Design Changes

As I mentioned in the post, "Lessons from The Snake Book," I had been preparing a session on one-page folded books with one printed side for my Bookmaking class at California College of the Arts. In order to test the books, I came up with the phrase to print, "Each unique structure opens unique reading possibilities." What I hadn't counted on was that the design for each page needed to be adjusted, depending on where it fell in the book. Sometimes what I thought were two-page spreads, or openings, got separated when folded in a different manner.

For example, the X Book (MHB, 32) showed the word "each" on the cover, with "unique" and "structure" facing each other.

The T-Cut Book (47) shared the same opening of "unique" and "structure" as the X book (but left white spaces so should be printed on two sides for a better effect). The last two words had to share a page to fit.

When I folded the Pants Book (36), however, "each" and "unique" shared the space. The two words looked too heavy together, so I chose a lighter typeface for "unique."

X Book:   Each     unique structure     opens unique     reading possibilities
T-Cut:   Each    unique structure (blank)(blank)(blank)(blank)   opens unique         reading/possibilities
Pants Books:   Each unique     structure opens     unique reading     possibilities

X Book, T-Cut Book, Pants Book (bottom)

This exercise illuminates the view that book pages must be designed for a particular structure. The structure drives the book design, the layout, and the placement of the type and information.