Musical script book covers

Elvin Hu designed this book series of printed scripts from popular musicals as an unpublished student project.

Hu approached series from the perspective of a book buyer: “When someone buys a script book, they either love theatre scripts, they have a favorite show in mind, or they are buying it because their professor or director told them to.” He wondered if he could design a unified series where readers could easily spot the script they are looking for, even when all the books look essentially alike.

His solution was to fill the cover with the initial letter of each title. Using colors from each show’s original branding, he was able to give each script some sense of individuality while have them fit nicely into the larger visual system.

When it came to choosing a typeface for these gigantic initials, Hu says, “Fit became an obvious choice because of its versatility and eye-catching design when used as at a large scale.” Fit is also used to set the title on the back cover, with words sometimes split to create interesting text shapes.

Meanwhile, FF DIN is used in all the places where actual legible text is needed: the titles and themselves, the spines, as well as author names and supplemental text on the back cover.

Hu also gave the covers an intentional slightly-worn look, a nod to the many pirated photocopied scripts on the market.