Fashion Central Saint Martins

Pushing back design conventions towards a rebellious fashion book

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Client:   Thames & Hudson Year:   2019 Location:   London, UK Services:   Book Design, Art Direction, Print Production

The Central Saint Martins’ Fashion Course has a legacy of rebelliousness, pushing back against established design conventions. It encourages self expression, boldness and creative curiosity – characteristics we embodied in the design of Thames & Hudson’s book, to celebrate one of the most famous and influential fashion school in the world.

Lettering on the cover and decade dividers were hand drawn with a lack of inhibition in order to bring an urgent energy. The book’s spine is left exposed, naked and unprotected to portray an honest and open account by students and teachers of one of the most famous fashion schools in the world.

CSM has a long standing association with the colour red. We knew we had to find an outlet for this colour on almost every spread, sometimes it dominates in order to indicate a change of content, other times we use it to accent key information.

The biggest element, and challenge, of the book was the amount of imagery of years and years of the school’s history. How to accommodate so many images became a starting point for how we shaped the design. The book’s format needed to keep growing to help accommodate the volume of content. Text columns are pushed out of the way by a barrage of images that impose themselves on each spread.

The biggest element, and challenge, of the book was the amount of imagery of years and years of the school’s history. How to accommodate so many images became a starting point for how we shaped the design. The book’s format needed to keep growing to help accommodate the volume of content. Text columns are pushed out of the way by a barrage of images that impose themselves on each spread.

One hundred copies of the book have been customised by CSM alumni Charles Jeffrey, Matty Bovan, Stephen Jones, Rottingdean Bazaar, Richard Quinn, Giles Deacon, Roksanda, Gareth Pugh, Phoebe English and Simone Rocha and will be available exclusively at Dover Street Market. All proceeds go to the CSM Fashion Fund to assist current students.