Space Opera Series
Author: Various
Designer: Sanda Zahirovic
Publisher: Orion Books
Art Director: Lucie Stericker
Typefaces: Andale Mono and Din 1541
Genre: Science Fiction

I first ran across these books online and was really impressed with the innovative designs and that the publisher was courageous enough to go this direction. Lucie Stericker was kind enough to send me the books and put me in touch with Sanda. Thank you both for contributing and congratulations on a beautiful series.
—Charles Brock


I came across this project through D&AD in my final year at Kingston University. Gollancz/ Orion Publishing Group set a project to design the book covers of a set of ten science fiction books. The brief asked to get the readers of science fiction and fantasy novels to be proud and get out of their sci-fi closet. Considering every aspect of the series (format, materials and finishing through to designing the cover aspects and page layout) and also create an overall look and feel to ensure that buyers of an individual book in the series are aware that it is one of a set.

I was nominated for a Student D&AD pencil for this project and my covers were chosen to be published – which was very exciting, and better than winning a pencil. I then worked as a freelance designer at Orion for two weeks in summer 2008 where I finished the set.

There was a clear idea from the start of what I wanted to achieve. I wanted to create a relationship between the high tech content of the books and the low tech material used for them.

I then started looking into different ways of using paper and different printing materials. After researching origami and different folding techniques, I found that this approach was the most appropriate for the books. I wanted to keep the “origami” simple, but yet efficient. Making it almost in a naive fashion so the buyers/readers were able to see how and why it was made. Each book had its own paper object depending on the books story. Printing the title and authors name on the paper itself before creating the object made the images more 3D and it was a nice solution to incorporate the type instead of overlaying it on to an image. I then photographed each object using natural light in a self-made studio.


About the spines
I had to consider how the books were going to be presented on shelf, as most of the time you only see the spine. The books needed to look like they were still a part of a collection. Adding only a simplified symbol of what was at the front, each book was then able to be visualized by only it's spine. This also helped them differentiate from each other, as they all look very similar part from the individual paper illustrations on the front.



About the type
I used Andale Mono and Din 1451. I wanted the type to be simple and modern, but not too futuristic looking. It was important to me that the idea came across and through a simplistic yet efficient approach. As the brief was the D&AD Student Awards I thought It was easier to create dust covers to go over blank books to visualize how they would look like. When I worked at Orion I was informed they were going to be released as paperbacks.

About photography
I photographed the paper illustrations myself in a self-made studio using natural light. They were shot in black and white and there was not a lot of 'photoshopping' involved, just the adjusting the levels and contrast to make it more dramatic.

Original Designs on Foill
Originally the covers were printed on foiled paper to give them more of a science fiction feel and a glammed up look. Whilst working at Orion I realized that the costing of the foiled paper would be very high and the end product would be easily ruined by things as simple as finger marks.
The black and white option made the paper objects the main focus and sometimes good ideas should be kept simple and not overkilled by printing techniques.

Creating these books was a great experience, working with Lucie Stericker and Orion has been very educational and a huge privilege. They gave me a lot of freedom to do what I wanted and trusted me to make the right decisions. I am very happy that the books are true to the concept and weren’t dramatically changed from their original starting point.

The books have been posted on several blogs and it has been interesting reading other peoples comments. It’s been a year now since these books were made (or at least the concept was), but they weren’t published until recently. Looking at them now, there are a few things I would change, but I’m sure this is very common. It’s been hard having to sit back and look as loads of other work has come out with the same ‘cut paper aesthetic’. I guess I touched on an early trend and I was getting worried, they wouldn’t stand out and be ‘original’ any more. But luckily they have been received amazingly and people have recognized that this ‘technique’ suits the project and that it’s not just jumping on another graphic bandwagon.

7.13.09 // Nate Eaton said:

Such beautiful imagery. The simplicity makes each cover so striking. And I'm compelled to pick up each book to see what the story is about, so I would say that the design is doing exactly what it needs to—not necessarily sell the book, but at least grab my attention enough so that I pull the book off the shelf and give it a second look.

Awesome. Thanks for posting this one.

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7.13.09 // David Burney - Wenzel Design said:

Absolutely wonderful. Love them all.

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7.14.09 // Ian said:

I was in love with this series the moment I saw it. such perfect execution. Simple—yet so complex. Photography is everything with this and it was done well.
One of the most visually successful and well imagined series I have seen. And to think: One color.