BOOK COVERS & AKIO

Akio’s father inhabited the foggy world of academia, as an economist and mathemetician his language was one of esoteric equations. He was a deeply cerebral but impractical man absorbed in a world of theories and ideas. In the early 70s Akio’s father received the letterpressed proofs of his latest manuscript. His father, with uncharacteristic dexterity, began binding the proofs with a needle and thread into two books, ironing the pages, impatient to see what his tome would look like in reality. He asked Akio, aged nine, to write the title on the covers. Akio was impressed by how beautifully his father had crafted the books. He was less appreciative of the unintelligiable contents but moved, then as now, by their collaboration in producing a simple, understandable object.

03 Apr 2011