Things move quickly now. Once I settle on a design for a book, the missing pieces fall into place. Chapters are designed. Editing begins. My nether regions dilate to 10cm. The push begins.
Oh, and passive voice is eliminated.
About the book’s design: For the last 12 years, my ideas about page design have turned away from the whitespace-heavy, overly flexible post-grid methods I learned in college. My guiding star is “Methods of Book Design” (Sceptre, London) by Hugh Williamson, a 1956 text that few designers use today.
The book was published at a turning point in print production. Offset printing was replacing lead type, and soon the worlds of design and type would explode, both in variety and flexibility.
“Methods of Book Design” is a glimpse of a world with far more limitations than we have today, back when a press might have just a handful of fonts available to use. Photos and illustrations were expensive to reproduce. The typography had to carry a heavy load in organizing and relating information.
I don’t expect you to notice my design choices in “The American Peasant.” In fact, I try to do everything I can to make the “design” invisible. If I succeed, the book should be readable and easy to navigate, no more.
So let’s give it a try. Today I’d like to show you the first six chapters of “The American Peasant.” Paid subscribers can download a pdf of the chapters I’ve designed (below the paywall).
Note that the writing is still subject to tweaks. After I design a book, I will read it all the way through to smooth over the rough parts and rough up the smooth parts. During this final read, I always find connections that unify the text.
But the gist is there. And the typography – wow. (I hope that last sentence is the full contents of the first YELP review of the book.)
One favor: If you find misspellings or factual errors, please let us know in the comments.
I’m now in Tampa, Fla., to teach two scholarship classes at The Florida School of Woodwork. During the day, I’ll be up to my neck in stools and chairs. At night I’ll draw illustrations and lay out more pages for the book.
When I return to Covington on March 13, the push will be on to complete the book’s photography with the sharp eye of Narayan Nayar. He did the principal photography for “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest,” “Virtuoso: The Tool Cabinet and Workbench of Henry O. Studley” and “The Anarchist’s Design Book.”
So the answer to your question is: soon. Very soon.
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