The OKRESKY (“Districts” in eng.) travel book series, which serves as a documentation and an inspirational guide to a perfect five-day road trip, has grown with a new, beautiful 10-piece limited-edition “Districts Slovakia”. The OKRESKY series which includes Czech, Croatian, and now Slovakian titles are created by author and photographer Miloš Fusek, and designed by Dušan Chmeliar. “The concept of this project is to show people that there is a different way of traveling, in which it is okay to take the slower route to the desired destination. I have selected books as the main carrier of this idea, as in this fast world they represent the opportunity to slow down. To differentiate from the rest of the competition and to my own preferences, I decided to put a strong focus on good design and matching photography”, says the author of the Okresky project Miloš Fusek.
Covered in model asphalt and the title printed with road paint, the limited edition OKRESKY takes you “closer to the the roads, where the stories take place”
The new limited edition OKRESKY Slovakia differs compared to the previous paperback-sewn binding editions with its beautiful black hardcover. The cover is covered in model asphalt together with black painting edges, while the title is printed with actual white road paint. “The intention behind the book cover of this limited edition was to get closer to the roads, where the stories take place”, says Dušan Chmeliar, the Bratislava-based designer, who is known to create functional design solutions with sophisticated details and well-considered materials.
The intention behind the book cover of this limited edition was to get closer to the roads, where the stories take place.
The illustrations from the original paperback edition were incorporated into the limited edition book, while each chapter contains transparent foil that is bound into a text block with different additional information about the road. The final chapter of the book titled Backstage, which documents the road trip from a more relaxed point of view – from the “other side” – is the reason for the book’s reversible orientation. Inspired by the rotation gesture of a steering wheel, for the final chapter, the reader flips the book and turns the pages from left to right.
Munken Pure was chosen to support the color style of the author’s photographs, while Crush Citrus’ newspaper effect offered a fitting match for the design chapters
Chmeliar chose the papers for the book to emphasize and correspond with the color style of the author’s photographs. The book includes two types of paper. Munken Pure was chosen for the cover and the main text block to accentuate the soft yellowing and washed effect, while Crush Citrus with its newspaper-style effect was a great match for the more relaxed design chapters, such as Backstage.
The book of 20 x 25 cm (perfectly fitting into the castle in the car) in sewn binding includes photographs and text inserts that accompany the reader in every chapter and offer him a narrative. The book chapters are divided into five days in a systematic layout, while the other two chapters are more relaxed and playful. “To draw the reader into the story of the road trip, the typical page numbering was exchanged for orientation in kilometers, which follows photographs with their location. This system helps to get a clear overview of the actual kilometers taken from the whole trip. Each book includes a map (70×36 cm) of the entire road trip with marked stops of interest, that are mentioned in the book”, Chmeliar concludes.
You can find the OKRESKY travel books here and follow the project on Instagram.
Book photos SVK, CZ © Lukáš Procházka
book photos Croatia © Miloš Fusek