The Redesigned Tristram Shandy

Hot on the heels of Jonathan Safran Foer's designer book, Tree of Codes, the same British publisher, Visual Editions, has released a souped-up (or pimped-out?) version of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. (They're also offering two nose posters.) Fast Company Co.Design highlighted the new edition a couple of days ago, reminding readers of the "crucial role" innovative design will play in saving print. According to that article, Sterne's classic was ripe for this type of make-over: "Sterne, the 18th-century godfather of visual writing, filled his meandering cock-and-bull story with all sorts of glyphic ephemera -- a blacked out page to connote mourning, a blank page on which readers could sketch their impressions of a foxy widow, and so on." In the new VE edition, visual elements--dots of color, overprinted text, typographical play--exaggerate Sterne's words. In the example above, a folded page represents a shut door.