Tag Archives: book design

Book Report

BOOM! A little book jam-packed with good.

By Nicole Lavelle | Published: August 10, 2010

Dimensions: 2 inches high, 1.5 inches wide, and 1 inch thick.

Dutch book designer Irma Boom‘s recent monograph is barely larger than a box of matches. Containing 704 miniature pages of book projects from her massive library of work, Boom’s BOOM shocked fans and critics alike with its unconventional format and approach. But my outlook is: who can be surprised by Irma Boom? Her groundbreaking book work hovers somewhere between art, design and pure genius and is always a delight. The New York Times digs into the details of the project in this in-depth article. I’d recommend reading it and then crossing your fingers for the printing of a second edition.

More beautiful images can be found over on Slanted.

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Book Report

Designing books: practice and theory

By Andrew Barton | Published: July 30, 2010

Title: Designing books: Practice and theory
Authors: Jost Hochuli and Robin Kinross
Publisher: Hyphen Press, London
Published: 1996, reprinted in 2004
Read more about Designing books: practice and theory here at Hyphen’s website
Available: At Powell’s, $30, in paperback

Designing books: practice and theory is as much a reference manual as it is a design text book or a collection of essays.

The book’s author, Jost Hochuli, is a Swiss typographer, book designer, writer, and editor. Reading Designing books feels like being told “the way things were and always should be” by a wise uncle who speaks in stilted blurbs. Perhaps this is a result of this book’s status as “in translation” sometimes replacing Hochuli’s “style and tone.” But these are really interesting, compelling stilted blurbs.

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Print Matters

Steven Heller, Typography and Book Design

By Nicole Lavelle | Published: June 9, 2010

Steven Heller celebrates an era of deliberate book design

“How genteel are these designers, how wonderful were the days when designers spoke of their types like wine.”

Steven Heller writes the Daily Heller as part of Print Magazine’s online offerings. His recent column, The Bouquet of Type, celebrates the beauty of a well-chosen book typeface and the synergy of legibility and spirit that results from that good choice.

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