Most
people enjoy a good book but don’t give too much thought as to what went into
designing it. But people like Adrian
Wilson, an award-winning graphic designer, cares a great deal about this. He wrote a book almost 50 years ago, The Design of Books, that I happened to
discover at the world’s best bookstore, The Strand in New York City. Wilson’s book lends insight to book design,
printing, layout, binding, illustrations, typeface and all of the details that
go into making great books. He makes
dissecting the anatomy of a book an interesting and worthwhile pursuit.
The
quality of the paper, the size and length of the book, the numbering of pages,
the flow from the title page to the colophon, and the actual contents in
between can keep some people up at nights.
Making a book look and feel as great as the words and images inside is
no easy task.
Perhaps
the book’s dust jacket best represents what The
Design of Books is all about.
“Written
primarily for the contemporary book designer working either in a publishing
house, printing plant, or as a freelancer, this superb book shows how to go
about creating layouts for and implementing the production of mass different
kinds of books, including limited editions, trade books, encyclopedias, and
reference books. The richly illustrated text outlines the book designing processes from the manuscript stage through production. The methods and masterpieces of leading
international designers are described and illustrated.”
This
1967 book, released in the very year of my birth, gives me comfort. Likely anyone who bought it five decades ago
is retired or deceased but some people just starting out in the publishing
industry back then may still be involved in their craft today. They’d have to have been pretty good – and
lucky – to stick around in a low-paying industry that shed jobs during the
Great Recession and several mass consolidations of the corporate publishing world.
“Book
design is necessary for one reason: to
bring to the purchaser a book of the best possible quality for the price he is
able and willing to pay," writes Wilson. "This requires the discriminating use of the vast
industrial machinery that man has created, the complex web of modern book
manufacturing. It is the book designer’s
challenge to draw from that machinery a product of precision and beauty. He must, of course, have the cooperation of
author, publisher, editor, production manager, and craftsman. But it is the knowledge and imagination he
brings to his layouts, and his constant insistence on high standards that will
influence the success of the book as a vehicle of communication.
“In
order to exercise his imagination realistically, the book designer must have a working
knowledge of the hundreds of typefaces in current use; a familiarity, or even
better, a practical skill, with the techniques of book printing, photography,
and art; and the ability to render on paper an anticipation of the final
appearance of the book. His layouts must
be attractive enough to convince the publisher that the design will enhance the
text, that it will be appealing in the bookstore as well as satisfying in the
reader’s hand. They must be precise
enough to serve as an accurate guide for the printer and must be accompanied by
specifications which translate every visual element into symbols and words
which are not subject to misinterpretation. At the same time, the layouts must
be flexible and mechanically feasible, so that, for example, if the printer who
is awarded the contract does not possess the types originally specified, the
designer can choose equally effective substitutes from the printer’s
repertoire. In short, the design must be
fool-proof and contain all of the information necessary for the printer and
binder to give cost estimates and to produce the finished edition.”
I noticed the back cover of the book talked up an entirely other book by the same publisher. Yes, there was an advertisement on the valuable real estate section of the hardcovers back cover. It was pushing John Lewis’ The Twentieth Century Book. It even included glowing reviews from The Daily Telegraph and Publishers Weekly.
With
this book in hand one should find that the typography communicates, the
illustrations greatly illuminate, and the binding quality enhances and
preserves the creator’s thoughts. You may even think a little differently about
book design as a result.
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