‘Eve in Overalls’
Book Design
First published in 1942, Eve in Overalls highlights the huge contribution made by women during the Second World War.
Polari worked with the in-house team at Imperial War Museums to republish this eye-opening, and often toe-curling, insight into how Britain viewed women who took to working in professions previously reserved for men.
Using only black and white scans from the original book, we restored photographs and redrew illustrations. We identified the fonts used and typeset the layouts to match the originals, improving if necessary, into the new standardised size of the IWM’s historical hardbacks.
From air-raid wardens, signallers, electricians and drivers, to roles in the navy, air force and territorial services, Eve in Overalls describes how women entered the workplace as never before, and gives an idea of the challenges and prejudices they faced within these new roles, as well as within society as a whole.
Reprinted and redrawn
The pen and watercolour illustrations which opened each chapter were redrawn digitally to speed the process. This dramatically improved the quality, while retaining the style from the original book.
Photographs were cleaned up to minimise the halftone pattern, reduce harsh contrast into a softer greyscale and remove ghost images of the page underneath.
