With nearly 1,500 objects and 9,000 hi-fi images, Letterform Archive offers unprecedented virtual access to our collection.
—Online Archive
How Adobe InDesign Took Over
Way back in the day — that is, before the mid-nineties — publishing on the Mac consisted of Quark XPress. Okay, sure, there was Aldus Publisher and some bit players, but it was basically Quark or nothing. I used Quark in book design back then, and … basically hated it.
I was one of the early adopters of InDesign, dragging co-workers and companies along with me, as part of my time working at Tropicana. Not the juice cartons themselves — those were done in Illustrator — but the ancillary stuff, like marketing materials, sell sheets, and so on.
AppleInsider ran a piece a while ago (I’d missed it, initially), “How Adobe InDesign took over publishing with Steve Jobs’ help.” Good history for those of you who don’t know about those days or want a trip down memory lane, best summarized, in fact, by a commenter on the article: “This covers an interesting arc. Adobe went from an ambitious upstart trying to unseat an established, albeit arrogant, standard, to becoming the arrogant standard.”
“Books remain stubbornly, thrillingly relevant”: the enduring value of book design
From DesignWeek, a great story on AIGA’s 50 Books | 50 Covers.
“The 2010s were supposed to bring the ebook revolution. It never quite came.”
From Vox:
“Publishing spent the 2010s fighting tooth and nail against ebooks. There were unintended consequences.”
Fascinating look at the how’s and why’s of traditional books vs. ebooks. (Needless to say, I’m firmly on the side of the traditional printed version.)
NPR’s Book Concierge
“The Book Concierge is NPR’s annual, interactive, year-end reading guide. Mix and match tags such as Book Club Ideas, Biography & Memoir, or Ladies First to filter results and find the book that’s perfect for you or someone you love.”
How This Doubleday Art Director Designs Book Covers, From ‘Frankenstein’ To ‘Fitness Junkie’
“Emily Mahon has been Art Director at Doubleday Books since 2006, and has also done freelance work for a wide range of publishing clients, including St. Martin’s Press, HarperCollins, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Henry Holt and Company, Alfred A, Knopf, Little, Brown and Company, Simon & Schuster, among others.
I asked Mahon about her approach to book cover design, the design process, working with outside artists, and updating classics like Frankenstein.“
Interesting interview with an accomplished book designer and art director, courtesy of Forbes Magazine.
Exhibit celebrates 50th anniversary of Cary Graphic Arts Collection at RIT
“Rochester Institute of Technology is celebrating the 50th year anniversary of its internationally renowned collection of books and artifacts dedicated to the history of the printed word.
The Cary Graphic Arts Collection is hosting a retrospective exhibition, “The Founding Collection and Beyond,” displaying pieces from the library that belonged to printer Melbert B. Cary Jr. and later acquisitions that have shaped the collection since its inception in 1969.
A public reception will be held at 4 p.m. Oct. 9 in the Cary Collection on the second floor of Wallace Library on the RIT campus.”
If you’re in/near Upstate NY, this might be worth attending.
In Utah? Check out University of Utah’s Book Arts Program
“The rhythmic sounds of paper being cut, the letterpresses being used and the scent of ink drying — this world and program is hidden to most students at the U, but it is more than worth your attention. […] A wide range of classes are offered to students on all things book: bookbinding, letterpress printing, book design, paper making, artist books and several typography courses.”
“These Are the Best University Press Book Designs of 2018”
Better late than never: LitHub’s round-up of the best university press book designs of 2018 (see previous post, as well).
Spine: University Press Cover Round-Up
Spine, my favorite book design site, has “a new feature in which notable book cover designer Jordan Wannemacher periodically highlights a selection of recent university press cover designs. Please enjoy this celebration of amazing work.”
In or near Virginia? Check out What’s Your Type
As they say, “Learning to print with rare book school.” This seems like a great opportunity to explore:
Rare Book School at the University of Virginia is dedicated to studying the history of the book as a cultural artifact and all that goes into making books (even digital texts), including the printing process. The school offers a range of courses in Charlottesville during the summer, as well as in several other major cities, to spread the “knowledge and expertise essential to the responsible stewardship of the historical archive in all its richness and pluriformity[.]”
Actual university courses in book design, the history of bookmaking, even letterpress. Good stuff.
Spine: How books are put together
My new favorite book design site. Well done!
A World Without Reality
This large interior design project, recently finished, was one of those — 600+ pages, huge numbers of illustrations and photographs, lots of customization, and lots of fun. Good stuff, that I’m now happy to share with the world.
It was designed with a mid-century-yet-contemporary vibe, with custom icons, specific color selections for the various sections, a custom “look” for the televisions advertisements, and full bleed (that is, the ink runs of the edges of the pages), all in support of the author’s story of one of America’s great toy designers and his, shall we say, eclectic life. As he says, “A World Without Reality.”
Some samples from the main body of this comprehensive title:
…And some from the back matter (note the different color scheme for this section):
The author/publisher, Bill Paxton, called the book design “amazing.” Works for me! Check out more or purchase a copy at marvinglassbook.com.
New Creative Commons Search
Looking for imagery for your book cover? Creative Commons features a library of more than 300 million images, indexed from 19 different collections, including the Cleveland Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, DeviantArt, Behance, and Flickr. Images can be searched using keywords and filter the results based on the license type and/or the collection from which the content is sourced, essential for book design — as the vast majority of covers require commercial licenses.
Stick with the experts.
Publisher’s Weekly says:
Authors should reconsider asking the crowd about
book cover design.
Ever heard of “design by committee?” The worst results, well . . . result. Read the article.