our personal experience of it. Hours fly by like minutes, and minutes are oppressively slow, as if they were centuries.”
Bubble gum is what I was looking for as a concept, but as a medium it left much to be desired. It was less malleable than I needed, and didn’t offer the control I needed to sculpt letters.
In the end, I decided to use Play-Doh instead. Play-Doh captured the squishy, stretchy quality that I was looking for without sacrificing control, and it fit the carefree childlike vibe that I wanted to portray.
Why This Matters
This project is a great example of why it’s so important to be playful and experimental in all stages of design work.
When we innovate with how we create, we also innovate our concepts and our ideology as a society. Philosophy doesn’t need to be stuffy, formal, or beige! When we make room for philosophy that looks playful and bright, we make room for a whole new audience of philosophy readers, too.
I believe that every time we design something the way it’s ‘supposed’ to be designed, we miss an invaluable opportunity to show knowledge and stories to people who may not have otherwise looked.
When you lean into exploration and innovation as leading design principles, you make room for fresh, impactful, and beautiful book covers.
