Notes on book design / by Derek Birdsall.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Birdsall, Derek.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Book design.

Physical Description:

xii, 236 pages : illustrations (chiefly color, some folded) ; 31 cm

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2004]

Summary:

Derek Birdsall has been described as the doyen of British book designers. He studied typography at the Central School (now Central Saint Martins) under Anthony Froshaug, from whom he 'learned to love type and the feeling of privilege in placing it on the page, wherever it was happiest and made the most sense.' This practical and inspirational book distils a lifetime's experience in designing books, and presents and discusses nearly fifty books he has designed, showing 360 spreads and covers, all in their original colours and to approximately the same scale. The designs range from 1960s Penguin paperback covers to a recent complete redesign of The Church of England's book of Common Worship. They include books on wine, chess, astronomy, architecture and fine paper and one for Monty Python, as well as many of his award-winning catalogues for museums and galleries around the world, and monumental catalogues raisonnes on the work of Mark Rothko, Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz for the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Many of the notes in this book were made whilst designing particular jobs. They do not therefore suffer from the dubious benefit of hindsight. Though all the ingredients listed on the front cover are unlikely to appear in one book, they each occur in one or another of the books illustrated and discussed.

Contents:

On the design of this book x

I. The process of book design

Formats 2

Covers 4

Jackets, spines & flaps 9

Flatplans 10

4 x 1 schemes 12

Maps & keys 14

Section breaks & drop lines 18

Selecting a detail 20

Matching millimetre depths 23

Gate-folds 24

Proportional representation 28

Picture grids 30

II. Book design in practice

1 Covers for Penguin books 34

2 Art direction 40

3 Science & technology 60

4 Art & artefacts 72

5 Islam & the near East 94

6 Painting & catalogues raisonnes 106

7 Drawings & sculpture 134

8 Landscape & architecture 148

9 Photography 158

10 Liturgy 174

Work in progress 184

On choosing a typeface 186

Different leading & effect on 'colour' 206

Text in translation 208

Designing a grid 212

A millimetre 'quad' grid system 213.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (page 232) and index.

ISBN:

0300103476

OCLC:

55523009