Spine reads Down

Remember that spines in the USA read down. Not up. PLEASE make yours read DOWN.

Justification Settings

If you are justifying text you will be unsuccessful (meaning it will be ugly) if you do not have enough 1) characters per line, 2) if you do not use hyphenation and 3) if you do not adjust your justification settings.

1) to get more characters per line (remember a character is a letter, number, punctuation and space) you can reduce the size of the type and you would have more characters per line. Please do not go below 7pt type.

2) turn hyphenation on. you need to just check the box in the paragraph panel

(remember TRY not to use awkward hyphenation such as de-
sign, try not to hyphenate proper nouns)

3) change the justification setting in the paragraph panel, options justification
try changing the numbers to
80 82 85
0 0 1%

here  is link to visually refresh your memories.

Real quotes or smart quotes

Remember that " are inches and ' is a foot mark. If you copied and pasted from the internet it may have kept the web type you need to retype your quote mark and see if it changes. It does not have to have a ball or slab serif to be a real quote -- just a bit of an angle. If you see no change try
option shift ] for single apostrophe ’
option shift [ for quote mark ”

Even Lawyers know the rules. You have to fix this!

Hanging Quotes in Illustrator

Ok if you are using " on your cover 1st make sure they are real quotes. And HANG them here is how to do it. You have to be in the Paragraph "panel".

Line Length

Column too wide? To Narrow?

No Widows

Sorry don't want to be insensitive but in typography we have to delete the world of widows.

Paragraph Rule

Never indent the first line in a paragraph -- this is a NEVER

Hyphen, En Dash, Em Dash

We learned them last semester but you have forgotten...
hyphen -
en dash (option - ) –
em dash (option shift - ) —

THREE is the magic number!

Ok not sure you have learned this so here it is...

Do not use more than 3 different type sizes on any composition. So on your bookjackets (front, back, spine, flaps) try using only 3 different sizes. If after you have tried 3 and really feel you need a forth then go for 4 sizes.

Also if you are using only 1 font use up to 3 styles, no more

If you are using 2 fonts (one serif, one sans serif) no more than 2 styles in each of those fonts.
NEVER (ok there are exceptions) use 2 Sans Serif font or 2 Serif fonts in the same composition.
The exception is if one of the fonts is a "display" font.

No Faking Small Caps

can't be any uglier than a fake small caps Don't click that BUTTON use a font with small caps or don't use them at all EVER!

Join ProtoType FB Group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/KUPrototype/

Join the ProtoType facebook group (some of you have joined already). It is a place to find out about events, internships, tips from peers and alumni....

Chip Kidd

Steven Heller on Paul Rand Bookcovers

visit site

WORDS

WORDS from Everynone on Vimeo.

Interview with Erik Spiekermann

watch it

Front Back Spine

Front Back Spine Pattern First Page

 

The Bell Jar

Dark, witty and painful, Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar has disturbed and enthralled readers from the moment it was published under a pseudonym in 1963 – months before the poet and writer killed herself.

Now the novel is once again stirring up strong emotions, with the publisher Faber accused of portraying the book as glorified chick lit through its design for the book's 50th anniversary edition.

The cover – featuring a young woman fixing her makeup in a powder compact – has been criticised for misrepresenting the work and trivialising its content. continue reading


 

Moodboard Examples

When developing your moodboards define some style parameters. Should the mood feel organic or more high-tech. Should it be minimal or more ornamental,  more retro or contemporary, etc. 

organic _ _ + _ _ high–tech

ornamental _ _ + _ _ minimal
retro, vintage or nostalgic _ _ + _ _ contemporary
unrefined/rough _ _ + _ _ clean/sophisticated
handmade _ _ + _ _ machine made

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Moodboard for a series of posters about Save the Arctic... 

The following poster designs are based off the moodboard. None of the actual elements are on the moodboard it is all about the tone, feeling, style...

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Below is a moodboard for a book redesign project. The moodboard sets the tone on the style of typography and illustrations that will be made for the book redesign. 

spreads created using the moodboard as a guide

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Moodboard

poster based on moodboard

on Alvin Lustig