After you decide on basics such as the length, the size, and the audience, you need to think about the whole look. Fear not! Higher standards can easily be met. Design is a big part of making your efforts look professional. Although booklet design is more than just picking a fitting cover image, it doesn’t have to be onerous or complicated, and it doesn’t even have to require specialized software such as InDesign.
Design
Wait, There’s a Difference? Book Designers vs. Illustrators
By Jenny Kimura
Whereas fine art (such as illustration) looks inward by asking the viewer to see the artist behind the art, graphic design looks outward by asking the viewer to see the art and go do something because of it. While these two concepts overlap in places, the purpose of each is very different.
Justified Design
By Faith Martinmaas @theSaltyFlower
There are a lot of things that can make a book unreadable: the content, the prose, the plot holes. The list could go on and on. For me, nothing makes a book more difficult to read than badly justified type.
You Know You’re Just My Typeface (Or Is It Font?)
By Bayley McComb @tweetsthings
A few typographical terms still in use today have historical origins. As technology and the practice of digital font creation have advanced, some terms have been replaced by their digital counterparts in conversations surrounding graphic design.
Five Important Lessons We Learned from Freelancing
By Adrian Burke & Jenny Kimura
Do you like making your own schedule and choosing your own projects? Are you someone who doesn’t mind being home all day and is probably also a night owl? Chances are you’ve thought about being a freelancer, perhaps for design, editing, or marketing. The publishing world, like many other industries, is increasingly relying on outsourcing […]
Big Logos, Big Business: Breaking Down Logo Design in Publishing’s Big Five
By Melinda Jasmine Crouchley
Book publishing is a centuries-old tradition, so the logos and brands have been slightly updated over time to reflect current marketing and branding trends. But are publishers doing enough to keep their symbols fresh, relatable, and contextual for modern readers?