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Literaturnaya: A Type Specimen

A type specimen booklet for the Cyrillic typeface Literaturnaya, framed through the Soviet constructivist era that shaped its forms.

2023InDesign, Illustrator
EditorialIdentity

Literaturnaya is a Cyrillic serif designed in 1930s Soviet Russia, a period when typography carried heavy political and cultural weight. For this type specimen I wanted the book itself to feel of its era: bold propaganda-poster color, aggressive asymmetry, photomontage, and a frank confrontation with the type's history rather than a sanitized display.

Cover spread of the Literaturnaya type specimen booklet, featuring bold yellow and red constructivist typography over a cropped portrait.

Concept

The booklet is organized around three tensions: Latin versus Cyrillic, the 1930s versus the present, and constructivist aesthetic versus contemporary type-specimen conventions. Each spread leans into one of these. Period photography is cropped hard and overlaid with heavy type. Colour stays restricted to the constructivist palette of black, red, yellow, and cream.

A nine-frame grid of interior spreads from the booklet, showing the use of bold typography, historical imagery, and the Cyrillic alphabet in bright yellow and black.

Interior

Interior spread explaining the gestation and constructivist origins of Literaturnaya.
Interior spread showing the full Cyrillic and Latin character set at large display size.
A wide flat-lay of the booklet opened to show multiple spreads in sequence, showing the rhythm of the publication.

Object

The piece is a perfect-bound A5 booklet, printed on uncoated stock to keep the imagery gritty rather than glossy. The yellow cover was chosen to read as an object first and a book second, something you pick up before you open.

Multiple copies of the booklet stacked, showing the cover and spine treatment.
Final closing image of the booklet lying open on a light surface.