“Semn ca sunt “ Full-cycle collaboration: the poet commissioned me to manage every stage—from concept and design to layout and all illustrations. The directive was clear: sustain an intimate, private dialogue with the reader—expressive yet restrained, never visually overloaded or intrusive.

Key constraints: deliver an airy, supportive object that feels like a long-familiar poetry book, while completing the work in 3–4 months alongside other commitments. Both were achieved through structured iteration and focused execution.

Visual approach: strict black-on-white / white-on-black scheme for neutrality and timeless simplicity. Translucent interleaf sheets between spreads introduce transparency and reader agency—the book becomes participatory, allowing personal notes, sketches, or marks directly beside the poems. Illustrations center on the hand motif: searching in shadow or steadied by lantern light, each one aligned to a specific poem to reinforce metaphors and provide contextual depth without overpowering the text.

Quill-based elements and selected fonts contribute a calm, unforced freshness. The process relied on mutual trust and multiple revision rounds to calibrate the balance between meaning and visual subtlety. This sharpened my precision in minimal, evocative systems that serve poetic intimacy.