Tenterhooks Book Cover

Cover design for Tenterhooks, a collection of short stories by Claire-Lise Kieffer.

The cover uses a collage and empty space to create a sense of quiet motion, showing a woman's hand emptying parts of itself down the page. This raises questions in the viewer's mind – is this an act of self harm or of graceful release?

The image is combined with the typeface Orleans by Commercial Type. The tapering widths, sharp points and precise curves of the face echo the cut pieces falling from the hand, creating a sense of coherence between type and image.