Masman

Creative direction and graphic design of a book on masman, Peter Minshall

Winner: 2024 Gold ADDY for Book Design (AAF Caribbean), 2024 Silver ADDY for Book Design (AAF District 4)

At 96 pages and 7.25 inches high by 5.5 inches wide, Masman is a relatively small book, but one that will always be huge to me. The first in a planned series of books by The Minshall Mas Foundation set to chronicle the work of legendary masman/Carnival designer, Peter Minshall, Masman presents a speech he gave at the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago in 2000, complemented by his sketches.

I’m usually happy to be asked to design any book, but when I was asked to design this one, I was thrilled! There has been insufficient accessible documentation of Minshall’s significant body of work, which extends from the streets of Port of Spain to Olympic arenas and beyond. As the first book in a series, much time was spent upfront connecting with the book’s editors, Anu Lakhan and Pat Ganase, to decide on consistent factors for the run of the series. They knew they wanted black only for the interior and something small, and we worked out the rest together: exact dimensions (we looked at a lot of tiny books), paper (a beautiful, uncoated recycled stock just ever so slightly off-white), and cover treatment (french folds front and back). I sold the team on Minshall’s delightful sketch of Paradise Lost as a wraparound cover, and also on sticking to Freight as the typeface for the whole series due to its versatility and beauty. 

Highlighted text throughout calls attention to big ideas or magical moments in the speech, while Minshall’s sketches selected for the book that I selected illustrate and capture the spirit and energy of Minshall’s work, rather than to be specific references to the copy. 

SUMMARY | Role: Creative Direction and Graphic Design
Published: December 2023 by The Minshall Mas Foundation and Lonsdale Saatchi & Saatchi
Text and drawings: Peter Minshall
Edited by: Anu Lakhan and Pat Ganase
Printed in T&T by The Office Authority (with Carlos Aqui as our ace print rep)
Book photos: Michele Jorsling