Mannahatta, a book design.

This is a large book; it looks, feels, and is heavy, with hard cover, thick paper, and lots of illustrations. From the first glance it commands respect, seriousness, but also playfulness from the cover design.

This design conveys that something interesting and maybe unexpected will happen to a place that most everybody is familiar with: the City of New York, Manhattan in particular. This is achieved by the title and the map that is placed across the whole front cover. The title is written in large capital letters: MANNAHATTA. We know it sounds familiar, but maybe not. It is intriguing. Then under Mannahatta in smaller capital letters it leaves no doubt what we got: A Natural History of New York City. The other prominent design feature is the map. It is separated in two sections: the upper part is the “normal” view of today's built up metropolitan city, but the bottom part shows the city as a lush green area with hills, open spaces, and wilderness. So the title of the book, as well as the picture already starts to tell the story that is unfolding in the book. However, because they used the map this way it separates the page in two right at the middle. It is not always the most appealing design to look at. Additionally, they used this separation line to guide the letters of the title that is centered, but they placed the author's below in the middle of the “bottom” map. It makes the name float within this space that gives an unsettling feeling. Perhaps they should have used the rule of thirds in the division of the map, and place the title and the authors name closer to each other. The book designer has a constraint, the size, the print, the background of the book, but not all was used to the maximum possibility here.

Overall this is a very beautifully made book. The map illustrations are amazing inside the book just as the front cover. It definitely satisfies the expectations. It was made to last, and it was made to start conversations around the table in good company.