December 25th, 2008 11:23pm
tianodesign
Probably my last, and long-delayed, entry of 2008, so I thought I would just mention the list of books I plan to focus on when deciding how to use the collection of Borders Books (or Amazon) gift cards that I received for Christmas. I love receiving these babies more than I can say (in addition to the new 19-inch flat-screen for the kitchen we treated ourselves to and the exercise bike my wife got me).
Some of the following books I will no doubt read from the public library, but I will probably buy a few also. Unlike the last couple of years, I am considering a number of non-book design and non-typography books, like the complete works of Carlos Castenada, as well as a few about him, such as Sorcerer’s Apprentice: My Life with Carlos Castaneda; Carlos Castaneda—Enigma of a Sorcerer; and The Life & Teachings of Carlos Castaneda.
Then there are a pair of in-between books, novels by the legendary designer of book covers, Chip Kidd, The Cheese Monkeys and The Learners.
Here, however, are the list of books you would expect me to be going on about:
- 79 Short Essays on Design by Michael Bierut
- Book One by Chip Kidd
- A Tally of Types by Stanley Morrison et al.
- Indie Publishing by Ellen Lupton
The four above, as well as Mr. Kidd’s The Cheese Monkeys, are already on order from my local public library. Here are the ones I will consider purchasing:
- Detail in Typography by Jost Hochuli
- Bookmaking by Marshall Lee (the best bet for a done deal as far as Will I or won’t I order it?)
- The Form of the Book by Jan Tschichold and Hajo Hadeler (out of print and super-expensive, this one’s an extremely unlikely get)
- Asymmetrical Typography by Jan Tschichold (ditto)
- An Essay on Typography by Eric Gill
- Paul Renner: The Art of Typography by Christopher Burke
- Type and Typography by Phil Baines and Andrew Haslam
As usual, there are way more books above than I can possibly buy at one time. And at least a couple are downright dear. And so I would much appreciate any comments on these books: which, right off the top, aren’t worth the price or the time; which may be too elementary; and what other suggestions you might have for me.
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December 10th, 2008 12:11am
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The second way to pair types is the “hard,” creative way; the doping-it-out kind of way, where the book designer does the matching. And that leads to the two ways to pair serifs and sans serifs: by contrasting or by matching.
Contrasting, at first blush, is by far the easier of the two ways to work out pairings. Theoretically, nearly every difference provides contrast.
Some obvious points to compare are letter height, x-height, stroke weight, character shapes, and direction of the axis (vertical or angled). The most practical contrast, however, when using serifs and sans side-by-side are roman to bold—the more extreme, the better; and size—one of the fonts should be at least a few points larger than the other.
When matching types, there are certain combinations that work naturally, because of the weights, shapes, and proportions of the characters. Oldstyle Serif types, with their angled stress and mild difference between thin and thickness of stroke, pair nicely with Humanist Sans Serifs, as the sample below—Minion and Frutiger—demonstrate. Some other Oldstyle Serifs are: Jenson, Bembo, Caslon, Garamond, Palatino, and Sabon. Other Humanist Sans Serifs are Eras, Gill Sans, Lucida Grande.
Transitional faces have a vertical stress and the contrast of thin and thickness of a character’s stroke is more obvious than with Oldstyle faces. Some examples of Transitional Serifs are Bell, Bookman, Bulmer, Caledonia, Joanna, Mrs. Eaves, New York, Perpetua, and Times Roman typefaces. Geometric Sans Serifs include Avant Garde, Avenir, Bernhard Gothic, Centruty Gothic, Eurostile Futura, Kabel, and Univers.
Modern typefaces have much more pronounced contrast between the thin and thick of their stroke than the Transitionals, and larger x-heights. Examples of Moderns are Bernhard Modern Roman, Bodoni, Didot. Frnice, New Century Schoolbook, and Walbaum. Geometric Sans Serifs, as with Transitionals, make nice pairings with Modern Serifs.
For book design, I stop here, except for my desire to sometime set a book in Optima, a Near-Serif Sans.
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December 6th, 2008 12:52pm
tianodesign
A while back I wrote about the type I lean toward using in my book design work. This moment I want to move right past questioning ever using sans serif faces for main body text. But I need to comment just briefly about it.
What was once a taboo I see broken more and more. And though never disastrous, I almost always find it annoying. One reason is that the usual relationship—main body text in serif, display heads (and other display elements) in sans—gets thrown off. While I have yet to do a book in which I use a sans for my body text—I have admitted before that I would like to use Optima just that way if the right book comes along . (After that, who knows whether the floodgates might not open and I will become a sans serif-setting fool?)
When that occurs, I will not reverse things and use a serif for display items, but rather variations of the body sans. So the “right book” means one without a great number of different design elements.
There are two ways to pair types. The first simply requires that the book designer locte the correct “superfamily,” a family of fonts that includes both a serif and a sans serif. Two that I admire, have written about, and plan to use when the correct circumstances arise are Jos Buivenga’s Fontin and Fontin Sans and Liberation Serif and Liberation Sans. For a terrific list of some forty superfamilies, see Peyton Crump’s Superfamily Font Roundup. I should caution, however, that not all of these are suitable for use in books.
As Crump points out, the purists among us—as well as nagging bits of creative conscience in those of us not so pure—frown on these ready-made matches of serif and sans serif types. Although such superfamilies are designed organically, often from the same inspiration, they lack the seasoned book designer’s application of eye and aesthetic sense. However, that is not to say that any particular type designer is not seasoned and possessed of a superior eye and sense of design aesthetics.
Stay tuned for part two …
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November 29th, 2008 12:06pm
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Below are my “foundation” texts, the books I look to for detail, or simply to start the wheel turning, when I am thinking too slowly and the clock is running. One interesting thing, on the last book in the list … Right after I began to feel an interest in design, after I got my first Macintosh computer at then end of 1989, I joined a book-of-the-month club that specialized n graphic design books. One of the books I got from that club was the last one. I had long forgotten about it, found it again when combing my shelves to answer the instant question, and found myself rereading and appreciating its take on typography all over again almost twenty years later.
The Elements of Typographic Style Robert Bringhurst
Designing books: practice and theory Jost Huchuli, Robin Kinross
On Book Design Richard Hendel
Notes on book design Derek Birdsall
Bookdesign Andrew Haslam
By Its Cover Ned Drew & Paul Sternberger
The Design of Books Adrian Wilson
Methods of Book Design Hugh Williamson
Making and Breaking the Grid Timothy Samara
Letters of Credit Walter Tracy
Thinking with Type Ellen Lupton
TypeWise Kit Hinrichs with Delphine Hirasuna
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November 25th, 2008 07:58am
tianodesign
When I first asked this last year, I clearly had myself in mind. My short answer now …
At least I no longer, almost as a reflex, think of one of Adobe’s Garamonds. Then again, I probably look to Sabon and Bembo a little too often. Before Garamond it was Palatino. Which is all to say my tendency is to get comfortable with one or two types at a time, usually an Old Style (Garalde) or Transitional. Fortunately, I stop myself and don’t follow the reflex.
Instead I keep a running list of typefaces that I have and would like to use, as well as a much shorter one of types I need to get around to purchasing. On the first list, types that I already own and which I hope to use as soon as the right book comes along are two free serif/sans serif combinations that I first blogged about here, Jos Buivenga’s Fontin and Fontin Sans. The second is Steve Matteson’s Liberation Serif and Liberation Sans.
These have been on my “to-use” list for some time now. That’s one of the prime reasons it’s been ages since I’ve purchased any fonts. I could certainly do so, looking forward, instead of backward to the types already in my library. I might also contribute something, in my own small way, to the effort to get the stalled economy moving by spending money on types.
It will be interesting to see whether new hardware, software, or typefaces finally claim a place in the budget this coming year.
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November 16th, 2008 01:33pm
tianodesign
Last one first … As I work for more self-publishers, it becomes increasingly of no consequence what software I use. Any publisher who contracts with me for a new book in a series, of course, likely provides a template in whichever software package they have used all along. Else they simply require the same layout software they regularly use in-house.
But, again, it more and more often being of no import whether I use Quark or Adobe InDesign, I find myself making the choice—especially with full design and layout projects. That brings me to some surprising news: earlier this week, as I was about to put together some page samples for a new book, I found that I had chosen InDesign. No inner debate about type handling. I smiled to myself, thinking that at least, at last, I had gotten over those reservations. And then I realized I had just uploaded files to a printer on a book I designed and made pages, the cover, and the dust jacket in InDesign.
Imagine that.
Not so long ago, I blogged about my preference for Quark 7—7.31, to be exact—on Creative Curio. Somewhere between then and now I got a number of jobs one right after the other where the client wanted InDesign used. My comfort level grew as I got into the habit of starting up something other than Quark day after day. My primary objection to InDy, the fact that there are too many options for getting the optimal relationship between type and space, whereas Quark’s control in this area works intuitively, seems to have faded.
I’m not prepared to say that Quark is dead. But I did just upgrade InDesign from CS2 to CS3 at a client’s request. On the other hand, I have no plans to upgrade to Quark 8.
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November 8th, 2008 01:27pm
tianodesign
This is my entry in the Design Group Writing Project for Charity. It’s the first and, I think, the most elemental of the questions I asked in my 4 Questions for Book Designers Revisited and original Four (Sometimes Multi-Part) Questions for Book Designers.
* * *
One of the things that is so good and, actually, rewarding about this kind of an exchange on the Internet is how far and wide I cast my net when seeking input from other book designers. This helps ensure that I receive a whole range of perspectives, at least some of which is nowhere near my own.
With this first question, although I sought answers more to do with other book designers process, more than one respondent really began at the beginning, addressing the reality of how budget and what they are paid for a project affects their work output. Now, no one suggested that our effort varies based on fee—I’m certain none of us lists a “cheap and cheesy” design option—but the amount of time design and production eats up cannot help but differ based on the amount of complexity and originality the client requires.
In addition to the budget, but nonetheless linked to the issue of money, a book’s marketing plan sets the bar for what its cover—after all, designed to lure potential readers to pick the book up—is meant to accomplish. The audience, too, is mentioned, as well as the subject matter , tone, and style.
Myself, I think the best starting point would be to read the book and catch its voice, intent, what it’s about, and who it’s really addressing. But, usually, reading the whole book before starting work on it is a luxury time will not afford. So the next best thing is to read the Introduction or first chapter and peruse the Table of Contents. The point of the latter is as much to get some sense of where a particular book is heading, as well as what kind of and length chapter titles the typography will have to accommodate.
After that, the interior can begin to form and I can start the connections I want to make between that interior and the cover. Contrary to the old saw, we do judge a book by its cover. As I’ve said again and again—and it deserves an underline—the cover should invite potential readers in. It should not make such a stir that it distracts from the reading of the book. And the interior should link to the cover in some fashion, to seal the deal and let readers know that the suggestion the cover made about what’s inside will be fulfilled.
One way I discovered to do this is by using type graphically. For instance, in a book I just finished up—I did design and layout on both the cover and the interior—the display typeface I used on the cover suggests the time and culture the book discusses. And I use that same typeface again inside, once each chapter as a drop initial cap.
After that, I find myself in a kind of rhythm and I take the job through to its conclusion.
* * *
Don’t forget to check out the Design Group Writing Project for Charity.
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October 26th, 2008 08:25am
tianodesign
I originally posted these four questions on July 7, 2007, over fifteen months ago. The thought of revisiting them occurred to once before, but I felt no compulsion to do so then.
Now the time seems right.
The first time I asked them I was going through a slow period and searching for ways to make by book design and page composition services more desirable. The intervening months have been quite productive for me.
In that time I have worked on eleven books—well, the eleventh nears the finish line and the twelfth beckons from a corner of my desk. Seven were straight layout projects, including the last of the string of World War II histories, which were part of an established series with a long-established house style. Four were design-and-layout projects. Three of the latter included covers. And among all these books was the first children’s storybook I ever worked on.
Surely others have had fertile periods rivaling and perhaps surpassing mine. How might that success reflect in their answers to the four questions now? So, while I certainly want to hear from book designers who did not participate the first time, I also have great interest in replies from those who took part in my earlier survey. What new and different perspectives will they bring to the questions? My answers will follow sometime soon; they will appear sooner than the first time I asked.
I offer them with minimal rewording …
- Name the first aspect of designing a book that you give priority to once you accept a project and sit down to start.
- Has InDesign proven to be the Quark killer for you; and; if so, what feature was responsible; or do your clients determine the page layout software you use?
- What is the first typeface that comes to mind each time you begin a book design project, and do you make that font your choice or say something like, “Yes, I really like that typeface, but it’s time to work with something new”?
- Name the one design-related book that you use as a resource and would cut to the chase and tell beginners they need to have at the ready.
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October 18th, 2008 12:25pm
tianodesign
I can see by the old hands on the clock that it’s my birthday. I’ve reached that stage where I’m no longer surprised to find myself here, although not so cocky that I still believe the road goes on without end.
Too, I am settled that there is likely more behind me than ahead. But there is also the benefit of a particular clarity, an acuity that allows me to focus on the possibility that if there are things I hope to do, that I must do, then perhaps the time to do them is now.
My rather complicated view of what life is about, the point of it, and what becomes of us afterward—indeed, is there an afterward?—runs in different directions. Most of all, I have a, probably mistakenly called, “zenlike” notion that we are all on a continuum with no real end. I imagine it as if it were some sort of cosmic video game with neverending levels. We do, however, occasionally have to feed in some karmic quarters.
What occasions this screed was my waking early this morning, actually earlier than my birth time of 7:06 a.m., and so—to my mind—not officially my birthday for another hour or so while I wrote this longhand. It was about 4:45 a.m. when I stirred, thanks to a physical sensation, believe it or not, that something nipped at one of my heels.
What does all this have to do with making books? Well, the cover for it all would make one hell of an image. But then, The Scream has already been painted.
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October 14th, 2008 07:07am
tianodesign
Today is Blog Action Day, a day set aside for people to write and read and do something about poverty.
Opinionated as I am, I don’t often stray this far from the stated point of this blog. But perhaps because the whole notion of economic disaster is in the forefront of … well, every thing we say, see, and read these days,it would seem appropriate to write a few words about serious, lasting poverty.
We hear about the billions and—is it now?—trillions of dollars that evaporated on Wall Street recently. I am struck by all the angst, including my own, over these losses, often merely on paper, when we know there are people, so many children, spending day after day in the real kind of poverty that escapes paper and hits them where they cannot live and depriving them of food they cannot eat.
On one hand, I have always said that I believed one of the functions of art, whether it is loud music, foul-mouthed comedy, or Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, is to make people uncomfortable. I believe that things get accomplished, problems get solved, out of discomfort.
Awhile back I redesigned—not drastically—a new edition of a book, See Poverty … Be the Difference, about not ignoring the poverty all around and how to make a dent in it. I have no stake in this book. I did not write, publish it, nor do I sell it. I am not related to anyone who did or does. I was paid once for my redesign and layout work and my financial interest went only that far.
This whole issue of poverty matters and this book matters. The organization that sells it, Communication Without Barriers, exists to help people out of poverty. I urge you to follow the link and buy a copy of this book. The more we are conscious of poverty, the likelier it is that we not stand for it.
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