The Great Houdini

"What the eyes see and the ears hear, the mind believes." -Harry Houdini

Year

2015

An interactive, hand built book that features five of Harry Houdini's greatest and most dangerous tricks, and then reveals the secrets behind them using creative paper engineering methods. The book draws influence was Houdini's life, his tricks and the nuances of his stage shows.
Size: 594mm x 420mm

Work

Print, Typography

Award

ISTD Pass

Expressive Typography

The Great Houdini uses expressive typography to visually introduce each of Houdini's five most dangerous tricks. The typography is unique to each of the five tricks, and is designed to delight and amaze the audience, and set the scene for what is to come.

Revealing the secrets

After a brief explanation of the tricks, the book features a creative mix of interactive paper engineering to reveal the secrets behind the each of the tricks. They range from pull out posters hiding between the pages, to perforated frenchfolds which the audience have to tear apart.

Typographic detailing

Once the secrets have been revealed, the details of how Houdini performed the trick are on the following pages alongside magical quotes from Houdini himself. The layout took inspiration from Victorian newspaper grids.