For my final MA creative project, I elected to create an illustrated book based on the short story “One Soldier” by Tayama Katai.

The intention was to explore ways of combining multi-cultural art styles in a single design, As part of this I researched heavily into traditional Japanese design aesthetics, and attempted to incorporate these philiosophies into my design, as well as some traditional Japanese brushwork.

The story is a fairly gruelling one, based in the Russo-Japanese war, and I wanted to give a touch of authenticity, so once the books had been bound, I created an etched copper typographic nameplate, which I embedded in the cover. I then re-covered the book in leather and created a tear to reveal the nameplate.