Ohlížení by Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Volver la vista atrás is a novel by Colombian author Juan Gabriel Vásquez. First published in 2020, it was awarded the Mario Vargas Llosa Biennial Novel Prize in 2021, and translated to the English as Retrospective in 2022. Shown here is the Czech edition, translated by Anežka Charvátová and published by Paseka as Ohlížení in 2024.
The book design makes use of two typeface families by Storm Type Foundry. The cover and title page (not shown here) feature the then freshly released Populus, in two contrasting weights: the author’s surname is set in the heaviest style, Populus Black, with the round alternates for V, A and E, accessible via Stylistic Set 1. It runs from the bottom edge all the way to the top, dividing the cover into two halves. Vásquez’ first names and the title are added to the left and right, in Populus Medium, likewise in all caps.
František Štorm characterizes Populus as a “‘variation on the Solperian theme’, created after the Areplos update as an attempt at a more robust monolinear counterpart.” It’s inspired by the 1970s when designers conceived large typeface families for photocomposition that ranged from hairline to ultra-bold cuts. One such family is ITC Serif Gothic (1972). With its tiny serifs and the alternate round E, it was likely one of the reference points. On a deeper level, though, Populus takes cues from the work of Jan Solpera (b. 1939), Štorm’s professor at the Prague Academy. Solpera also advised on the design.
The text typeface used for the interior as well as the back cover is Beletria (2019). Conceived by Štorm as contemporary looking book typeface, it comes in three optical sizes and has a sans-serif counterpart called Beletrio.
