DESCRIPTION The Spook House Book Cover CLIENT Student Project DATE November 2009 DESIGN CREDITS Tom Petty PRINT CREDITS Tom Petty TYPE CREDITS Hand-drawn Type Found Metal Type

QUANTITY PRODUCED 1 PRODUCTION COST Not Applicable PRODUCTION TIME 1 Week DIMENSIONS: WIDTH × HEIGHT × DEPTH 135 × 210 mm, 17 mm spine (5.3 in × 8.25 in, 0.65 in spine) PRINT METHOD Giclée Embossing PAPER STOCK Coated, matte, 210 gsm (80 lb) NUMBER OF COLORS 2 spot (black and PMS 179)

I think this is the first time we feature a student project here on FPO. Our thinking is that simply outputting posters in an Epson doesn't quite constitute the kind of projects we all like to see here. We have also not shown a lot of "one-off" productions, since part of the challenge of printing is figuring out how to reproduce any given thing as lovingly as possible in a cost-efficient manner.

But after seeing this one-off solution by Tom Petty, a second year student at Brighton University and Hastings College of Arts, as a student project we are more than happy to reconsider — we've even added One-off as a main category. Tom explains how he went about creating a cover for The Spook House by Ambrose Bierce as part of a new "Modern Gothic" series to be published by Penguin Books:

The book is set in nineteenth-century-America and I wanted the cover to allude to the period and context as a whole, as opposed to a literal element within the story. I therefore decided to hand-draw the type in a traditional style seen on signs of the period, so I had to cut all of the letters by hand with a scalpel out of 400 gsm (140 lb) board and run it through a traditional press. These hand-drawn letters were then mirrored exactly on the back cover, with the front blind debossed and the back blind embossed to give the impression of the text having been 'pushed' through the book. This ties in with an element of the story in which a man becomes locked in a room and bangs for help on the door, leaving a hand print that would be "pushed" through.

The effect is simply amazing, and the pumpkin-like texture of the paper with the ridges of the letterforms would look great in bookstores around the world. The final detail of the book is the author's name:

"Ambros Bierce" was created using found hot-metal letters, inking them up and pressing them to keep the typography consistent with the period.

Dear Penguin Books, please print this!

Hey Armin thank you so much! I couldn't have asked for anything better. Thank you.

Great work! The idea of the type pressed through to the back is excellent.

1-off category? perfect.

Tom, thanks for paving the way for students everywhere.

well done, that man!

This is so impressive! I made a small article on my blog about this.