Simplicity + Clarity = Elegance | Notes on Book Design

Excellent! | Notes on Book Design | Derek Birdsall

books:


	• Notes on Book Design Derek Birdsall Yale University Press, 2004 - 248 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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Elegant, interesting, but ultimately not useful

This author is an experienced, expert book designer, who has designed numerous art books and art catalogues (among many others). But somehow he seems to have missed some important points vital to good book design.

For instance, he is undoubtedly really, really good at choosing fonts that accurately reflect the content and tone of the books he is designing. However, he had somehow missed the point that the font chosen for the body of the book has to be both legible and readable. Quite often, the fonts he chooses are not at all readable. That includes the font used for this book (a typewriter font). Now, a typewriter font is undeniably appropriate to a book titled "Notes on..." anything, but the total lack of weight variation in the letters and the small size of the type made it very hard to read. And (just one more example) using Gill Sans for books about modern artists is undeniably appropriate, but reading a book with the body text set in san serif is like trying to read a book length caption--exhausting.

Then there is the placement of artwork across spreads. As the spreads are shown in this book--as they appear on boards or in a page layout program--they look fabulous. But once these books are bound, anything within 3/8" (roughly) of the gutter just disappear into the binding. Open a book. Look at where the paper disappears into the binding. Imagine important parts of a painting printed on the page going down into the binding. Imagine how you'd feel if you had bought a book to look at that art.

On the other hand, he did offer some interesting insight into how to place art in books without losing sight of relative size of the originals. It is a beautiful (if not readable) volume, and the examples are elegantly rendered. I don't think it's worth the price, however.

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Simplicity + Clarity = Elegance

Just lift the cover to this lovely book and the endpaper has a quote from George Orwell's 1946 book 'Politics and the English Language'
What am I trying to say?
What words will express it?
What image or idiom will make it clearer?
Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?
Could I have put it more shortly?
Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?
Although he was referring to writing I feel these thoughts could easily apply to publication designers and Derek Birdsall's book is a fine visual example of putting them into practice.

I thought the clever thing about the book was the way it explains design by using examples of Birdsall's work, so you get to see plenty of his spreads and their presentation is the design explanation. The two chapters, 'The process of book design' and 'Book design in practice' covers a whole range of creative solutions. Throughout he offers thoughts and practical observations with the second chapter devoted to many spreads from books and here I found perhaps the most fascinating section, his re-design of 'Common Worship, Services and Prayers for the Church of England'. Surely the ultimate creative (and intellectual) challenge, 860 pages, type only and two colors. As a publication designer I've always maintained that the most rewarding jobs are the simplest in appearance, airline timetables or tax forms for instance, where the creative resources are limited yet the information conveyed needs to be totally unambiguous. Birdsall's design solution to 'Common Worship' looks so right that you are not aware of the design and that is just as it should be. The back of the book has sample text settings (in foreign languages, too) and some very hands-on information about grids for books.

'Notes on book' design is beautifully produced and printed and a first-class review of a leading book designer's work. I think it looks so good I've added it to my Listmania, 'My favorite well-designed books' list.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

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Excellent!

Very inspiring, specially for those beginning to explore the serious book design world. Good examples.

In a career spanning more than forty years, Derek Birdsall has achieved renown as a leading book designer in Britain. This practical and inspirational book distils a lifetime?s professional experience. It presents and discusses nearly fifty books he has designed, showing 360 spreads and covers, all in full color and to scale.

The designs range from Penguin paperback covers in the 1960s to a recent complete redesign of The Church of England?s book of Common Worship. Among Birdsall?s projects are award-winning art catalogues, catalogues raisonné on such major artists as Mark Rothko and Georgia O?Keeffe, and books on wine, chess, astronomy, architecture, and fine paper. Birdsall discusses and illustrates the process of book design, from brief to deadline (which he calls the designer?s muse). He includes specimen settings of his favorite text faces as well as an innovative metric grid system for designing books. In addition, he lists books he himself has found useful or inspiring. For every reader curious about the design or production of books, this is a uniquely informative and instructive book.

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