Reading Responses

The Haslam Book Design reading is firstly helpful given it details useful terminology & provides diagrams of the anatomy of book design. This knowledge sets a good basis to start designing the book, it is just a matter of remembering it all. I found the observations about book formats very interesting. Firstly, “…choosing the format of a book determines the shape of the container that holds the author’s ideas,” is an interesting way of equating book design & layout with a tool. Second, “…book design is to the written word what stage design and theatrical direction are to the spoken word. Authors provide a score and the designer choreographs the performance,” which is an interesting analogy to make that provides useful context as to the significance of book design. These quotes suggest that there should be no arbitrary decisions regarding book layout or format. 

The reading about choosing & combining type was interesting simply because typography is one of the topic areas regarding graphic design that I enjoy the most. We had numerous readings & discussions within my Typography class with Professor Ward that detailed ideas also mentioned in this reading, so most of it felt familiar & was a good refresher to read. I took the advice of page 98 where it mentions starting with a single typeface. By starting my type explorations for my book with a single type family I was able to set a solid foundation & then make iterations that were more & more explorative which felt like a natural & progressive process.