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On Book Design | 
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| Author: Richard Hendel
Publisher: Yale University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $40.00
Buy Used: $16.63
You Save: $23.37 (58%)
New (14) Used (14) from $16.63
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 63930
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 11.1 x 7.1 x 1
ISBN: 0300075707
Dewey Decimal Number: 686
EAN: 9780300075700
ASIN: 0300075707
Publication Date: November 10, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
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Product Description
In this unique and appealing volume, award-winning book designer Richard Hendel and eight other talented book designers on both sides of the Atlantic discuss the challenges of their work in trade and scholarly publishing. Through their detailed descriptions of the creative process of book design, illustrated with many examples, we learn how designers discover the most effective visual presentation of words.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 It's About the Process March 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've read a number of great books about the mechanics and about the details one must consider when designing books. But Richard Hendel's On Designing Books is the first I've read that explores the process of designing books. It goes so far as to present eight book designers who discuss what they eventually go through in designing books.
Involved in the craft some fifteen years myself, I found Mr. Hendel's presentation, and the angles of his eight, interesting, informative, and helpful.
There are times when, as a designer, I'm stuck for some push in a direction so as to get started. And as a page comp and layout artist on others' book designs, I'm sometimes left questioning how and why someone else's book design was conceived the way it was. On Book Design goes a long way toward providing some possible paths to answering those questions.
The best book on book design! April 4, 2006
This is the best book I have read on the subject. The interviews
with a variety of designers show there is no one way to approach a book
design but the goal is always the same-to honor the author's voice.
 How designers work March 26, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
As author Richard Hendel notes, designing a book is a complicated process, "especially because there isn't a single way to proceed." Hendel is associate director and design and production manager at University of North Carolina Press, ideally qualified to give a true picture of the life of a book designer.
On Book Design is divided into three sections. In "Looking Like Books" Hendel discusses what makes a book, a book. More than just the author's words, a book is defined by its typography, the size of the fonts, the width of the margins, where the subheads fall on a page. While this may seem obvious, what is harder to determine is the right combination of all these subjective elements. If a reader is paying more attention to the arrangement of the words rather than to the content itself, the design may be overdone.
The book's second section, "The Design Begins Here" describes exactly what it is that designers do-from the big picture stuff (e.g., matching the author's content and tone) to the smallest details (e.g., determining whether to choose old-style or line numbers).
Scattered throughout the book are samples of projects designed by Hendel and others. This is extremely helpful and often fascinating, though on occasion the level of detail Hendel provides borders on the tedious.
In the third section, "How Designers Work," Hendel hands the page over to several respected designers. Some work entirely on the computer; others, like Hendel, use pencil and paper to create their first design drafts. As Hendel notes, "What is important is not the mechanics of making the layouts but finding exactly the right design and typeface for the author's words."
Excellent August 11, 2003
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Thoughtful and thorough, and offering no easy answers, this book forces one to think for herself. On a par with Hochuli's 'Design of Books'.
A new classic -- a great find. June 8, 2000
26 out of 28 found this review helpful
This is a new breed of book design; but it is bred out of classicism. Being involved in an antiquarian artform during the dawn of computer technology poses many problems. One of them is the disappearance of really well designed books. So, in an attempt to preserve The Book's integrity, I searched for new guidance on this ancient art. This book ended my search. Rather than quibble with new design trends, resist new technology, or morosely revisit bygone eras, Hendel see these as "points of departure" and sticks to the real issue -- the design of books. The result is not a strict set of rules for book design, rather, it is a fluid and applicable philosophy of design for the many types of books we find today. "The challenge," says Hendel, "isn't to create something different or pretty or clever but to discover how best to serve the author's words." This book is informative, enlightening and filled with lovely samples from distinguished designers. A very beautiful book. Writers will enjoy learning how designers make well-thought creative decisions about the spaces that words flow into.
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