Anatomy of Design

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ANATOMY OF DESIGN

Just as designers have for eons fooled audiences through illusionist techniques

that make two-dimensional paper surfaces appear three-dimensional, they have

also engaged in the curious physics of paper engineering to make paper into

actual dimensional objects—to engage and delight. Pop-up books are the most

common form, as are a variant thereof, paper theaters, constructed of die-cut

papers that simulate stage, curtains, etc. Chilean Francisca Prieto’s 2003 design

for

Antibook, a graphic interpretation of the ninety-two-year-old Chilean poet

Nicanor Parra’s Antipoems, employs some of the same techniques used in pop-

up paper engineering to achieve a curious result: the complete destruction and

subsequent transformation of a book she titled The Antibook.

Parra, a professor of mathematics and physics, has written a lifetime of

verse influenced by existential philosophy; he calls his work

antipoetry because it

is flies in the face of convention. It is written in colloquial language about things

of common interest. Inspired by Parra’s mathematical acumen and vernacular

linguistics, Prieto’s deconstructive design for

Antibook is guided by principles of

mathematics essential to origami. Generally, her work consists of exclusive high-

end pieces for the home that are a fusion of artistic disciplines and the innovative

application of traditional crafts on modern materials. While not high-end in the

home furnishings sense,

Antibook straddles the border of fine and applied art; it is

meant to be savored but also to be read, albeit in an unconventional way.

As a container of information, a book must present this information in

the most appropriate way. The pages form the book’s structure; they are put

together in a certain order for a specific purpose. “But a book has an emotional

and intellectual value that must not be ignored,” Prieto explained in Baseline

magazine (#41). “For me, the real value of a book lies in deeply understanding

it and mastering its essence. Hence, each part of the book, like shape and

material, type and spaces, should be considered in relation to the others in its

design.” For the

Antibook, the horizontal format of the basic page comes from

the idea of breaking the traditional vertical format of the poems, and the

icosahedron shape is a result of an “alternative way of binding.” Prieto notes

the pages were used as the structure to form the book by interlocking

identically folded pages to create the modular origami shape.

Origami is key because it uses pure mathematical rules in the creation

of shapes. “I could use the folding lines of my pages as a grid,” Prieto adds.

“This grid dictated the way I placed the text on the page—in the correct order

and angle—so the poems are readable once in a geometric shape.” To prove

this relationship between the grid and the final shape of the book—the

icosahedron—Prieto created a traditional book with a conventional binding that

contains the same pages and information. “This book presents to us only the

mapping of the information rather than enabling us to read it.”

Consistent with the anti-ness of Parra’s poems and Prieto’s design, the

destruction of the object is also dependent on its reconstruction in a different

though related form. The book’s structure draws on eons of complex paper

engineering but also on the most common of all paper activities—cutting,

folding, and connecting for the purpose of creating a new (and novel) entity that

may not look like it but is as easy to read as Parra’s verse.

Antibook

Designer: Francisca Prieto

2003 Antibook, book

ad: Francisca Prieto

A graphic interpretation of the ninety-two-year-old Chilean poet Nicanor Parra’s Antipoems,

employs some of the same techniques used in pop-up paper engineering to achieve a

curious result: the complete destruction and subsequent transformation of a book Prieto

titled The Antibook.

Interactive book design

Art of folding paper/origami

Interactive design