Photo purchased from … www.depositphotos.com
Everything I learned about graphic design, I learned on my own by observing. My degree is in English Literature. That said, I’ve been observing, analyzing, and practicing graphic design for 48 years now, ever since I laid out my first high school yearbook.
Last week my fiancee found a print book at a thrift store that immediately caught my interest due to its design or, more specifically, due to the organization of its content and its visual flow from page spread to page spread.
Two Principles of Organization
To illustrate these two concepts, let’s start with the organization of content. Forty years ago, as a print book designer, I would receive a manuscript in which all text was the same size and typeface (written on a mainframe computer). At that stage, a reader would have had no idea of which paragraphs were of greater or lesser importance, which pertained to the front matter of the print book, or which were text, captions, callouts, or sidebars.
It was an undifferentiated mass of text, like some modern novels I have read. My first goal was to break up the text into related chunks, to place these separate text groupings onto appropriate pages, and then to use such tools of graphic design as typeface and point size to either connect these text blocks to one another or to set them apart—based on their content and their levels of importance.
The second concept is more sensory (less cognitive). It is the visual flow of the print book. In this vein, the reader’s eye appreciates contrast. Contrast helps the reader identify related (vs. unrelated) chunks of copy as well as related ideas presented with visuals. It also gives the reader a break from undifferentiated words on a page (as do type size and typeface choices, as noted above).
Analyzing the Book
The print book my fiancee found at the thrift store is called The 9-Inch “Diet” by Alex Bogusky and Chuck Porter. Intriguingly, it is 9” x 9” in format (which is congruent with its title), and it is perfect bound. The content addresses how commercially sold food has been super-sized to the detriment of our health.
As with the books I produced prior to becoming an art director, The 9-Inch “Diet” was initially an undifferentiated manuscript produced in a word processor on a computer. A print book designer made sense out of all the material, and because of this I, as a reader, can now more easily grasp the points Bogusky and Porter make.
Let’s tease out the specific things the book designer did.
Contrast of Size
The running text of the book is set in an easy to read serif typeface in two columns at what looks like about 11 pt. with extra leading (space between lines of type). For ease of readability, the body copy is set ragged right (which is easier to read than justified copy).
Introductory material in the front of the book spans the two columns and is set in a larger point size.
Headlines are set in what looks like a 36 pt. slab serif typeface in all capital letters. Since they are separated from the text with adequate space, the uppercase headlines are still readable (even though an all capitals headline treatment does slow down reading).
The headlines either span two columns (above the text) or fill the column next to a column of body copy.
And there are callouts. If they appear on a page with text, they are slightly smaller than headlines (and are written in a conversational tone), and if they appear alone on a page spread, they are much larger and yet are still set in the same slab serif typeface in all capital letters.
I wouldn’t be surprised if all of this granular information isn’t mind numbing. However, my point is that consistency sets up patterns (and therefore expectations) for the reader to consciously or unconsciously absorb. For the treatment of body text, headlines, and callouts, there is a pattern—and a rhythm—that allows the reader to group information and grasp salient points. Contrast is the tool that makes this happen.
But contrast in this book goes further. There are dramatically different single pages, and double-page spreads, that add variety to the book (and allow the reader to pause in reading the text). Large, all-caps, slab serif typeface blocks of copy (in a conversational tone) are laid out on black, full-bleed backgrounds and white backgrounds.
The large size (the single white or black page or page spread) adds a periodic pause (and a pithy statement) breaking up the flow of the body copy (the running text of the book). This makes these pages stand out, reinforces their importance, and gives the reader a break in reading the text.
Full bleed, double-truck (spanning a full two-page spread) images as well as images that don’t bleed further punctuate the book. In contrast to the complex pages of body text (which often have ample white space around them, reflecting another contrast, one of content vs. no content), these pages are simple, giving the reader only one thing to focus on at the moment.
Visual Flow
Flow is more general (it affects the whole print book rather than just one page), but like contrast of type size and contrast of value (huge white type against a black background and huge black type against a white background), page flow breaks up the book and carries the reader through the text with an implied (and expected) rhythm.
For example, the The 9-Inch “Diet” book designer used “implied lines” to direct the reader. For instance, in one photo a man’s finger points at a single pea on a plate. His arm (in a suit), his hand, and a finger create a diagonal line from the top left to the bottom right of the page, drawing the reader’s eye to the pea (also highlighting the contrast in size of the arm and the pea), while on the opposite page there are two ragged-right columns of type and above these a large amount of white space (this spread opens a chapter, justifying the large white space at the top).
And I just saw this. There’s a tiny head shot to the right of the two columns on the right hand page (i.e., in a scholar’s margin). It is visually analogous to the pea on the plate on the opposite page (the same visual weight). It is also almost exactly aligned horizontally with the man’s finger and the pea.
What this means is that the reader’s eye sees a headline reversed out of the photo of the man’s hand, then the pointing finger, then the pea, then the tiny head shot on the opposite page. So the book designer has led the reader’s eye through the double-page spread. This is exactly what a designer should do, and it happens in a number of other places throughout the print book as well.
More Visuals: Drawings and Silhouettes
Line drawings and photo silhouettes round out the collection of visuals. In some cases the line drawings are informational (i.e., explanatory). In other cases they seem to be used for contrast with photographic images for visual variety.
What makes the numerous photo silhouettes interesting to me is two-fold. In many cases there will be a photo of a food: let’s say a plate of fries in London (5.5 oz) next to a McDonald’s “Super-Size” box of fries (7 oz.). Because of the nature of the silhouette (a total focus on the subject with no distracting background), the presentation highlights the dramatic increase (over time) in food portions in the United States.
The same visual device is used to contrast a plate of baked chicken and vegetables with a much more amply laden plate of fried chicken, potatoes, pasta, and veggies. The first photo has the word “Realistic” reversed out of it. The second has the words “You wish” reversed out of it.
So the visual device of silhouetting an image is congruent with the focus on size (and size differences) that the designer wants to illustrate. It is not a gratuitous effect.
However, as an aside, the silhouetting effect does amplify the white space on the page, which, as noted above, gives the reader a visual break in an otherwise full-to-capacity visual field.
The Takeaway
What can you learn from this discussion? Here are some thoughts:
- All visual techniques and tricks should be pertinent. You as a designer should pick the appropriate tool both to reinforce the points stated in the text and also to show the reader what to read first, second, and third.
- Contrast is a valuable tool for organizing visual and textual material. Consider type size, typeface, background screens, photos. Use generous white space to set apart (and group together) related items.
- Find books and other publications you like, deconstruct them, and be able to articulate how the tools of graphic design were used to reinforce the meaning/content of the book/brochure/etc.
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