13 January,2013 09:01 AM IST | | Dhvani Solani
Imagine a story that would inspire other stories, and then imagine it hanging on the wall above your bed. Or better still, in your living room, visible to anyone who walks in, readers and non-readers alike. Imagine it not as part of your bookshelf on which only the spine of your favourite book is visible, but as a whole story by itself, on a single piece of paper, lovingly framed and put up. Exciting dinnertime conversations,u00a0u00a0anybody?
A graphic poster of Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Walk into lifestyle store, Anemos, later this week, and check out framed posters that carry the entire story of some of the most popular classics (as well as some contemporary novels), on delectable, satin-finish paper. While it might seem impossible that even heavy page-turners have made it to the list, each design contains the full text of the books that can be read by the naked eye in most cases.
u00a0"It took the designer a year or two to simply figure out how to fit the entire text into this format," says Reshma Jain, founder of The Narrators which sources these classic book posters all the way from Europe, and will soon begin to design the posters in-house as well. "A friend from Berlin got me a framed poster of Pride and Prejudice as a housewarming present. Everyone who would come home would admire it and ask me where they can get one too. This got me talking to a friend from the UK, with whom I then tied up to get these posters to India." Her first batch of posters was sold out within an hour.
Hung up on the walls at Anemos, you will find Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in an intriguing design that slowly reveals itself to you, taking forward the psychological angle of the book. There will be a three-piece poster of Gregory David Roberts' Shantaram that can be hung up either as one mammoth piece, or as three different ones, side by side.
u00a0The usual suspects - Alice in Wonderland, Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights (Jain's favourite) among others - will be present alongside a poster of Yann Martel's Life of Pi, that resembles the poster of the movie adaptation, cashing in on its recent commercial success. "I was initially reluctant about the prices of these works but anybody who loves reading will see the value of these works," shares Jain.
The framed posters cost Rs 12,500 onwards and are printed with high-tech printing technology that guarantees that the pin-sharp text won't fade. The symbolic designs of each work make the text curve around the edges in a manner that both, the design and the text complement each other rather than take away from the aesthetics. We have a feeling that reading the classics through these framed works might make you pop an aspirin soon, but for someone in love with words, these framed posters will be nothing short of magical artworks.
