Balbusso Twins on Treating Illustrated Books Like Film Sets

What Can Illustrators Learn From Gilead?

Anna and Elena Balbusso, the Milan-based duo, explain how they returned to The Handmaid's Tale for Folio Society's limited box set pairing the novel with The Testaments. Their central idea is that an illustrated book works like a film: they choose scenes with care, build a whole visual world, and let the images carry their own point of view rather than simply echoing the text. The interview covers their swap of Georgian architecture for Constructivist geometry, the red wall that became a visual shorthand, and the colour rules they use to track Gilead's social classes.

For brand builders and illustrators, the piece is a useful case study in how a distinctive visual system can outlive the project that created it. It also shows how deliberate limits, such as a restricted palette, can carry meaning across a whole series. Designers working on book covers, editorial identities or any long-running narrative brand will find concrete process notes here. It is worth a read before your next commission brief.