Inside Matúš Hnát’s Book Design for Péter Esterházy

Explore Matúš Hnát's book design for Péter Esterházy's novel The Glance of Countess Hahn-Hahn, published by Slovak literary press BRAK.

Postmodern Central European fiction rarely gets a cover that actually gets the joke. First published in 1990, Péter Esterházy's novel follows a hired traveler drifting from the source of the Danube all the way to its Black Sea delta. The title nods to Heinrich Heine's famously spiteful quip that women writers keep one eye on the paper and the other on a man — except for Countess Hahn-Hahn, who only had one eye. Esterházy looks at the entire Danube basin through that missing, imaginary eye. For the Slovak edition published by independent press BRAK, Bratislava-based designer Matúš Hnát doesn't fall back on solemn literary clichés, building a sharp, color-blocked collage of river memorabilia instead.

Postmodern Collage and Tactile Craft in Book Design

The cover reads like a Central European travel scrapbook. Working across InDesign and Illustrator, Hnát divides the linen-textured front board into bold rectangular zones of yellow, cyan, slate green, orange, and cobalt blue. Up in the yellow corner, the first name Péter sits inside a red speech-drop badge that winks unmistakably at classic Maggi soup labels found in every kitchen along the river. Right beside it, Esterházy is set in warm orange condensed type over a wavy current line, while a circular red rubber stamp credits translator Renata Deáková around a tiny line-art river barge. A tall blue halftone stone carved with the winding course of the Danube anchors the left column alongside a fluted blue Gugelhupf cake mold and iron bridge trusses.

Every material choice earns its place. Tight lilac-pink and crimson condensed grotesk type stacks the Slovak title Pohľad grófky Hahn-Hahn across the lower right panels, carrying that same compact geometry onto the pale ice-blue spine. Flip the book over and a deep cobalt-blue back cover lays out the synopsis in crisp white serif type above the tall geometric BRAK colophon. It's the wide gatefold cover flaps that deliver the best tactile surprise. Unfolding the board reveals a cobalt interior panel stamped with a white Dolu Dunajom riverboat seal, opening into a full spread of blue, periwinkle, and white horizontal wave stripes that mimic the river's shifting currents.

See the full project by Matúš Hnát on Behance.