“In a well-made book . . . no matter how many thousands of lines and pages, the letters are alive. They dance in their seats. Sometimes they rise and dance in the margins and aisles.” ―Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style

From collections of images and essays to novels and catalogues, books are versatile and enduring vessels for a wide range of content. Through lectures, critiques, and weekly assignments, this class will review a variety of book formats and examine ways content can be reflected through the designer’s choice of structure, typography, and materials. We’ll look at the anatomy of the book, discussing ways that grids, typefaces, and layout shape the space, color, and flavor of the page and see how details like an elegant half-title, a well-placed page number, and an eye-catching spine work together to create unique and notable publications.

Students will focus on producing their own short booklet featuring collected items. These could be physical objects, digital files, or documentary photographs but the collection should be a coherent group of discrete objects. We will discuss strategies for treating the imagery, formatting descriptive texts, and including longer passages of text, as one would do with plates, captions, and essays. This could be an opportunity to categorize your screenshots or to figure out what weird websites you’ve bookmarked and why. Avoid using your own artwork as a collection. We will also discuss how the book works as a three-dimensional, material object.

Those with a background in design and a serious curiosity about gaining insight into book design are encouraged to sign up. Basic knowledge of typography and InDesign are important as is an enthusiasm for books.

This class will meet virtually with a combination of group and one-on-one feedback sessions.

October 14 / group meeting
October 21 / group meeting
October 28 / group meeting
Week of November 10 / 1:1 meetings
Week of November 17 / 1:1 meetings
November 25 / group meeting