Abstracted

My curiosity was piqued the other day when I had a free moment and was poking around in the back lab at work. A thin book with a plain white spine tucked away alongside a number of larger volumes caught my eye — and as I slid it off the shelf, I immediately recognized part of the cover artwork from the Netflix design documentary series Abstract. Was there a book about the series I’d never seen? And if not — what was this?

What I discovered was that it was what I’d describe as a pitch book for the series. Throughout it shows and describes the creative direction, treatments, and conceptual thinking that would ultimately comprise the first season featuring Paula Scher, Christoph Niemann, Platon, Bjark Ingels, etc.

Aside from being an interesting curiosity†, I quickly realized it could be a helpful reference for some work I’m starting to dig into at the day job. But aside from that, I (as luck would have it) happen to know a couple people who worked on the show and who should be able to shed some light on the book’s origins and audience.