July Rain

Project: July Rain. A book about the film and its time.
What: book design.
When: 2021–2022.
Design: I. Tolstikov.

The book is about the context in which the events of the film take place. I tried to express my feeling from the film: that is why there is a lot of white in the book, and the texts seem to “flow” into the space of the sheet in drops. This film is about hope, about time, about freedom, about different generations of Soviet people, about meanings. It is very light, and includes many semantic layers — this is a very subtle philosophical movie.

July Rain. A book about the film and its time. ©DMTRVK

The 60s — the time of the Thaw — is multifaceted, heterogeneous. Many events take place during this time. The book does not aim to give an assessment of this or that, but tries to show the whole picture so that the reader has a more complete picture of this time and the country in which the film takes place. It seems to me that this is especially important now, when this time is either demonized or idealized: in both cases, the essence is lost, the spirit escapes, and what is really important — the life, hopes, aspirations and values ​​of the people of that era — remains outside the brackets.

For me, this is, first of all, the time of Gagarin, the time of hope for the best for mankind — having begun with it, the book ends with it.

July Rain. A book about the film and its time. ©DMTRVK

The volume of the book is set strictly— 34 pages.

July Rain. A book about the film and its time. Layout spreads. ©DMTRVK

Associations on which the book is built: the spirit of the time, the Renaissance, self-publishing, neatness and carelessness, raindrops, streams of water. Two large spots are symmetrical and clearly define the beginning and the end of the structure.

July Rain. A book about the film and its time. ©DMTRVK

Book structure:
Main information flows: about the film, songs from the film, about the context + Brodsky.
The main text is PT Serif, a reference to the Renaissance. Context and songs – PT Mono, reference to samizdat.
7 frames from the film: Renaissance, Kuznetsky Most, the beginning of the film (rain), the generation of war, the next generation, the end.

Flow: different layers of the structure “leak” into each other.

Context. Gagarin is a bright red spot, bursting into the flow of text. To support him – a few more red spots. The structure is underlined by a flyleaf (storyboard) and a spread photograph of Gagarin).
Political and historical context: photos of leaders + party congresses, photos of the country and people + public unrest. The story of Brodsky’s exile to the village in the Russian North, where he was able to join the life of ordinary people, which influenced his work.

Songs from the film:
Song about the infantry — Bulat Okudzhava, 1966;
Calm down, comrade, calmly… — Yuri Vizbor, 1962;
Shoes Leaky — Evgeny Klyachkin, 1965;
Sinfonia [Partita No.2 BWV 826] — The Swingle Singers, 1963;
Ôtoi! La vie — Charles Aznavour, 1962;
Road to Berlin — Evgeny Dolmatovsky, Leonid Utyosov, 1944;

July Rain. A book about the film and its time. ©DMTRVK