(x) book design • (x) os três últimos dias de fernando pessoa

the book os três últimos dias de fernando pessoa by antonio tabucchi tells the story of the last three days of portuguese poet and author fernando pessoa. his individual heteronyms visit him in the hospital to have one last conversation. the interpretative design concept does not provide legibility in the first place, but aims to enhance the reader’s experience. since the book only contains dialogues, i developed a parallel structure where pessoa’s speech appears on the left pages, his interlocutors’ on the right. pessoa’s text remains in a monospace font, yet each of his heteronyms got a different typeface matching their individual character. each chapter is introduced by an abstract photo of a place pessoa once lived, displaying his condition, paired with a time reference. countless details can be found throughout the book enhancing important parts of the dialogues or the perception of time and space. for example, the pagina slowly moves downwards from page to page, displaying his limited time like an hourglass.