Maybe you’ve noticed: One of our categories of roles as men of God on this site is “Creators“, and I absolutely love seeing what others create, but especially those with a trained sense of design! I love it when we, as sub-creators, take things and make them beautiful, or functional, or inspiring, or entertaining, or… You get it…
What’s even more fun is when things come together nicely to be something that’s pretty much “all of the above”. When you’re taking something that is literally the property of the master creator, his very words, and doing something creative with it you’re working with the right material for accomplishing “all of the above”!
Perhaps you’ve seen this already — it’s been around since their initial Kickstarter campaign in June of 2014 — but I first discovered the project only late summer of 2015. I immediately thought, “Yes, please!”
I wanted to share it since the day I saw it, because, well, that’s what we do as both “creators” and “ambassadors”. We enjoy wonderful creations and we share them! After all, a thing is not fully enjoyed until it is shared (really, think on that…).
So now, get out your wallet, because I’m going to share with you a wonderful little creation…
Bibliotheca, The Most Beautiful Way You’ll Spend Your Next Available $100
Bibliotheca is a project started by Adam Lewis Greene, a book designer, who wanted to have a Bible that was more pleasant and conducive to simply reading and enjoying the grand story that is scripture — the story of everything.
As Greene puts it,
“Why is it that people love stories so much, and yet they view reading the biblical literature as a chore? When we pick up a Bible we see an incredible daunting spread in front of us. We see a ton of text on each page; so it takes us forever to turn a page. … We see very large chapter numbers, verse numbers strewn throughout the text, which, though practical, are not conducive for a rich reading experience. Could it be that the encyclopedic nature of our contemporary bibles is what’s driving this idea that the biblical literature is what’s dry and boring?”
Seems a worthy question to ask, right? We didn’t apply headings, chapters, and verses to the texts that make up our scriptures until much later in history.
Yet, though Greene completely designer-geeked out on it and made a new font for the text and everything (awesome!), it wasn’t just about cleaning up the textual experience and slapping it back in a fat book in a skinny cover… Nope, this volume is divided into 4 volumes, on thick paper, with aesthetically pleasing covers, better functioning bindings, and more! Even the book and page sizes are based off of the arc of the covenant! Ha!
This is designer geek-out to the maximum, and it’s terrific!
It won’t just read well for your eyes, feel well in your hands, carry well in your bag, but it will look good as a center-piece in your living room so that when you’re neighbors are hanging in your house they say,
“Oh wow, good looking set; what series is this?”
“Oh, that’s the Bible actually; the story of all of humanity’s existence and God’s work loving us and bringing us into a relationship with himself… it’s great! Wanna borrow it?”
Ha! But really… Apparently I wasn’t the only one who thought these were a grand idea, because in the effort to raise $37,000 over a year ago now, Greene and team accidentally raised $1.4 million. Woops!
We’re now months away from the backers receiving their copies, and I’m excited for them and this project.
Good job, Greene and team! Glad you’ve received an entire business out of this deal! That rocks!
If you have your wallet out now, you can learn more and order a set for yourself or some rad gifts at Bibliotheca.co
What about you? You like this project? Did you order a set or will you be?
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