Cover for 'Khorosho!' - El Lissitzky

A 1927 Constructivist book cover designed by El Lissitzky for Vladimir Mayakovsky's poem Khorosho!. It features bold red and black typography on a cream background.

El Lissitzky designed this book cover for the 1927 edition of Vladimir Mayakovsky's poem, Khorosho! (Good!). The poem was written to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. Lissitzky was a leading figure in the Russian Constructivist movement. He applied architectural principles to graphic design and typography. This work is a primary example of his "New Typography" approach. Lissitzky began his career illustrating Yiddish children's books before moving towards the abstract language of Suprematism under Kazimir Malevich. By the time he designed this cover, he had transitioned to Constructivism, which sought to put art at the service of the state. He believed that the artist was a "constructor" or engineer of visual information. The composition relies on a restricted palette of red and black on a cream background. Lissitzky used bold, sans-serif typefaces and varied font sizes to create a sense of hierarchy. The large red numerals "25" and "1917" dominate the centre of the page. The Cyrillic title "ХОРОШО!" (Khorosho!) is integrated with the large "25" in a way that suggests depth despite the flat printing. Constructivist design rejected traditional decorative elements. Instead, it favoured functionalism and industrial production methods. Lissitzky viewed the book as a dynamic object where the layout should guide the reader's eye through the text. The use of heavy bars and geometric alignment reflects the influence of the Bauhaus and De Stijl movements on Soviet avant-garde art. The placement of the author's name, Vladimir Mayakovsky, at the bottom left creates a weighted base for the composition. This approach influenced decades of graphic design, particularly in the fields of poster art and editorial layout. The use of primary colours and geometric forms was intended to be accessible to a mass audience, stripping away the elitism associated with nineteenth-century fine art.