My book redesigns started with the English compilation of Ghassan Kanafani's short novels: Men in the Sun & other Palestinian stories. This book was published in 1999 and was followed by two other English-translated books by Kanafani, Palestine's Children (2000) and All That's Left to You (2004). My design process included a complete redesign of the interior and exterior designs of Men in the Sun, with the introduction of Arabic alongside the English, and the development of a trilogy with redesigns of the other two book covers as well.
Through a postmodern approach, I chose to incorporate a monospaced typeface with an Arabic geometric typeface and align the titles and headings to the right to allow the reader to experience reading from right to left as if they're reading in Arabic. This change might feel unusual to the reader at first sight, but will break the tension between the original Arabic text and Western design traditions, therefore bridging an unexpected gap between Arabic and English readers to allow a further understanding of Kanafani's poetic prose.
