A cat can have three seconds on screen and a whole entry in a reference book. On 29 October, Colossal highlighted A24’s October release, The Encyclopedia of Movie Cats. The publisher lists alphabetical entries and more than 1,900 film stills.
For a designer, the interesting move is from collection to navigation. A folder of adorable images promises endless scrolling; an encyclopedia should help you find a particular performer again. We’d want to examine entry points, the relationship between image and caption, and the rhythm of crowded spreads. Those are questions for the book, rather than conclusions drawn from its sales description.
Keep the project in mind for your next catalogue brief. First find a principle that helps readers locate something. Then choose a typeface worthy of the whiskers. The cat, naturally, would prefer the cardboard packaging.
