Mieszczanin szlachcicem

Polish title: The Middle-Class Gentleman
Dimensions: 20 × 25 cm
Hardcover 200 p.
2006

This book was never published. It was designed by Daniel during his fourth year of studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poland, as an assignment at Maciej Buszewicz’s Book Design Studio.

“Le Bourgeois gentilhomme” is a five-act comedy written by Molière in 1670. It pokes fun at pretentious middle-class and the snobbish aristocracy. The main character tries his best to act like a noble, but fails every time we see him. He learns how to speak, how to play instruments and even how to dance and fence, but he always thinks he knows better.

Daniel struggled to find a proper solution for the design of this book. He was trying to show how cheap and vulgar the main character is, but his first sketches were lacking conviction. They were somewhere between being rude and attractive.

The final idea was to create a modern version of Jourdain (the main character) and present him in a set of dramatic close-ups that would open every scene of every act. Below you can see a selection of those images. Molière writing lives between them. All of the photographs in the book are Daniel’s self portraits.

This is a typical assignment at Maciej Buszewicz’s Book Design Studio. Play scripts have a unique structure and it makes a great exercise to design them. After at least one year of facing basic exercises this would be the first big (bigger than 16 pages) book designed at this course. Because students can choose book design class only after they’ve finished first two years of studies, their first book is usually designed during fourth year.

The best part about those assignments is that usually 5 to 6 people will get the same text to work on and they will come up with totally different solutions. Aleksandra’s and Daniel’s designs confirm this rule.