Makina Books

Our ongoing, visually-vibrant partnership with the inventive poetry-led small press

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An open book

Our enduring collaboration with Makina Books will soon be nearing a half-decade. In that time we’ve developed two distinct iterations of its website—reflective of its blossoming growth—designed over a dozen books and created numerous prints, stickers, badges, patches, bookmarks and bags—amongst other wonderful ephemera.

A crop of the Makina Books homepage, viewed on a desktop screen. A logo and site menu sit at the top of the screen, with a ‘mission statement’ that reads 'Creating bold, beautiful books and audio projects that promote and celebrate independent and emerging voices' in oversized text below. Below this is a product profile block for ‘On Trampolining’ by Rebecca Perry with a render of the book’s cover on the left, and the title, author, and truncated synopsis to the right. Fixed to the bottom right of the page is a horizontal bar allowing the user to click on social media links and subscribe to a mailing list.

The bold and the beautiful

Founded by the innovative mind of Robin Christian with a rationale for projects that “seek to promote and celebrate independent and emerging voices, with a particular focus on poetry and nonfiction”, one of our earliest aims was to find a truly symbiotic approach to what a Makina book should be: a singular, expressive composition of its own, that acts as a visual companion to the unique voice of the author inside.

Over a dozen tactile, boxy-formatted publications later, each book is still very much a considered interpretation of a more-is-more affair: vivid palettes, emphatic, illustrative motifs and imaginative typography align to create a vibrant criterion that attempts to eschew the often expected contextual minimalism in favour of celebratory expression. Around (and inside) this blueprint, the author’s words are typeset with an emphasis on creative-articulation, yet one with accessibility and legibility at its heart.

I’ve worked with Frontwards Design on fifteen publications. Each time, they have responded to the works by creating a generous space that allows involvement from the author and editor. The results always take the work beyond the printed page—including badges, prints, bags, web-based audio players and point of sale materials. By creating a delightful visual world for Makina Books, Frontwards has made something integral to our ongoing work.

Robin Christian founder and editor
A render of the Expanded Edition of the book ‘Strangers: Essays on the Human and Nonhuman’. Along the top of the cover runs text that reads “Longlisted for the 2021 Rathbones Folio Prize”. In the centre of the cover is an abstract motif of two green leaves, joined by a stalk which winds from the centre to the bottom left of the cover. A black filled circle, outlined with a ring, overlays each leaf, giving the impression the leaves are a pair of eyes staring out at us from the cover. A quote by Max Porter reads “Bursting with intellectual generosity. Deep wide roots and radical shoots”, alongside a quote by Sinéad Gleeson which reads: 'Tamás’ essays are deeply rooted in folklore and the fragility of existence. A stunning work of enquiry and eloquence.' The text is a mixture of black and green in colour and is placed on an unbleached cotton-coloured background.
The front cover of the book 'On Trampolining' by Rebecca Perry. It has a hot pink background and white serif text. In the centre is an abstract, vectorised illustration depicting a person in a pink leotard, upside-down in mid-somersault, holding their knees tight to their body. Concentric circles span outward from this figure to the edge of the cover and beyond. The Makina Books logo sits within a circle in the top-right corner, followed by a second, linked circle containing the text 'Non-Fiction'. Two review quotation sit centrally at the top and bottom; the top one from Max Porter reads 'A taut masterclass in poetic memoir' and the bottom one from Inua Ellams reads 'A jewel of an essay'.
The front cover of the book 'Dust Sucker' by Jen Calleja. Black, serif text sits atop an ethereal, grainy background, full of hazy gradients of pinks, blues, yellows and oranges. Scattered around the cover are circular particles in various colours. The book's title sits centrally in a huge, bold, expressive, black serif font. Beneath, text reads 'Longings dwell here, as wondrous and abundant as dust—Doireann Ni Ghriofa, author of A Ghost in the Throat' In the top right is the Makina Poetry logo, the words sitting within two interlinked circles.
The front cover of the book 'Grief Stitches' by Emily Harrison. Black, serif text sits atop a golden yellow and white pinstriped background. The book's title sits centrally in a huge, bold, spiky black serif font. A purple thread runs from the bottom of the cover to the top, looping under and over the title on its way. In the top left is text that reads 'An extraordinary book of tenderness, devastation and reclamation. Each poem is a prayer, both an ending and a beginning. Beautiful. Joelle Taylor.' In the top right is the Makina Poetry logo, the words sitting within two interlinked circles.
A render of the front cover of the book ‘Lobsters’ by Wayne Holloway-Smith. The background colour is a sickly, lobster-pink, and the text is black, in a bold, condensed serif font. Above the book's title is a graphical illustration of a fork, lying on its side, and below is a knife. In the bottom left-corner, the top-right portion of a dinner plate can be seen, the edge of which is encircled by a repeating pattern consisting of the following motifs: an open lipstick, a treble clef, a cigarette, four buttons. In the top right is the Makina Poetry logo, the words sitting within two interlinked circles.
A render of the front cover of the book Hyperlove by Naomi Morris. A woozy, ethereal background, made up of undulating reds and pinks, sits beneath the white outline of two lips, slightly open, which contain the book's title in a heavily-stylised, characterful serif font. An extract from a review sits above the lips, whilst in the top right is the Makina Poetry logo, the words sitting within two interlinked circles.
The front cover of the book Glass by Emily Cooper. An abstract, white, panelled Georgian window motif sits atop a deep, rich blue background. Above, at the top of the cover, a quote from Jack Underwood reads 'Cooper is a poet of impressive deftness and idea'. In the top right is the Makina Poetry logo, the words sitting within two interlinked circles.
The front cover of the book 'The Yak Dilemma' by Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal. A portion of the contours of a country as visible from space sit on top of a hot pink background, its contours traced by In the top right is the Makina Poetry logo, the words sitting within two interlinked circles. In the top-left corner, a review extract by Sean Hewitt reads 'These are songs of belonging and of movement, of fluid identity, carefully crafted and always grateful.'
The front cover of the book 'Perpetual Skip' by Middex. On a white background, three abstract skip shapes, with triple lined borders around their edges, sit one behind the other. The top skip is white, the middle one is grey and the bottom one is red, and also contains the book's title in a spiky white bold serif font, a telephone icon and number.
The front cover of the book 'Night Blooms' by Angus Carlyle. On a jet black background, the letters of the title are scattered all over the cover in a neon yellow uppercase outlined sans-serif font. A thick, crudely drawn path of yellow stretches from the left to the right side of the cover, looping and deviating around the letters as it goes.
The front cover of the book 'Split Ends' by Alanna McArdle. A background of pastel pink is overlaid from the spine side by a mint green triangle with a white border. The book's title sits at the top, in a playful, pseudo-hand-drawn sans-serif font. The tail of the 't' from 'split' loops around and joins the crossbar of the 'e' from 'ends'.
The front cover of the book 'The Blue Room' by Eloise Hendy. On a royal blue background, the black outline of a blueprint-style room encroaches from the spine side, encircling the 'o' of room, and continuing down to the bottom edge of the cover, via a door shape.

Makina 2.0

To coincide with Makina’s launch of their accessibility-focussed audio programme, we overhauled the bones of the simple shop we had built during the small press’ infancy and turned the original makinabooks.com into a functionally flexible and visually striking hub to celebrate everything that falls under the Makina umbrella.

A crop of the Makina Books product page for Strangers by Rebecca Tamás, viewed on a desktop screen. A logo and site menu sit at the top of the screen. A render of ‘Strangers’ is directly beneath the menu, to the left of the screen, and to the right are the title and author in large text and a series of buttons allowing the user to choose the format they wish to buy, along with a price, description, quantity input and 'Add to bag' button. Fixed to the bottom right of the page is a horizontal bar allowing the user to click on social media links and subscribe to a mailing list.
The mobile menu from the Makina Books website, viewed on a smartphone screen. It has a vibrant red background, with white text. In the top-left corner is the Makina Books logo, and in the top-right is a circular 'close' button. Below in a large, bold serif font is a list of links for 'Shop', 'Audio', 'Activity', 'Info', 'Bag' and 'Log in'. At the bottom is a full width thin white line which separates from the rest of the menu some social media icons and a 'Subscribe' link.

Replete with the bedding in of a new typeface, P22 Mackinac, the site’s reimagined structure was one of the first we conceived around our component-led design approach, providing the necessary flexibility for each page and project to showcase a harmonious yet case-by-case nuance to its hierarchy via an elegant asymmetric grid.

Visit the Makina Books site
A page from the Makina Books website, viewed on a smartphone screen. The top half is made up of an atmospheric close-up colour photograph of a higgledy-piggledy pile of various different ink stamps, partly in shadow, and partly bathed in natural light. Underneath this is a quotation from Emily Cooper, author of 'Glass', in a large serif font, which reads
A crop of the Makina Books website Shop page, viewed on a desktop screen. A logo and site menu sit at the top of the screen. Underneath is a three column, three row grid containing renders of the front covers of six of the Makina publications: Dust Sucker, The Yak Dilemma, Glass Hyperlove, Grief Stitches and Night Blooms. Fixed to the bottom right of the page is a horizontal bar allowing the user to click on social media links and subscribe to a mailing list.