This project focused on typographic detailing, using InDesign efficiently to handle a large amount of text, as well as the physicality of binding a book by hand. It also focused on the handling of tricky textual elements such as footnotes, that varied in length from spread to spread, forcing us to create a grid system that accommodated all of these variables.
Working by hand to create different grid layouts based on the advice of books such as Derek Brown's 'Designing a book' and Robert Bringhurst's 'Elements of typographic style' allowed me to experiment with different layouts and alignments, which best suited reading strategy and convention. As the book dimensions were provided, it allowed me to think more about other elements and how they would work best with this format.
Something which I found tricky in this project was the cover design – the brief was to create a typographic cover for this edition. I experimented with the initials CD to create a motif for the cover (Figure 1), but this ended up too much like a monogram. I then realised that a simplistic cover, echoing the colours and trends of the 19th century would be a better route to go down. I used typographic ornaments from the Victorian period to highlight the genre of the book, as well as to add visual interest (Figure 4 and 5). I feel my final covers are successful, especially compared to the earlier attempts of this (Figures 1–3).
This still remains one of my favourite projects, due to the technical thinking and the detailed typography that was required in its execution, and the problem solving that occurred when trying to create a flexible grid system that could be applied over all the text pages.
Above: Pages from my specification
