Skip to content
alptekvn
Open to new projects

Mersin Tourism Booklets

Three tourism booklets for Mersin Metropolitan Municipality: Mersin, Tarsus and Anamur–Aydıncık–Bozyazı. 18 × 18 cm, bilingual, 132 pages in all, each cover built around a figure from the region’s mythology.

Three booklets fanned out on grey felt: "MERSİN — Batı Rüzgârının Toprakları" in the middle, Anamur Aydıncık Bozyazı on the left and "TARSUS — Anadolu’nun Anıt Kenti" on the right, each cover with an illustrated female figure.

Brief

Mersin Metropolitan Municipality wanted a series of booklets to introduce the city and its districts to travellers. The booklets had to be small enough to carry in a hand, a pocket or a bag while walking around the city, hold Turkish and English together, and feel worth keeping, more like a book than a leaflet.

Between 2021 and 2023 I designed three booklets:

  • Mersin — Batı Rüzgârının Toprakları (Land of the West Wind) · City Centre · 36 pages
  • Tarsus — Anadolu’nun Anıt Kenti (the Monumental City of Anatolia) · 68 pages
  • Anamur · Aydıncık · Bozyazı — Gizemli Liman Kentleri (Mysterious Port Cities) · 28 pages

All three are 18 × 18 cm squares, saddle-stitched and bilingual. That’s 132 pages in all. The images on this page come from the 2024 print files.

Covers: one figure for each city

The covers are the series’ signature. Each is built around a single figure drawn from the region’s history or mythology, and the artwork reads without a break across the back and front covers. The illustrations are not mine; I designed the covers around them: the title typography, the placement of text and logos, the QR area on the back, and the layout that holds the three books together as a series.

  • Mersin: the city’s ancient name was Zephyrion, the “land of the west wind”. On the cover, a red-haired woman reaches toward the water beside the coast, with a winged figure in the sky. The back cover shows the harbour and the city’s landmarks.
  • Tarsus: a woman in white sits on the rocks with a serpent in her lap: Şahmeran. On the back, a figure plays a flute in front of an ancient gate.
  • Anamur: the sea goddess Thetis rising from the waves. The booklet’s own “Cover Story” page explains the composition piece by piece. A mosaic in Anemurium is believed to depict her. The hawk on her hand and the owl on the back cover are her symbols. Her skirt carries sea creatures; loggerhead turtles and dolphins swim in the waves. A winged Eros sits behind her, Mamure Castle stands in the foreground, and the back cover shows Anemurium’s bath and aqueducts.

Page language

  • Aged paper: the inside pages sit on worn paper, engraving and cloud textures. Photos of historic buildings are cut out and blended into these textures, so archive photos and new shots speak the same language on the page.
  • Two languages, one layout: Turkish and English share a spread in two columns or face each other on opposite pages, so readers never have to hunt for their language.
  • Serif headings, colour by book: the colour of the capital serif headings changes with each book: navy and red in Mersin, bronze and olive in Tarsus, night blue in Anamur.
  • Walking map: each booklet ends with a numbered list of stops and a city-centre map, so it also works as a guide.
  • Virtual reality: QR codes on the back covers link to Mersin’s virtual-reality tour (vr.mersin.bel.tr).

The booklet texts were prepared with contributions from Prof. Dr. Murat Durukan and Assoc. Prof. Dr. İbrahim Bozkurt.

A folded leaflet made for the same series presents Mersin by the time a visitor can spare: 4–6 and 12–24-hour routes for each district, 48 and 72-hour plans, and places to see and food to try at every stop.

I designed the three booklets and the leaflet as a freelance project.

Applications

24
A photo of the printed Mersin and Tarsus booklets on grey felt, both covers with illustrated female figures and large serif titles.
01 · In print — the Mersin and Tarsus booklets
The three back covers — the Mersin seafront, a woman playing a flute at an ancient gate in Tarsus, the ruins of Anemurium with dolphins — each with a QR code to vr.mersin.bel.tr.
02 · Back covers — QR codes to the virtual tour

Colour palette

  • Aged paper — ground#ECE4DA
  • Night navy — Mersin headings#2A2A6A
  • Bronze — Tarsus#9A623A
  • Olive green — Tarsus#217042
  • Sky blue — covers#C2D8E0
The cover opened flat: the harbour and monuments on the back, a red-haired woman reaching toward the water on the front, titled "MERSİN — Batı Rüzgârının Toprakları".
03 · Mersin — Land of the West Wind: back and front cover
The booklet lying open: navy serif headings on an aged-paper ground, bilingual text columns and cut-out photos of historic buildings.
04 · Mersin — Cosmopolitan Mersin and the historic centre
Drawings of the lighthouse and Muftı Mosque, the bilingual tour text and Çamlıbel’s historic buildings.
05 · Mersin — a tour from west to east
Red serif headings "ATATÜRK EVİ" and "AKKAHVE VEYA TAŞ BİNA", with cut-out photos of the buildings along the bottom edge.
06 · Mersin — Atatürk House and Akkahve
Headings for the inns and the bank building, historic photos blending into an engraving texture.
07 · Mersin — Sursok Inn, Stone Inn, Ottoman Bank
A numbered list of 32 stops on the left, the city-centre map with marked points along the coast on the right.
08 · Mersin — numbered walking map
The cover opened flat: a woman playing a flute before an ancient gate on the back; on the front, a woman in white sitting on rocks with a serpent — Şahmeran — under a bronze "TARSUS" title.
09 · Tarsus — the Monumental City of Anatolia: back and front cover
The booklet lying open: a red serif heading, columns telling the legend and a large Şahmeran illustration on the right page.
10 · Tarsus — the Legend of Şahmeran and the Old Bath
Bilingual history pages with ancient coins and an engraved battle scene.
11 · Tarsus — the Syennesis and the Persians
Green serif headings, photos of the gate and the park, and round-cropped details.
12 · Tarsus — Cleopatra’s Gate and City Park
The story of Saint Paul with a painting reproduction on an aged-paper texture.
13 · Tarsus — Saint Paul of Tarsus
A photo of the Tarsus Waterfall and an engraving of Cleopatra meeting Mark Antony.
14 · Tarsus — the Waterfall and the Story of Cleopatra
Bilingual text with white horses galloping along the bottom edge.
15 · Tarsus — the Land of White Horses
The numbered list of stops and the city-centre map.
16 · Tarsus — numbered walking map
The cover opened flat: the ruins of Anemurium and an owl on the back; on the front, Thetis rising from the sea with a hawk on her hand, a winged Eros and Mamure Castle.
17 · Anamur · Aydıncık · Bozyazı — Mysterious Port Cities: back and front cover
The "Cover Story" page and the preface, navy headings over a cloudy sky texture.
18 · Anamur — Cover Story and Preface
The booklet lying open: "MAMURE" headings, photos of the castle facing the sea and bilingual text.
19 · Anamur — Mamure Castle
Large-titled openers for the ancient settlements with landscape photos.
20 · Anamur — Titiopolis and Ovabaşı
Cave and nature-park pages; opposite, illustrations of bananas and a loggerhead turtle.
21 · Anamur — Köşekbükü, Pullu and the Anamur banana
Turkish and English pages on Kelenderis with a photo of the coast.
22 · Bozyazı — the port city of Kelenderis
A folded leaflet opened on both sides on orange: 4–6, 12–24, 48 and 72-hour sightseeing and food routes by district, in orange, blue and red blocks with district illustrations.
23 · Related piece — Mersin Routes by the Hour, a folded leaflet
Every page of the Mersin, Tarsus and Anamur booklets in three blocks on a dark ground, cover to back cover.
24 · 132 pages — every spread of all three booklets