Half Woman, Half Fish — Editorial Work

A book about mermaids.



This is an editorial project about the myth of the sirens, focused from deeper perspectives from where the subject is usually projected: sociology, popular culture, biology... With graphic design as co-protagonist.

It is a 120x180 mm format, bound in a hard cover with Buckram cloth and with Geltex paper guards.To develop the universe of 'Half a woman, half a fish' I have used medieval aesthetics and old books to try to simulate what we have in the collective imagination as something of legend, fantasy or history. But also current and avant-garde graphic design.

The book is divided in half: the first, printed only on bronze paper, and the second on silver paper.

The bronze metallic paper represents the woman half, the shiny skin, bathed in water. In turn, the silver paper represents the fish half, the scales, which are iridescent and shiny in the sunlight. The treatment of images is one of the hallmarks of this project. In a place where no sunlight reaches, species have developed their own language to communicate and see each other: bioluminescence. It isthe process tothrough which living organisms produce light, resulting in a biochemical reaction involving an enzyme called luciferase. Most organisms that live at great depths emit light with their bodies as a means of survival. I wanted to simulate this effect in some of the images in the book, as if they themselves had a life of their own and we were contemplating them at the bottom of the sea. Finally, I have created several illustrations from the geometric shape of the circle. The circle, like the concept of the book, is made up of two halves. With this circle and its halves I have created an illustration per chapter to accompany the content and to generate extra information.