Nick Adam
Cover and lettering design for Poetry Magazine
Thirst
Span
Poetry Magazine
Poetry Foundation
Cultural, Design, Publishing
Book Design, Print
Nick Adam
Design Direction, Design
Rick Valicenti
Design Consigliere
Fred Sasaki
Art Director
For centuries, poetry has inspired experiments in typography. The manner in which a poem is visually composed affects how the poem is read — the underlying structure of words inflects emphasis and meaning. The structure of letters themself are a product of form-poetry, they carry their own unique set of spacial relationships and visual codes.
Nick designed a series of 3 covers for Poetry to consider publishing. The letterforms of the selected one (published in February 2020) were directly built within Poetry’s grid defined by Michael Bierut. Nick took Poetry’s distinctive two-by-three unit grid and divided each of the 6-units into square units. Nick’s new grid within Bierut’s existing system was used to define each letterform by following a simple set of mathematics:
Vertical strokes = 4 units
Vertical counter space = 2 units
Horizontal strokes = 9 units
Horizontal counter space = 1 unit
The designed letterforms can be described as rhythmic, reverse-stress, extended, blocky-slab-serifs.
Nick Adam, Design Director
and Associate Partner at Span.Studio
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