Sputnik Design Team has created "Epos," a literary, minimalist dream. A simple all-white cover contains the world's most colorful classics. It was designed for a luxury retreat, Villa Terra Creta, a destination for relaxing holidays focused around the Villa's Grand Library of rare books. This specific masterpiece is a sampler for all the must-read classics. From Moby Dick to The Odyssey, they're all there, just condensed. The oversized type paired with classic fonts in a miniature book explores the contradictory relationship of large and small. I never thought I could read all the classics at once, but I stand corrected.
“Epos” is a miniature book that epically reduces 20 of the world’s greatest sagas to one bite size read. 3,200,000 words are shrunk to just 1,820. It was designed for Villa Terra Creta, a luxury retreat, where visitors can enjoy relaxing holidays focused around the Villa’s Grand Library of rare books. “Epos” is a modern-day translation of hefty classics designed to expand the visitor's literary horizons.
On average, great sagas like Homer’s Odyssey are compressed from around 120,000 words to under 100. Visually, the book explores the contradictory relationship between big and small, featuring oversized typography crammed into a tiny format. A variety of classical fonts in large childlike sizes helps is used to codify each saga and encourage blitz reading by all.
The book features a systematic word count of both the original and bite size versions and inventories the compression ratio of all twenty sagas in the form of colour pages in the back. A minimalist all-white cover contrasts the maximalist content and purist embossed typography aims at creating an objet d'art, readers will want to keep. “Epos” is the product of research and creative writing, printed in risograph, published in 300 numbered copies and available at the retreat or through mail order.
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