Editorial Pájaro

The pleasure of making literature

Pájaro was a fresh, contemporary and daring publishing house, driven above all by a love of art and of honest products. That is why its books took special care over design and making, without raising the final price. And with your physical book you took home the digital one, for the same price, for ever. It wasn’t a licence: it was yours, and your people’s.

Why

Pájaro was a publishing project born of my passion for reading and my fetish for books. Driven by the need and the pleasure of exploring new ways of making and selling books, it took thirteen months of work behind the counter. Paper books with a digital extension: the best of both formats.

The logo

I wanted illustration at the heart of the logo, and for the hand holding the pencil I couldn’t think of anyone better than Ping Zhu, whose work I had always admired.

Paper books with a digital life

Every copy came with a digital copy, owned for ever, at no extra cost. Pájaro sold the book, not a licence, so it could be lent or given away. The paper book was made with great care and a certain Japanese inspiration: honest materials, a very clean design, sealed with a delicate blind emboss.

Before deciding how to sell the books, we asked people who were already doing it: Frédérique Bangerter of Cabeza de Chorlito, Luis Venegas, Iria Rebolo of Editorial Siberia and Pelayo García Cervero of Ediciones Nobel. They were generous with what they knew, and the answers lined up. A distributor would keep 50 to 60% of the price and a bookshop around 30%, and a one-off run of poetry under a thousand copies was a hard sell to any distributor. Several of them sold their own books instead, bookshop by bookshop and through their own website (Luis called it “auto-todo”), so that’s what we did too.

Pájaro looked for a sustainable way to make books in a physical-digital universe. With a linear, direct, handmade distribution that saved costs along the way, it brought reader and author closer through the publisher. A very small publisher: 750 copies of each title.

Pájaro’s first two titles were Suelo Estar by Remate and Antología de la poesía espectacular by Yago Ferreiro.

Both books sold out. Along the way we also found out how tough independent publishing is, so in the end we closed the doors. I like to think Pájaro did what birds do: it built a nest, sent two books out into the world and flew off.

Year

2013–14

Role

Branding, editorial design, illustration, UX

“Small but beautifully made books… little objects of desire.” — Sofia Dos Santos, Neo2

Collage — Sr. García

Co-founder — José Castellano

Logo illustration — Ping Zhu

Author, Suelo Estar — Remate

Author, Antología — Yago Ferreiro

Antología cover and photography — Javier Arce

Pájaro — the covers of Suelo Estar by Remate and Antología de la poesía espectacular by Yago Ferreiro, front and back, on orange
Covers for Suelo Estar by me and Antología by Javier Arce.
Antología de la poesía espectacular poster on yellow — Llamamiento (I) Pájaro presenta Antología de la poesía espectacular, ilustrado por Javier Arce — the fringed face in dark line on white The printed posters spread on a table: Llamamiento (I) and El naranja no es un color agresivo como el rojo on fluorescent yellow, the Sandwich Mixto poster, the hatted figure on white Pájaro presenta Antología de la poesía espectacular, edición a cargo de Yago Ferreiro Ruiz, ilustrado por Javier Arce — the fringed face in orange line Antología de la poesía espectacular poster — Llamamiento (I): “Los familiares de la muchacha ruegan que si algún ciudadano conoce datos sobre su actual paradero se ponga en contacto con la policía de una jodida vez.” Editorial Pájaro Novedades 2MIL14 — Suelo Estar and Antología de la poesía espectacular, the two figures as one face
Promotional posters.
Suelo Estar poster on yellow — El naranja no es un color agresivo como el rojo Pájaro presenta Suelo Estar por Remate, ilustrado por Laszlito Kovacs — the hatted figure in dark line on white The printed posters on a table: El naranja no es un color agresivo como el rojo on fluorescent yellow over the white figure posters Pájaro presenta Suelo Estar por Remate, ilustrado por Laszlito Kovacs — the hatted figure in orange line Suelo Estar poster — El naranja no es un color agresivo como el rojo: “…Madrid es una ciudad que no me gusta casi nada por muchas razones, pero me gusta mucho más sin gente…”
Three sketches of a small walking bird: a round one, a one-eyed one with a scarf, and a striped round one The three birds, each with Pájaro written by hand beneath Four lettering tests of PÁJARO under the round bird Six lettering tests of Pájaro under the one-eyed bird Five lettering tests of PÁJARO around the striped round bird
Logo sketches by Ping Zhu.
Antología de la poesía espectacular — a girl with a heavy fringe in an orange T-shirt with an infinity sign, her arms tattooed, leaning on a hatched table Suelo Estar — three line figures: one holding a balloon with an eye, one throwing its arms up, one hugging a large circle Suelo Estar — three line figures: one flexing, one hanging from a hook over a small figure, one holding a guitar
Antología cover illustration by Javier Arce. Suelo Estar illustrations by me.
Cover test for Suelo Estar, held in a hand over a wooden floor Cover test for Suelo Estar, held in a hand over a wooden floor Cover test for Suelo Estar, held in a hand over a wooden floor
Cover design tests.
Cover test for Antología de la poesía espectacular, held in a hand over a wooden floor Cover test for Antología de la poesía espectacular, held in a hand over a wooden floor Cover test for Antología de la poesía espectacular, held in a hand over a wooden floor
Copies of Suelo Estar and Antología de la poesía espectacular on a wooden table, beside a white vase of dried flowers
Honest materials, a very clean design, sealed with a delicate blind emboss.
A reader with an open book in a crowded shop under the La Central sign A crowd, one of them photographing a Pájaro poster hung from the ceiling A woman in an apron smiling by the yellow posters, a crowd behind her A man with his hands behind his back facing a wall of street posters, Pájaro posters among them
Book presentation at Sandwich Mixto, Madrid. Photos by Javier Arce.
The Pájaro bird on a poster, with a cut-out nut collaged on as its eye and a signature beneath The Antología poster with collaged toucans, valves and a microphone perched on the figure’s head Sr. García smiling in the market, the presentation going on behind him
Sr. García made a one-off collage on our posters during the presentation. Photos by Javier Arce.
Copies of Antología de la poesía espectacular and Suelo Estar in a box among other books Copies of both books around the Libros Mutantes MMXIII hand programme
Presentation at Libros Mutantes. Photos by Javier Arce.
A dish of round orange Pájaro stickers A woman holding up a copy of Suelo Estar by Remate in front of her face
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