Book layout

Waterstones book

We were tasked with designing 3 layouts for a double and single page spread, considering all the levels of type hierarchy that would be needed.

I used many of my design books for inspiration, with particular reference to Fifty Typefaces that Change the World (Walters 2013), and Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton (2010). I have also looked at the styles used in my cookery books and magazines such as Kinfolk.

Below are two pages from Kinfolk Volume 12 (Ash and Verdugo 2014). I love the calmness created by their centre aligned type and font combinations. Although the typeface is very small (6-7pt?) is still still legible. The passe partout border compliments the type very well, fitting with the slow paced aesthetic of the magazine. They also use full bleed colour background for some pages of text which is very effective and helps with the pace of the magazine.

I considered the benefits of using columns or a grid. I then looked at fonts which I thought worked well together, which were different enough to create contrast, along with the sizes of the typeface. I then thought about how I would lay out a standard set of pages, and what colours to use. I decided to use grey as it goes with any colour of imagery, but I may introduce colours on some pages. I chose to use rules for some added interest.

I chose to work with a 6 column layout to give flexibility across the pages for different layouts, depending on the number of images and the length of the body copy. I experimented with layouts based on the gold section and have decided to go with a symmetrical layout, but to combine this with left and right aligned text (not centred).

Colour will be monochrome, initially, with perhaps some subtle colours added depending on the image colours.

Layout one

This is my first design. It was inspired by the layouts in Basics Design 07:Grids (Ambrose and Harris 2012), although the font choices are my own. I chose Droid Serif for the heading and subheading, Antique Olive for the large body copy, and Franklin Gothic Book for the body copy. I wanted to use 3 fonts which complimented each other, by combining a serif and sans serif. I decided 10% black border as a graphic device  and a 3 column layout for ease of reading.

Layout two

This layout looks more contemporary, and is inspired by layouts in 100 Ideas That Changed Graphic Design (Heller and Vienne 2012). The bold rule really draws the eye to the title, and allows the heading typeface to be smaller than without it. The combination of users of two different serifs for large and main body copy and and sans serif heading compliment each other well. I'm not so keen on the italic type used for the running head.

My version below, uses the Antique Olive family for all text except the running head and the picture captions, which are in Droid Serif Roman and Italic. I like this bold layout, again using 3 columns, and with the use of rules rather than the border (layout one).

Layout three

This is my preferred layout, in part because it uses only serifs. Bree, a slab serif, is used for the heading and subheading, and Droid Serif for the remaining type. Droid is an easy to read typeface, its serifs leading the eye gently across the page.

Further development

I am considering creating a square book but will apply the above template for layout three to the new format, with some slight changes. I will work out the margins based on the golden section. Some images will be full bleed and others with a passe partout. The reason for choosing a larger book is to be able to use plenty of white space and give the images (particularly the featured images) room to breathe.

References
AMBROSE, G and HARRIS, P (2012) Basics Design 07: Grids. 2nd ed Lausanne, AVA Publishing SA
ASH, R (2014) The Case for Crying. Kinfolk Volume 12 p123
HELLER and VIENNE (2012) 100 Ideas that Changed Graphic Design. London, Laurence King Publishing Ltd
LUPTON, E (2010) Thinking with Type. 2nd ed New York, Princetown Architectural Press
VERDUGO, A (2014) The Case for Crying. Kinfolk Volume 12 p122
WALTERS, J L (2013) Fifty Typeaces that Change the World. London, Conran Octopus Ltd