Graphic Design: Hagen Verleger redesigns his favourite publishing houses for fun

German graphic designer Hagen Verleger produces all manner of beautiful print design for a roster of fashion and arts-based clients. He’s particularly adept at the creation of book covers and crisp typographic layout having studied at both the Muthesius Kunsthochschule and Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst, Leipzig. His reductive approach to design means that all his work exudes a refined simplicity with only rare additions of devices that feel purely ornamental – and it’s this skill that particularly distinguishes a recent personal project.

In honour of his two favourite publishers, Suhrkamp and Insel, he began to redesign some of their most iconic titles, including Romeo and Juliet, Stanislaw Lem’s Fiasko and James Joyce’s romantic poetry. Hagen dispensed with all imagery and instead opted to use repeat patterns and typographic treatments to unite the various series, providing a clean, crisp refresh to a pair of publishers with serious pedigree. In one iteration he simply prints the opening page of the novel on the front cover – a surefire way to get the kids hooked.