La procédé à l'huile c. 1911 - 1912

This is the cover of a book, "Le Procédé a L'huile," or "The Oil Painting Process," by Constant Puyo. A cover is like a painting in some ways, right? It’s the artist's first chance to grab you, set the tone. Imagine Puyo, back then, thinking about how to distill all that knowledge, all those messy studio experiments, into something clear and inviting. What to include, what to leave out? It’s like painting itself, a constant process of editing and refining. The design, with its simple typography and circular emblem, feels very of its time, but the questions it poses about process, about how we learn and share knowledge, are timeless. It’s all about exchange and influence—artists building on each other’s discoveries, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. We're all just trying to figure things out as we go.