De derde vrouw / Natalie C. Barney
Velvet Publishers
Book design
Velvet Publishers is the Dutch publisher of les-bi-queer literature. By publishing LBQ stories, Velvet Publishers aims to actively contribute to the positive representation of les-bi-queer individuals with editions of LBQ classics, modern translated literature and the launch of a special new series: the les-bi-queer Pulpature series.
Their mission is a wider and happier representation of les-bi-queers' lives in Dutch-language literature.
For their series Vintage publications Velvet publishers asked me to design the cover of ‘De derde vrouw’ by Natalie Clifford Barney. In English the book is know as ‘Women Lovers, Or the Third Woman’ and is a lesbian love triangle avant la lettre. It is an intense and poetic modernist novel about three women deeply devoted and in love with each other, and chronicles the transformation of their relationship. The idea of the “Third Woman” is not only a reference to one of the women in the novel being left out by the others, but also to the idea that being a lesbian was being part of a “third sex”.
Due to the fact that the book was the first within the series, I had to not only design a captivating cover but also create a concept for the coming books within the Vintage series. The traingle became the core element in which I constructed the concept. It is a prominent shape within Velvet’s identity and ties it together to the V of vintage. 1 + 1 becomes more.
For this title we chose to have the design reminiscent of a kaleidoscope. But the concept is so that it is very versatile in usage. Cool fact – the image on the cover is Natalie Clifford Barney herself!
Colophon
Concept & design
Anouk de l’Ecluse
Image
Natalie Clifford Barney, c. 1898, photograph by Emery, Bar Harbor (Maine)