Book Design Reading/Video - Sydnee

 In the years since the article was published, I feel like premium elements in books has possibly driven up the price of physical books overall, and adding these elements doesn’t always benefit the actual design. For example, I’ve been seeing a lot more sprayed edges (painted/colored edges of book pages) recently, and in my opinion it doesn’t always make sense or look good beyond just participating in a book design trend, and gives publishers/retailers a reason to charge more for those editions. On the other hand, I am a fan of deckled edges and don’t necessarily ever think that I’d rather a particular book not have them. My personal design opinions aside, I’ve been considering how the recent ‘trend’ of reading has influenced the book design scene in terms of churning out releases faster to meet demand or which design elements can be traced back to social media or consumer trends rather than thoughtfully creating books that still are meant to entice the customer, but strive to do so without compromising design principles.

In general, I also think it’s necessary to consider the general democratization of graphic design, where I feel like in the last decade or so it has been pushed that just anyone can break into graphic design and that making things that ‘look good’ don’t need to be so technically grounded and that the existing design scene is (or was) too uptight and exclusive. I’ve seen arguments in the last year or two making the case for reevaluating the quality standards for professional graphic design work to emphasize that there is real value in studying and understanding fundamental principles, even if those rules are broken later (as with other art, writing, music, etc.). I thought that the various design processes in the TED Talk actually agrees with this perspective, because under the surface of his humorous anecdotes (tracing a picture from the museum, throwing water at a paper, etc.) lie references to typography and formal education in design.

Of course, there are clearly positive aspects to diversifying the elements included in book design. Most of my book collection is secondhand and paperbacks, so I probably have some natural bias against brand new hardcovers, but I do enjoy examining the design of new releases when I go to the bookstore, from atypical sizes to embossed dust jackets and how they form color schemes with the covers underneath. Perhaps it’s greedy to both support ‘integrity in book design’ (whatever that even means, since I’m no expert on what that really entails) and want to see things that are new and interesting, since everyone starts somewhere and that to get more ‘interesting’ results, more must be produced in general.