An independent publisher in Leith, its books joined by one line.

Twelve books a year, and twelve unrelated covers. We gave them one line and let the shelf do the rest.

The brief

Halyard Press publishes twelve books a year from a first-floor office in Leith, almost all of them fiction translated from Nordic and Baltic languages. Each cover had been commissioned from a different illustrator, so the list never looked like a list.

Bookshops shelved the titles by author, scattered across the fiction section, and only 310 readers took the annual subscription. The founders wanted a press people could recognise across a shop, and a website that sold the year rather than the single book.

The idea

One red rule sits 62 mm from the foot of every cover and runs across the spine. Shelved side by side, the books join into a single line. It is the halyard, the rope that raises the sail, and it holds the list together.

Above the line, a colour for each language of origin, eight in all, and the title set in Fraunces at one size on every book. The website sells the year first: twelve books, posted as they come out.

What we made

Identity and wordmark
Series design for covers and spines
Colour system by language of origin
Website and subscription, designed and built
Bookshop window kit

How the mark moves

The wordmark turns like a page: each letter tips forward on its spine and settles flat. It runs on the website whenever a new book is announced.

Close-up of paperback spines in deep colours on a wooden shelf, a red line joining across them at the same height

The line joins up

Every cover and spine is printed from one template, so the rule lands at the same height to the millimetre. Shelve the year together and twelve books read as one line.

Paperbacks in eight deep colours on navy cloth, each crossed by a red line, with a canvas tote and a posting envelope — The 2022 list: eight colours, one for each language of origin, and one red line.

A woman reading a navy paperback on a harbour wall in Leith on a grey, windy day — The Shore, Leith, a few streets from the office.

What changed

subscribers to the year of books, up from 310
Two years after the first books in the new series came out.
independent bookshops stocking the whole series
Many shelve it face out as one run, the line unbroken.
reprints in the first year
Against one reprint in the five years before.

Who made it

Orvel

Tomás FerreiraSeries designLisbon
Anjali RaoCreative directionLondon
Freya LundWebsite and subscriptionLondon

With

Client team: Morag Keir, Teodor Lind
Print: Lomond Print, Glasgow
Photography: Calum Reid
Website development: Orvel engineering

Next project Furniture workshop, 2021TORNOA nine-person lathe workshop in Lisbon, now selling its turned furniture to fourteen countries.