HUNGER ARTIST

book design / publication / typography

An eBook design for Franz Kafka’s short story The Hunger Artist. The eBook is intended for infinite scrolling and features expressive typography that reflects the story’s major themes of captivity, change, and despair.

The Concept

All areas of expressive typography are contained within frames – much as the protagonist is confined within a cage – and these frames slowly progress from open to closed. As the story goes on, the expressive typography occupies increasingly larger amounts of space, which echoes the hunger artist’s lengthening confinement.

The body text is set in Quadraat, whose sharp features are well-suited to the story’s dark tone. It is complemented by the tough, angular display typeface United, which (combined with the red and black color palette) helps to evoke a sense of great oppression and rigidity.