Lajos Kassak (1887-1967) was the leading figure of the Hungarian avantgarde. He first appeared in the 1910s, as an utterly new type of artist in Hungary, with his independent thoughts and actions. His responses to historical and social challenges through the stages of his life were unceasingly original.
He started to write his autobiography in 1926, titeled ‘Egy ember élete’ (‘A Man’s Life’). To redesign his book I started to read the 1966 edition, that contains six chapters. I treated these chapters as six single books and I connected them with one design.
The main elements are simple geometric shapes. They represent the process, how one person develops through life, but still remains one. These elements are not just graphically but physically connected. In the cover's front the actual shapes are embossed, and at the back of the books the next chapter’s shape appears in negative. This way the books can be appreciated separately but they make one whole.
In the phase of text designing I realised Kassák in fact wrote eight chapters instead of six. Probably due to the actual political situation it was censored and they acted as if these last two chapters hadn't existed. I think it is an interesting and important moment of the Hungarian history, therefore I didn't redesign the whole project. The sixth chapter’s back indicates that the story hasn’t been finished yet, and I’m planning on creating the last two chapters of the book as well.
