In a mission that fuses illustration, folklore, and high-impact editorial design, London studio HONDO has collaborated with artist Astrid Chesney to launch Dealing with Ahead – a restricted version artist e-book that celebrates the spirit of masquerade and the ability of the face as a storytelling motif.
That includes greater than 200 illustrations by Astrid, the e-book is a wealthy and imaginative exploration of expressive characters and varieties. Restricted to only 100 hand-signed and numbered copies, the mission features as each an paintings and a publication, designed with precision and aptitude by HONDO’s Fran Mendez and Maria Vioque.
From the outset, the mission aimed to be greater than only a e-book. It was designed to really feel like a whole visible object—one thing tactile, intimate, and filled with surprises.
That concept of multiplicity is carried via each element, starting with the mud jacket. Folded in half to indicate two half-faces, it performs with notion and kind, revealing completely different facial mixtures relying on how the e-book is held. Every jacket unfolds right into a full-sized poster, signed and numbered by Astrid, reworking the outer layer right into a standalone artwork piece.
Each copy of Dealing with Ahead options its personal distinctive mixture of illustrations: 100 completely different covers, 100 completely different again covers, and 100 spines, leading to 100 distinct visible pairings. This not solely elevates the collectable worth of the version however reinforces the mission’s central theme of expression in all its variety.
Typography additionally performs a vital function within the e-book’s design language. HONDO selected the placing Drullers typeface, identified for its daring, characterful varieties. Quite than utilizing customary numerals, the studio created customized web page numbers from Drullers’ glyph set, which resemble summary faces themselves.
The concept typography participates within the masquerade provides one other layer of pleasure and expression, and even the numbers have persona.
This sense of playfulness and intentional oddness aligns carefully with Astrid’s illustrative model. A Royal School of Artwork graduate, her work has a long-standing affinity with theatricality, people custom and cinematic staging.
Earlier purchasers embrace Penguin, The Guardian, Pentagram, The New York Instances, and Dazed, however Dealing with Ahead gave her the chance to develop a private, immersive physique of labor. The e-book was photographed in her East London studio, providing a glimpse into the setting that gave beginning to the mission’s vivid world of faces and varieties.
To mark the launch, HONDO and Astrid are internet hosting a week-long exhibition at Three Rooms Gallery in Walthamstow, working from now till Monday. Alongside a personal view tomorrow (Friday 11 July), the exhibition will current authentic illustrations from the e-book and a curated number of Astrid’s different works. Guests can anticipate a richly layered expertise that is half gallery present, half behind-the-scenes perception.
For HONDO, the mission displays its broader strategy to editorial design as an area for experimentation and narrative. The studio is understood for its multilingual typography and culture-led visible storytelling throughout print and digital platforms. Dealing with Ahead extends that ethos into the realm of collectable publishing, with a give attention to materials element and emotional resonance.
The discharge comes at a time when demand for unbiased artist books and tactile print experiences is on the rise. With the publishing trade reimagining the function of the bodily e-book, particularly within the age of display fatigue and AI-generated content material, HONDO’s newest work gives a well timed reminder of what makes print private.
The e-book invitations you to look carefully, play with the web page, and embrace the eccentricities of design. It is a celebration of faces but in addition of the enjoyment that comes with not taking issues too severely. We may all take a leaf out of this e-book.
