FROM BLURB

“Break through! (Eng. transl.) is a manifesto about the Denmark we’ve yet to know, as we haven’t created it yet. In 1989 the Berlin Wall tumbled. Today another wall is blocking our outlook, so that we can’t even imagine a different world than the one we’re living in. A me-me-me! epidemy is ravaging the world, in the form of greed and increasing intransigence: The rich steal from the poor, and the powerful suppress the powerless.”

BOOK DESIGN

I love the energy of this book. It is a call to action, a call for revolution, an outburst of anger and a declaration of love all at once.

Already during the meeting with the editor, I found myself scratching my head. “This isn’t exactly a coffee-table book, is it…?” I asked cautiously, hoping to get a clearer sense of what the publisher had in mind. “No, but just do something fun with the lettering on the cover!” It’s a briefing I’ve heard before. At the opposite end of the scale is the editor who has cut and pasted a cover together from images found online.

I couldn’t quite capture the energy that bursts through the author’s texts. They are driven by such intense engagement and emotional investment that they call for something more tactile than just playful lettering. What I really wanted was to punch a hole in a wall. A dirty crater. Or tear a ragged hole straight through the cover.

I actually went out looking at concrete walls. And even though it would have been entirely in the spirit of the book, I couldn’t bring myself to spray-paint a wall somewhere in the city. The designer’s polished version of vandalism is digitally crafted, “spray-painted” letters. But in the end, I did find that old concrete wall.