Nonetheless, I found some interesting books and examples of catalogs. The first, called Conceptual Architecture, is a very large book that showcases contemporary buildings and the ideas that helped form them. While the catalog is very image heavy and full of beautiful color photos, there are also subtle references to the geometry and mathematics required in architecture. Take for example the angular san-serif typeface on the cover or the graph paper on the table of contents. Even the photos are laid out in a clean grid-like fashion. Those little elements help to bring together the book as a whole, which makes it a good model for my future catalog.
The next book, Graphic Agitation 2, by Liz McQuiston focuses on social and political graphics. I picked it up because I found the cover very interesting in an abstract way, but I don't really think it reflects the content of the book. It is mostly filled with posters and bold typefaces, but there are also things like political cartoons, drawings, and photos. The captions on every page for the images remain in the same place and color, but the placement of the images and body text varies from page to page. This seems appropriate for a book about social and political images, which are all about unrest, revolution, and change. The pages of this catalog are good examples of fitting design to the content.
My final book is about the works of Ando Hiroshige, specifically his print series titled "One Hundred Views of Edo." The page layout of this book is clean and generally consistent from page to page. One print fills up one side of the page, while the other has neat columns of serif text and a fair amount of white space. There are also headlines in an italic, more flowing typeface. The full page image and the white space that make up a spread a spread balance each other out and mirror the elegance and peaceful scenes depicted in the prints. I really enjoy it's simplicity.
No comments:
Post a Comment