For my final major project during the graphic design degree, I designed a book using a novel that I had written in 1996 as the copy text. The book is about a group of vampires that live in Islington, London. They live underneath the Electrowerks venue in Torren Street and travel on the underground at night when the trains have stopped. The cover is made from pale calf skin leather to look like skin and the. The two puncture holes are self explanatory. I dyed the inside of the holes with a red leather dye to make it appear more like cut flesh. I used Perpetua for the body text and Johnston Sans (the typeface used on the underground). The black choker covering the puncture holes symbolises the hidden nature of the vampires and the goth subculture in which they hide. I chose the spiral design as it represents the ostensible elegance and sophistication of the goth scene, which belies the sinister theme of the book.

For the end papers I used red flock to mimic the red flesh (being bitten). The flock, which is essentially faux velvet, adds to the tactile nature of the book – velvet being a popular fabric within the goth subculture. I wanted the book to be a tactile and visceral experience with the skin-like cover, flock end papers, teeth marks on the cover running down through the sides of the pages and the red vein-like tissue paper between the chapters.

UPDATE: Since completing a Masters in Publishing, and after much deliberation, I have decided to embark on a project to publish The Angels of Islington as a book in it’s own right. To keep up to date with this project, visit www.theangelsofislington.com.