bookdesign_project | Entries tagged with front and back matter: dedication

Hilary Mantel. Wolf Hall. London: Fourth Estate, 2009. No designer information available, but typeset by G&S Designs. Collected 30 June

To finish off, I wanted to remind myself that book design doesn't have to be, and probably shouldn't be, eyecatching, dramatic, innovative or even visible to be good book design. I thought going through this book, a large trade paperback (very thin glossy card, uncoated book paper stock) from 2009, would be a pretty good opportunity to demonstrate that. Even though I've praised books with complicated design, that can go wrong more often than it goes right.
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birdhead

Mary Ellen O'Connor. Freed to Care, Proud to Nurse: 100 Years of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation. Wellington: Steele Roberts, 2010. Design is likely in-house. Collected 30 July

This new hardcover book is heavy on the images, many of which are pretty neat, and it usually does a good job of showcasing them. However, on the whole the design gives me the feeling of being almost-but-not-quite great. ( read more )

birdhead

Don Marquis. Archy & Mehitabel. Ernest Benn, 1931.

This book is included chiefly as a curiousity. The oldest edition of any of the books in the portfolio, I found its internal design interesting from a historical perspective. The imprint page is barely existent, and most of the information which would typically be found on it is either not there or in other places. For example, there is no statement of copyright; the name and location of the publisher and author appear only on the title page, while the printer appears on the final page of the book.

Interestingly, the design is still very readable and looks good to modern sensibilities. The typography has worked hard to reflect its content: the typeface, which resembles that of a typewriter, is reminiscent of the content in that the poems are supposedly typed by a cockroach (the reason why no capitals or punctuation marks occur: the cockroach cannot hold down the shift key at the same time as it hits a letter. The simple design also reflects these humble origins! ( read more )

things happen, and are wrapped in newspaper

Entries tagged with front and back matter: dedication

Lucky Last: Wolf Hall

Proud to Nurse

Archy & Mehitabel, by Don Marquis

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Wrapped in Newspaper

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