Mak specialises in book and type design and is currently working at one of the main publishers in Hong Kong, Joint Publishing, bringing his niche knowledge to the mainstream publishing industry. This year, Mak designed the book Classic Colour: Screenplay by Kong-Kin Yau, a celebrated screenwriter in Hong Kong. The book contains the original scripts from three of the writer’s best-known films and features much of Yau’s handwriting throughout the book to add a touch of personalisation. The cover design came about through discussions with the book’s editor as, during the production of the book, the desk was always filled with notes from the scripts as well as notes about the script that were always “messing up the desk.”

To recreate this ad-hoc way of working, Mak utilised different sizes of paper, adding an eclectic touch to the design, also seen through the delicate Coptic bookbinding. The book is subtle through its grey tonalities and gentle embossing which features throughout the bespoke cover design. Additionally, the design of the spine strikes diagonally, spilling onto the front cover, adding a quirk to the otherwise strictly-perpendicular grid.

Working with Chinese characters as the body copy was a “really difficult time” for the designer, as each detail of each stroke requires precise typesetting. Before books are mass produced, there is a much longer process of editing and refinement than with Latin glyphs, but through this experience, Mak gained quintessential “knowledge on the true value of Chinese characters.” Since then, Mak now “loves to cooperate with individual Chinese type designers” on book projects, as it’s a process that “creates a strong sense of uniqueness for each book”; highlighting the typography as well as the graphic design.