Book and Publication Design

Catalog description

Book and Publication Design will focus on the theory and profesional practice of designing multi-page publications. Students will analyze formal structures of different types of books-literature and poetry, fiction and non-fiction compilations, illustrated volumes such as art catalogues, monographs and textsbooks, and serial editions-discussing both traditional and experimental approaches. The format of the course will be split between theoretical and historical evaluations of book formats by drawing on the Van Pelt Rare Book Collection - and studio time where students will design books with attention to the format's conceptual relationship to the material at hand with a focus on typography and page layout, as well as on understanding production methods of printing and binding. In addition to the conventions of page layout, students will examine paratextual elements (title page, practice of pagination and other internal structuring, content lists and indexes, colophons, notes, and marginalia, and end-leaves binding, etc.).