Cover design for Gelo ("Ice"), by Mabelly Venson — one short story and fifty-five flash fictions, published by Comala in 2024 with support from the Paulo Gustavo Law.

The word becomes the matter. "Gelo" is not just a title: it turns into the very substance of the composition. Its letters, brushed by hand, build a structure that suggests ice — planes, edges and transparencies implied by the drawing, with a slight pink misalignment behind the white, like the glint of something frozen. The square format reinforces the reading by evoking the shape of an ice cube, creating a direct link between the title and the visual language. Typography, composition and format work together to make ice itself materialise on the cover.

Blue, white and pink. Three colours: the deep blue of the background, the ice-white of the stroke and the pink that appears as a displaced shadow and in the author's name. The spine carries the title and name in white on the blue, with the Comala colophon.

Inside, the freezer. The endpapers repeat the cube in miniature, in rows, white on pink — dozens of little ice cubes, like the flash fictions that make up the book. The right flap continues the pattern; the back-cover text is by Jéssica Iancoski.