PROP BOOK · PARAMOUNT PICTURES · 2023
A hand-crafted wooden book made as a screen prop for the 2023 fantasy adventure film Dungeons & Dragons - Honour Among Thieves.
When the graphic design team for Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves reached out, they were looking for something that could feel genuinely ancient, a tome that would look at home in a world of magic, dungeons, and high adventure.​
Working closely with the film's graphic designers was a real joy. The brief called for something unmistakably medieval, with the grandeur you'd expect from a powerful artefact of the Forgotten Realms. The Gothic quatrefoil cover, laser-cut and engraved into reclaimed walnut, draws directly from the tracery of fourteenth-century church windows, the same era that inspired the early wooden-board bindings I've always been fascinated by.
A book made for the world of Faerûn
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The exposed spine featured alternating blue and cream signatures bound across hemp rope supports anchored by brass binding posts. Every element was chosen to feel simultaneously archaic and otherworldly. Seeing the book appear on screen in the film was a moment I won't soon forget. It is an enormous privilege to have contributed, in a small way, to a world that has brought such delight to so many people.​
The walnut board was engraved with two layers of imagery, a deep-cut Gothic quatrefoil forms the central motif, surrounded by an intricate Art Nouveau border of interlacing curves, diamonds, and scrollwork. The design was drawn from the traditions of fourteenth-century church tracery and illuminated manuscript borders. This perfectly complimented the medieval aesthetic of the film.
The pages were sewn onto raised supports and included integrated endbands at the head and tail of the book, in addition to a Turkish map fold that allowed the pages to unfold and reveal an entire hidden sheet. Alternating signatures in deep navy and cream create a striking striped effect when the book is closed and viewed edge-on. This detail rewards a closer look on screen, as it compliments the colour scheme of the Harpers, the famous secret society and spy network in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, the emblem of which is a silver harp and crescent moon set against a deep blue background.
The spine featured an additional Celtic weave sewing using dyed linen thread. The interplay between the blue thread and warm amber wood reflects the colour palette of the film itself, all earth, forest, and firelight.
