Malone Dies by Samuel Beckett

Part of a trilogy of astonishing monologues in the black comic voice of the author of Waiting for Godot. ...more info on wikipedia

About the artist: Brendan Foremanfrom Ireland

Brendan Foreman is an Irish graphic designer with a strong background in advertising and many years experience working for leading Irish agencies and the cultural sector. He was resident graphic designer with the Abbey Theatre for 8 years. He was a founder member and creative director of Public Communications Centre, Ireland’s leading strategic, marketing and fundraising agency for non-profit organisations and causes. In 2008 the National Print Museum in Dublin ran a very successful retrospective of his poster designs for the Abbey Theatre entitled ‘Playboys, Paycocks and Playbills’.

Why this work

“Malone Dies was the first Samuel Beckett novel I read as a teenager and it remains a particular favourite. I loved the language and the fragmentary evocation of a city, its hinterland and seasons, carrying a distinct flavour of the Dublin I knew. The stories and characters in the novel are disintegrating shades of a single consciousness. In one passage, Malone imagines himself inside someone’s skull. The design is a mingling of 3 Beckett faces in a graphic style I associate with the late 1940s, when the novel was written. The typeface (‘Bell’) also has a Beckettian feel for me. It was designed in the late 18th century and revived in the 1930s when it became a favourite of modern book designers like Jan Tschichold.”