Spring 2026InDesign
Watercolor Colored Pencil
Photoshop This is an illustrated and designed book of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s part fairy-tale, part gothic horror story “Rappaccini’s Daughter.” The tale tells of Beatrice and Giovanni’s ill-fated love, as the two are caught up in the schemes of Rappaccini’s and Baglioni’s poisonous experiments. In the end, Giovanni is left unable to join normal society and Beatrice is dead.
The book includes 3 page, 6 spread, and 10 spot illustrations, with 4 out of these being interactive foldouts. The foldouts are interspersed to add delight and encourage turning the page, and add another layer of storytelling to key moments.
The Cover
The System
The font used is P22 Morris which adds a medieval influence (referencing illuminated manuscripts and Italian Rennaissance books) and has a strong, hand-crafted literary tone.
The text takes on a modular system where the single column text accomodates horizontal spot illustrations and pairs well with single page illustrations. In the case of vertical spot illustrations, both the page with the illustration and the other side of the spread expand into two columns, thus the system accomodates a range of images.
Beatrice’s and the garden’s poisonous nature are central to the story. Her and her plant’s design is based off the poisonous, purple belladonna flower. I wanted to draw out this poisonous purple tone in the design elements of the book, not just the illustrations: all marginalia and dropcaps are the same purple tone as Beatrice and her flower.
The Details
The book is printed on 100 lb Cover Regal White Cardstock with a linen texture from French Paper. The texture of the paper adds a handcrafted, artisan feel to the work. The book is bound using a variation of a flutter bind. The straight edge of half page spot illustrations complements the straight edge of the text column.
The Process
While Hawthorne’s story’s setting is never specified, he references Padua’s botanical garden which was established in 1545. Hence, I set the story in the late 16th century. I reference the Padua Botanical Garden, as well as other material about rennaissance garden design in Italy for the deisgn of the setting.
The clothing is largely based on the book above by Cesare Vicellio called The Clothing of the Rennaissance World, which was first published in Venice (which like Padua is located in the Veneto region of Italy) in 1590.
The foldouts went through many revisions before the final production. For example, on page thirteen the silhouette of the foliage originally was where the page folded down, however, when open, the shapes created an awkward countershape with Beatrice.