Behind the curtain: Elizabeth Goodspeed details the history-rich book design of The New Antiquarians

As someone who is deeply fascinated by the treasures of archiving (with her own abundant archive of ephemera), who better to create the book design, cover art, and the visual world for an ephemera-inspired hardcover, The New Antiquarians, than designer, art director, and educator Elizabeth Goodspeed? Written by writer, art historian and curator Michael Diaz-Griffith, the book delves into the world of antique collectors from the next generation, showcasing their unconventional approaches to living with history. Goodspeed worked closely with Diaz-Griffith and the teams at Monacelli and Phaidon to craft a visually stunning publication that feels appropriately historic and enticing. One of the standout elements of the book is the eclectic typography, drawing inspiration from the typographic compositions of 18th and 19th-century book design, which she primarily sourced from the National Library of France. Goodspeed combines a variety of sans and serif typefaces, and plays with them throughout – from heavy usage of italics to stacked and centred type. “In some ways,” she says, “I found that the title pages of these old books felt a bit like a refined version of the wood type posters we often associate with the 19th century; the product of typographers designing from a point of utility, and mixing and matching whatever faces they had to fit the space rather than trying to perfectly match everything like you see in more contemporary and modernist typographic approaches.” “In creating my own take on the historic references,” she continues, “I wanted to avoid trying to actually mimic the patina of anything old in terms of tactility (i.e. no Papyrus) and instead use modern adaptations or revivals that had the same spirit and general construction of some of the antique faces found in these older books (Caslon, Bodoni, Venus, etc.) but with the support and detail-orientation of a digital typeface made in the 21st century.”