Design Changes

As I mentioned in the post, "Lessons from The Snake Book," I had been preparing a session on one-page folded books with one printed side for my Bookmaking class at California College of the Arts. In order to test the books, I came up with the phrase to print, "Each unique structure opens unique reading possibilities." What I hadn't counted on was that the design for each page needed to be adjusted, depending on where it fell in the book. Sometimes what I thought were two-page spreads, or openings, got separated when folded in a different manner.

For example, the X Book (MHB, 32) showed the word "each" on the cover, with "unique" and "structure" facing each other.

The T-Cut Book (47) shared the same opening of "unique" and "structure" as the X book (but left white spaces so should be printed on two sides for a better effect). The last two words had to share a page to fit.

When I folded the Pants Book (36), however, "each" and "unique" shared the space. The two words looked too heavy together, so I chose a lighter typeface for "unique."

X Book:   Each     unique structure     opens unique     reading possibilities
T-Cut:   Each    unique structure (blank)(blank)(blank)(blank)   opens unique         reading/possibilities
Pants Books:   Each unique     structure opens     unique reading     possibilities


X Book, T-Cut Book, Pants Book (bottom)
This exercise illuminates the view that book pages must be designed for a particular structure. The structure drives the book design, the layout, and the placement of the type and information.

Comments

Lotus said…
Interesting how our brains visualize one way, but actual practice brings challenges and corrections. Thank you for the explanation!
I'm not familiar with the book style names, but will look into it.
Thank you!
Lotus