Typography II: Assignment II

Ah, done with the first assignment. What could be next but an introductory assignment into THE GRID. Love it or hate it, I don't mind it. It helps me organize my thinking better. The more and more I work with the grid, the more and more I love it. Some think of it as restrictive, but I find you can really get crazy if you wanted to.

Anyway, on we go! In the second assignment we were gearing up to make four 8 page accordion fold books, the first one having very restricted specs, and consecutively allow more variables in design. We were to continue using the typeface we had chosen for our first assignment. We were given an article to use as body copy. We were instructed to create a simple grid with columns and a few flow lines. Our grid would be used on all 4 books. The point was to get the basics down first time around. Smart thinking. Here is my first grid. Looking back, I would not have created this grid the way I did, especially with such narrow columns. I struggled once I was allowed to bridge over columns. You'll see.

On a side note, I didn't realize it until now, but apparently I didn't get the best quality of pictures when I saved them from PDFs. The blurry smudgy stuff is not part of the design, just saving issues I will resolve next time.



The first book was everything being 9 pt. text. Only variables allowed were leading and tracking. Additionally we had to stay within the column of our grid design. Also, I don't know what I was thinking when I was accordion folding my book. Apparently I thought the first page should start on the outside instead of the inside which created Page, Spread, Spread, Spread, Page instead of 4 Spreads. The first book is the only book I messed this up on. After that I corrected the issue and things turned out better. Here is the first book, first an entire view of the layout to see how well the book flowed for the reader, and second postings to show what spreads looked like within the book.


Full Layout


Page 1


Spread 1 (pages 2 and 3)


Spread 2 (pages 4 and 5)


Spread 3 (pages 6 and 7)


Page 8

So, book 1 done. On to book 2! Here I had all variables from book one, but was allowed to use family members of Goudy Old Style (no more than 3 though). Thus, I could use bold, italic, and bold italic. Here are the results.


Full Layout


Spread 1 (pages 1 and 2)


Spread 2 (pages 3 and 4)


Spread 3 (pages 5 and 6)


Spread 4 (pages 7 and 8)

Hi ho! Off to book 3. New variations were ability to change size of type and being able to bridge paragraphs over columns. I was really looking forward to being able to bridge columns this time because I found out how difficult it was to read body copy with slim columns. Problem is, I only created 4 columns... which did not allow much flexibility in paragraph size. Boo! I found myself stuck compromising good design for the grid. This is the one book I hated that grid. I wish I could have started all over, but this was part of the learning process. I'm glad I struggled that much, really taught me things to avoid in the future! Additionally I was faced with creating a layout that was different from the first two. My grid didn't really allow for that either. Book three was a struggle and I even changed the layout a couple of times. Here are the results. Not sure I dig.


Full Layout


Spread 1 (pages 1 and 2)


Spread 2 (pages 3 and 4)


Spread 3 (pages 5 and 6)


Spread 4 (pages 7 and 8)

For book 4 we were allowed all of our previous variables and were now allowed to use shapes and shades of grey. I really enjoyed working with this one because I the shapes added a much needed color to the page that was lacking in book 3. I was quite happy on how book 4 turned out.


Full Layout


Spread 1 (pages 1 and 2)


Spread 2 (pages 3 and 4)


Spread 3 (pages 5 and 6)


Spread 4 (pages 7 and 8)

Although I didn't mention it earlier, each book had three steps of process. One was thumb-nailing, two was cut paste, three was computer stage, and four was making the book. I was on the line as to if I liked cut paste, I didn't find it necessary to do every time, but I would most defiantly go to it if I was stuck.

Let me know what you think of the books! I would post pictures of the physical books themselves, but sadly they are still in my process book which is with my professor.