Lily Wyles

My Final Major Project ‘Redesigning Deities’ has allowed me to combine my love for book design with my childhood obsession of Greek mythology. It explores the rich Greek culture and draws on Ancient Greek motifs seen in pottery, jewellery, tiling, architecture, among other sources.

I have redesigned Stephen Fry’s book ‘Heroes’, which retells Greek myths about iconic heroes with a modern spin. Using quirky illustrations of each hero, traditional Greek motif borders, a jaunty hand-drawn revival typeface that pays homage to traditional Greek writing methods and the yellow / orange and black colour scheme referencing traditional Greek pottery, I have created book covers that allow each hero, the relevant story and Greek history to be identified at a glance while appealing to a modern audience of 12-18 year olds (Young Adults).

I designed my own typeface for this project called ‘Hellenistic Type’ which is inspired by the spirals seen in Ancient Greek mosaics and reflects this in its boxy composition. This typeface is featured in my images as drop caps underneath my subheadings.