Gathering information
Before I could start creating both my books off good and bad typography, I needed to research what I would write about. I learned a lot from a range of different websites and videos on the internet, but my main resource was a book called White Space is not Your Enemy by Kim Golombisky and Rebeca Hagen. It was very helpful in providing the basics and very easy to understand. I took notes both digitally and on paper, then I did my best to narrow down my notes in what could fit in eight pages. I divided my notes in three sections or chapters: Type, Grid and Image. Using this base, I also thumb-nailed some initial ideas.
Making mock ups
After I had my thumbnails and an arbitrary flat plan down, I started the work on the book itself. I booted up Adobe InDesign and tried to keep in mind all the things I learned about in my research. My main takeaway from what I learned is that good typography tends to equate with clean, well proportioned (if not always symmetrical) layouts and clear type. (And perhaps a little artistic flair, but I’m not sure I’m there yet.) So I created a document, first plotting out the margins (not too wide) and columns (two, symmetrical), then establishing where the titles and subtitles would be. I first started out with a font that I thought was interesting without being too distracting, but unfortunately it was too large even at 12pt, so I had to later change to a more standard one. I chose a serif font because I had read that apparently serif fonts are best for printed copy while sans-serif are best for digital copy.
The final result was ok, but not what I had in mind. The first, too-large font, and my choice to use the first and last pages for quotes resulted in a rather text-packed six pages without any images or quotes to interrupt the mechanical flow of the text. It was not too bad, since I chose a bullet-point format for almost all of it except for the introductory passages of the chapters (there was too much pertinent information to deliver with too little space, I could not have done otherwise.) But the final result was still rather boring.
So back to the drawing board I went, and created some new thumbnails.
This time, I decided to use all of my eight pages to full advantage, and was much happier for it. I managed to insert five new images and a couple more quotes. The other major decision was to change the column sizes. Instead of using two symmetrical columns, I decided to use a large left column and a thin right column in order to have a more interesting grid. This also creates a column that is “more important” because it is larger, and a column that is “less important” but easier to read because it is smaller. The illusion somehow makes for a more interesting page. After I was satisfied, I printed out several copies of these pages until I was satisfied both with the pagination and various other errors in the text that kept cropping up. (Such as spelling mistakes, “orphans and widows” in the columns, margins that looked fine digitally and fit right in the grid but did not look good when printed and therefore had to be shifted.) After all was said and done, I bound the final product with simple stiches.
Printing out and binding
Not much can be said about the book of bad typography. Except perhaps that it was a little amusing to deliberately break all the rules I had just learned. So I didn’t do all the things I did before. I disregarded all margins and all concepts of grid, made sure to center the titles and spread the copy from one end to the other of the page, using as many obnoxious and barely readable fonts as I could. I reversed text, used a gritty background behind text, and justified text. Some images I warped, others I just placed very oddly.
I basically used the same content I had for the book of good typography in addition to a couple of lists of “sins” regarding layout and type.
Conclusion
This is the chapter that has probably taught me the most thus far. Type and layouts and all these things regarding this part of design were a very nebulous area for me. I obviously have not learned everything there is to know about typography, but I still feel that a huge hurdle has been jumped in my development as an illustrator. I’ve not learned everything, but at least I know what questions to ask now. Before I simply knew that I did not know anything but had no idea in what direction to reach to start knowing. It feels good to have a base of understanding of the subject.
I doubt typography will ever be my forte, but I feel excited to have this door open to me now, and I’m happy to keep exploring it.