What Makes a Classic
Discussing the beginnings of the Ethos Classics series.
Dear Reader,
Last month, a wonderful gathering at Little Saturday Room of current editor Mok Zining, past editor Kum Suning, co-founder of Fellow Design Izyanti Asa'ari, and moderator Tanvi Gupta, discussed the behind-the-scenes of creating the Ethos Classics line. Newly launched, A History of Amnesia is the first title in the series.
We bring you excerpts from Zining's and Izyanti's sharings below, for a little peek into what went into bringing the series to life!
Origins and purpose of Ethos Classics
Zining: This question of whether we should do an Ethos Classics series was first broached by Kah Gay. He went to an exhibition and noted how there are permanent collections. At the time we were thinking about our practice and the titles with contracts that needed to be renewed. And we were thinking, what if we had this series to showcase titles from the backlist, and to reintroduce them to a new generation of readers. At the same time we are also turning 30 next year, so we felt that it would be a good way to start thinking about what we stand for, and also to put it out there to readers, whether they're longtime readers or new readers of Ethos Books.
For this, we had great help from Fellow and from Izyanti and Ayesha who actually designed the series. They did a series of workshops for us, to get at what the team thinks about when we think about classics and specifically about Ethos Classics. So some of the key words that came up for us were craft; also fresh, different, enduring, which are in the series tagline as well, boldness, timelessness. And because of where we are and where we see the catalogue developing, Southeast Asian as well.
Izyanti: To me, I was very eager to jump in on this project because a classic is something that people use as a reference point. Or that they could ignore entirely, and ignoring something is also a response.
Zining: We did think a lot about the naming of the series, and one of the ideas we had for the title of the series was ‘Touchstones’, but we felt like ‘Ethos Touchstones’ was a bit of a mouthful. But the idea was that we felt that these are works that have been cultural touchstones in Singapore, like what Izyanti said, reference points but also conversation points and works that have opened up a conversation and added to a conversation.
Choice of first Ethos Classics title
Zining: Choosing A History of Amnesia as our first title for the series, is a very important choice for us. It remembers that Ethos started with publishing three poetry titles in a go. So it remembers our roots as a poetry publisher. At the same time, this is a title that is about collective memory: what we remember, what gets written out of collective memory and the politics of that, and that we feel really encapsulates what we're thinking about a lot at Ethos. What do we remember? What do we forget, and what needs to be remembered? What do we need to carry forward? And because of that we felt like A History of Amnesia was a really great choice for the first title.
Series design
Izyanti: What we considered when developing the visual language of the series was to find a way for the books to exist in a manner that you may not pinpoint exactly. So because of that, we tried to be minimalist in the design direction and for flavour to come in through the typography.
We also considered the pragmatic concerns of publishing. How can this classic series be a sustainable practice for a publisher to push out? That heavily influenced why the design is as minimalist as it is. We knew from the outset that we were designing a system that the Ethos team would continue in-house, so it was important for us that we create something that is usable and simple in the best possible way. We set up three layout systems for fiction, nonfiction and poetry. The three are differentiated by colours that come from Ethos Books’ brand family, as well as illustrated iconography that we created.
The iconography was the opportunity for us to include a touch of Southeast Asian visual language, hopefully in a way that resonates within the Singapore environment. At least when talking about the banyan tree, naga (dragon) and monsoon—I think these are motifs that are still present in our lives today.
It also helped that we’ve worked with Ethos for many years and in that time, have learned what the pressure points tend to be in the publishing process. If our system meant the team at Ethos could redirect more time and care to editorial needs? That's a solid win.
Memory in Singapore publishing
Zining: I think one thing directly related to the idea of classics, is the idea of memory and having common cultural things that we can relate to and that are remembered. I think one of the challenges is that there are so many things happening and there’s almost like an overstimulation. So I think rising from that noise, especially in an age when content is easier to create than before, and also, remembering and having more people remember, and reaching a bigger audience, through a classic title… I feel it's time to think about that, right? A lot of publishers here have been operating for decades really and so it’s a good time to think about what we have done and reflect on that, in addition to getting new titles and works and so on.
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