The Old Man and the Sea, student work

This piece is a reimagining of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. It’s Japanese bound and has just over 100 pages measuring 420×210 mm, with a 1680 mm foldout typographic marlin at the start and end. The design is guided by the following concept:

In the 21st century, reading has shifted to screens, reducing print to a secondary role. Yet the book remains resilient, offering a tactile, immersive experience digital media cannot replicate. This special edition of The Old Man and the Sea, developed as a hypothetical commission for Éditions B42, uses design to critique digital reading and reposition the book as an active, critical artefact rather than a neutral container for text.

The novel’s narrative of endurance mirrors the struggle of print in the digital age, translated into material form through format, typography and book craft. A wide landscape format echoes holding a fish; an embroidered cover embodies tension and labour. Typographic commentary is embedded within the body text, deliberately interrupting reading to challenge, contextualise and reframe Hemingway’s voice, shifting the book from passive vessel into something to be navigated, interpreted and physically engaged with.

The resulting disruptions are intentional, asking readers to move through friction that mirrors both Santiago’s struggle and contemporary reading conditions, where texts compete with annotation, critique and noise. The book argues for print as a site of resistance, critical thinking and ongoing design experimentation.