A Game for Children

Play Station is a book series which is actually made of one book only, that has been printed in multiple colours.

The book has been designed pro bono with the purpose to promote a school project dedicated to the integration of foreign children in Italian schools. The project was coordinated by Associazione PostPost with the contribution of the Municipality of Piacenza.

At first, the idea was to print a single copy of the book with the sole purpose of documenting the project but, by giving up the fee for the design of the book, it was possible to raise the budget and make a print run of several copies.

To further contain costs, paperback binding was discarded, opting instead for a white metal spiral binding that enhances the lively colours that characterise the covers, making them appear even brighter.

Tales and Lullabies

The book is made of two parts. The first one gathers a series of tales written by the children who took part in the project. Some of the tales are reproduced as images in order to keep the ingenuity of the children’s handwriting, as well as the mistakes and the original editing. While some other tales have been reinterpreted through lettering and typography in order to enhance onomatopœias, sounds, and tone of voice.

The second part of the book is titled ‘Lullabies from the world’ and gathers a series of lullabies written in many different languages including Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish.

Typeface and Colours

All texts have been set with a purposely redrawn version of Helvetica, featuring a round punctuation that gives a more friendly look to the book.

While by thinking about the colour to use for the cover came the idea of making not one version only of the book but four, each one characterised by a different colour—yellow, light blue, red, and green.

A Positive Liveliness

The book was welcomed with great enthusiasm by the client and appreciated by all those who took part in the project. The variety and liveliness of the colours enriched the presentation of the book by easily communicating the positivity of the project in a simple and visually effective way, at the same time enhancing the vivacity of children and variety of tales.

—Nicola-Matteo Munari