In this Q&A Akoya Art Director Holly Titchener shares her design process for our poetry titles.

 

What was your approach to the cover design of Akoya's poetry?

Part of what draws me to poetry is the use of symbolism and raw emotion. I love the freedom and flow of poetry and the attention taken to enjambment or placement of text. There are a lot of similarities between graphic design and poetry. Using strong symbols and objects on the cover is a way to physically represent the text and allows people to explore the reason we have chosen a particular image or object for the design while reading a certain collection.

Can you tell us about your inspiration when creating the covers for our first two collections?

For Horses, the horse bit references the 191 horses found dead on Navajo land that inspired the collection while also evoking the imagery of handcuffs. I felt this imagery encompassed a multitude of meanings: the oppression of indigenous people for generations; the government ignoring the increased effects of global warming; the suffering of horses; and the damage that industrialisation has inflicted upon indigenous people and surrounding wildlife.

For Chinese Fish, I’m half Kiwi so this collection really resonated with me. The silver fern is the national symbol of Aotearoa New Zealand, a symbol most people  associate with the All Blacks rugby team. I wanted to lean into the national symbol for recognition but also to manipulate its meaning by building it out of fish bones to represent Yee’s narrative in her poetry. The form takes on new meaning and symbolises the fragility of national identity and the racism ingrained in New Zealand’s history both towards Māori people and immigrants, with the latter being central to the explorations in Chinese Fish.

You make the cyanotypes which form the artwork on the covers yourself. Why is this process important to you in book design?

With AI becoming an ever-present threat to the arts, I believe using traditional craft and method to create is more important than ever. I found the idea of using UV rays to expose the images poetic in itself, and with our poetry in particular, it feels fitting to use objects both from the natural world and man made.

The cyanotype creates an organic aesthetic which evokes a raw feeling, and there is something about the physical, human touch which cannot be replicated digitally.

 

Our poetry has a bright green spine, cover type and inside printing. How did you decide on this colour for poetry?

Taking our entire catalogue of non-fiction, fiction, essays and poetry into consideration, green felt like a powerful and punchy colour to use, one that would stand out in bookshops. The contrast of the delicate cyanotypes with the striking Pantone 2464U green epitomises the goal of Akoya’s visual language: to merge feminine and masculine styles, to juxtapose softness with strength and to create visual harmony between contrasting styles.