Sir Alec Guinness Archive Book

Designing an archive book of diary entries and letters belonging to Sir Alec Guinness, for the book department at Sotheby’s, has been an absolute highlight.

The book department had a huge collection of diary entries and letters, spanning Sir Alec Guinness’ entire career. His family wanted these documented, in a beautifully laid out book. I wanted to give the book a deeply personal feel, so the diary entries and letters, were set amongst striking, full bleed, archive photographs. Although the book was predominantly black and white, I wanted to inject some very subtle colour. I choose a light blue which I felt complimented the tone of the book, without distracting from the content. This blue was carried through to end papers, chapter numbers and the title on the front cover. I also used Sir Alec Guinness’ signature on the front cover to personalise it further. For the cover, I used G.F Smith Ebony colorplan, with a Gravure embossing, the title and signature were foiled debossed. The book was perfect bound.