BERGEN – Architecture and Stories
This book is about something more than just the Norwegian city Bergen and the architecture there. It’s about looking at our surroundings, wherever we may be. That we practice the ability to wonder about the things we interact with daily. Instead of rushing to work, school or other activities, we can from time to time, slow down and make our thoughts about why things are as they are.
The challenge
When Arne Skinlo reached out to talk about his book, he explained that he wanted the book to be designed in Affinity Publisher instead of using the more popular layout design software Adobe InDesign. This would allow him to keep making edits to the file as well. Luckily I can work with both programs, so I could easily adapt to his wishes.
The book is also set up to have content in both Norwegian and English so we had to figure out a way to show all this in an organized way. And most importantly, all attention should go to the photos, so no text should be added on photo pages.
Getting the cover right
Any book cover should make an impression but especially when it’s a photo book. The cover for BERGEN – Architecture and Stories needed to have a high-end look to match the refinement of the presented photos and have some sort of geometrical feel to allude to the architecture.
Here’s how the cover gradually took shape:
Take a look inside the book
Below you can see how the text was accommodated to always show the Norwegian text on the left and the English text on the right.
A combination of two fonts was chosen: Open Sans for all regular text because of it’s legibility and Abril Fatface to give the titles a more luxurious and refined look.
The pages with photos don’t feature any text at all. That way each photo can be appreciated without any distractions.
Video overview of the book
This video gives an overview of the book and let’s you appreciate the architecture in Bergen.
Note: this video was not made by me.
Learn more about Arne Skinlo
The book can be bought in bookshops or directly online from Kolofon Forlag.
Check out Arne Skinlo’s amazing work as a photographer on his website.
What Arne said about the work we did together
ARNE SKINLO
Author and Photographer
“Mariko is a very pleasant person to work with and has a very high standard of work. I highly recommend her for the design of photobooks like BERGEN – Architecture and Stories. She is very punctual and consistently delivers what is agreed upon.”
Happy client, happy freelancer 🙌
It was a total privilege to help Arne Skinlo fine-tune the design for his book. He’s put so much effort and energy into creating these photographs and editing them to make the viewer feel something. He took lots of courses and worked with his mentor to improve his own skills. It was truly inspiring to hear him talk about it! I’m so glad that now everybody can enjoy his work through this book.
For some personal comments about what it was like to collaborate with Arne, just take a look at this video. 😊
