Beyond Blue
The material becomes the layout.
Overview
Beyond Blue is an editorial book on Chanel's denim. It gathers rare finds, bags as well as jeans, and follows an approach to denim that reaches past its traditional boundaries. The pages lean on the fabric's texture, stitching and hardware as much as on the garments.
Brief and challenge
Denim is so familiar that it rarely gets treated as an editorial subject. The book had to give it depth and make the fabric itself feel worth studying, without leaning on the logo to do the work.
Role and deliverables
We designed the book end to end, from cover and title treatment to the layout system and art direction.
- Editorial book design
- Cover & title treatment
- Layout system
- Art direction
Process
Everything in the book is built from the material: a red stitch grid, taken from the quilting on Chanel bags, runs across the denim and frames section titles such as The Logo, Unique and Distinctive Hardware. One cover takes the form of a real jeans pocket laced with dark cord, a white Chanel card tucked into it, and inside, red text pages with split, oversized sans-serif headings face full-bleed portraits, including a black and white spread on Karl Lagerfeld.
Outcome
Denim blue, signal red and off-white run from cover to last spread. The grid, the pocket and the portraits give each section its own entry point while the book reads as one object, and the physical edition carries the denim through to the binding.
