- I'm working on a design for a book interior, which is very enjoyable -- it's been a while since I designed a book, but it comes back comfortably. There are many approaches in the history of book design, a field I studied informally on my own and with a colleague, David James, as we did early work for IU South Bend's Wolfson Press. Ah, we sat in front of a big Mac screen and viewed version after version of page spreads and covers. Small changes, closely inspected, tinkering again and again. It takes a certain kind of love of detail, type, and visual display. #
- In class I'd talk to students about designing a book in the tradition, to show that they could do that. (It's easy to fail to do that, or to choose not to do that.) Something where the pages and spreads were recognizably offspring of Gutenberg's pages and spreads. Where the typography was meant to be clear and vivid, was meant to draw the eye in a practical way to the words without distracting from the meaning of the words. Where the pages weren't cramped or erratic in layout, where the lines of type were themselves not cramped or weirdly loose, where the lettering was not cramped or oddly loose. Design something attractive and readable that might make a person say, that's a nice-looking book with nice pages.#
- The current design is for a small book of short poems. Poems are a problem because the lines are often of different lengths, and thin poem and a wide poem might face each other in such a way as to briefly distract a reader. Done right, pages of poems can feel balanced and shaped, they can feel designed, just as the words themselves should feel crafted when they are read.#
- A book design is a crafted receptacle for displaying crafted sentences. But even that can be a problem. The poems can be sharp and rowdy, and the page design can be stodgy and stuffy, and that makes the book incoherent as an object. The writer tries to make sense of the world, and the book design should align somehow, and quietly, with the sense of the book.#
- And wouldn't it be nice to print the thing on fine paper? Well, maybe not this time.#
- I'm working on a design for a book interior, which is very enjoyable -- it's been a while since I designed a book, but it comes back comfortably. There are many approaches in the history of book design, a field I studied informally on my own and with a colleague, David James, as we did early work for IU South Bend's Wolfson Press. Ah, we sat in front of a big Mac screen and viewed version after version of page spreads and covers. Small changes, closely inspected, tinkering again and again. It takes a certain kind of love of detail, type, and visual display. #
- In class I'd talk to students about designing a book in the tradition, to show that they could do that. (It's easy to fail to do that, or to choose not to do that.) Something where the pages and spreads were recognizably offspring of Gutenberg's pages and spreads. Where the typography was meant to be clear and vivid, was meant to draw the eye in a practical way to the words without distracting from the meaning of the words. Where the pages weren't cramped or erratic in layout, where the lines of type were themselves not cramped or weirdly loose, where the lettering was not cramped or oddly loose. Design something attractive and readable that might make a person say, that's a nice-looking book with nice pages.#
- The current design is for a small book of short poems. Poems are a problem because the lines are often of different lengths, and thin poem and a wide poem might face each other in such a way as to briefly distract a reader. Done right, pages of poems can feel balanced and shaped, they can feel designed, just as the words themselves should feel crafted when they are read.#
- A book design is a crafted receptacle for displaying crafted sentences. But even that can be a problem. The poems can be sharp and rowdy, and the page design can be stodgy and stuffy, and that makes the book incoherent as an object. The writer tries to make sense of the world, and the book design should align somehow, and quietly, with the sense of the book.#
- And wouldn't it be nice to print the thing on fine paper? Well, maybe not this time.#