It is said that many paper publishers seem to be in a kind of crisis at the moment. With the rise of e-books, physical books have become more covetable as objects. Many readers love the way a hard cover physical book feels in their hands and looks on their shelves. Book club members can pick up used paperbacks and pass along their favourite reads. But the electronic books – a book length publication in digital form is also a strong contender; offering big technical advantages, low prices, and featherweight libraries the readers can bring on holiday. In essence, the two formats are very similar. Both allow you to do the most important thing – read a book. But with the fast growing rise of e-book sales, will the world ever get to a stage where it'll completely ditch the original paperback books? And if e-books are the upcoming technological development in the area of book design what is the broader influence of technology on the design industry generally and on the role of the designer for the future?
The first thing that attracts one to a book is the cover. The name and the cover alone is what pushes the reader to pick a book off a shelf. It is after this that you decide to read the blurb and then decide whether you actually want to read the entire book at all. It is said that to judge a book by its cover is so patently unwise, that it has long been a metaphor for other forms of misinterpretation. But only a very naive author would suppose that the cover of his or her book was irrelevant. It’s the first thing we see, and there’s no way to make it entirely objective: a book’s cover offers an interpretation of its contents – some inflection, if only by its typeface or colour. And yet its effect on the reader is mostly subliminal. Book designers are the ultimate hidden persuaders as they incorporate the content, style, format, design and sequence of the various components of the book into a coherent whole. However in the words of Jan Tschichold, book design seems to be “largely forgotten”.
Personally, I’m still on the fence about the e-book vs. printed book debate. I feel that the the two formats are very similar. I’m not an everyday book reader but I usually stick to the traditional printed works as I love the feel and appearance of the paper book. However, after recently purchasing a Kindle, I have enjoyed reading. It has an ink system which has the advantage over back lit systems as it can be read in any light and does not suffer from dimming in the harsh sunlight. The device can store over a thousand volumes. Many classics are now available as free e-book as many modern writers are either publishing their own work through providers such as Smashwords, at very low prices and some traditional publishers are beginning to realise that they cannot expect a reader to fork out the same money for a digital copy as they would for something printed on paper, so their books are also reducing price. However this is just my opinion. It really depends on the type of person the reader is to determine what they would rather use to read a book Paper books offer many advantages. They’re easily obtainable, portable and priced at a decent amount. Another factor to bear in mind is that paper books don't need power to function. They can be read anywhere with sufficient light, and are perfect travelling companions for exactly this reason. However some disadvantages are that paper books are bulky and heavy. Carrying more than 2-3 around can become a chore. Visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum gave me the opportunity to look at many illustrations of book covers created. I was able to see the work of artists competing in the V&A Illustration Awards which celebrate the best illustrations published over the last year. Original artwork from the best illustrated books, book covers, editorial illustrations and student illustrators of the year are recognised in these awards. I had the chance to look at the work of Laura Carlin who won the Illustration Awards last year. Laura Carlin is an illustrator based in London who works on various book projects. Whilst studying for her Masters at the Royal College of Art, Carlin won several awards including the Quentin Blake Award two years running, and the 2004 National Magazine Award. She also received the Uniqlo Fashion Illustration Award in both 2003 and 2004, which enabled her to travel to Shanghai and Tokyo. The drawings from her Tokyo trip were published in 2004 in a book entitled ‘Ten Days in Tokyo’. Carlin primarily works in her sketchbook, both on location and at her studio. She’s also a prolific drawer and painter and has learnt to appreciate mistakes and understand the power of white space. She currently works in an advisory role with the development of Quentin Blake’s House of Illustration and is also a regular visiting lecturer at the University for the Creative Arts at Maidstone.
Carlin illustrated a stunning new version of a much loved children’s classic – ‘The Iron Man’. It is said that she has a value of drawing to the extent to which she is immersed in her work. Carlin often talks about her childhood and her love of books and drawing which makes it easier for us to see the reason in which she started illustrating children’s books. She turned an illustrated junior novel into a graphic novel with wonderful success. Carlin’s illustrations are in rich watercolors that offer an impressionistic interpretation of Ted Hughes's text, mostly in full-colour, with two-colour stylised images across part and whole pages for dramatic effect. The striking watercolour drawings are reminiscent of a past generation and they encourage you to think back fondly to the books of your childhood, but all the while maintaining a level of sophistication. The images are well integrated with the text, sometimes appearing as almost marginal sketches and, at other times, detailed double-page spreads. I think that the publishers make good use of other devices like the text fonts and styles, paper sculpture holes to slowly reveal the space-batangel-dragon, and they use multiple page foldouts in places, including a dramatic 6 page spread that folds out to the reveal story's conclusion. The sensitivity with which Carlin interprets the text and the clever book design, offers a wonderful example of a graphic novel that improves the reader's experience of the original work.
However with the rise of e-books, readers will not be able to experience the whole package while reading the book. The illustration is a huge factor to the newly designed ‘iron man’. The book is a 6 page spread folded out with the illustrations and text carefully placed. This is an example of how paper books can have a much more beautiful and structured package than e-books. It can make a big difference to one's reading experience. If e-books are to challenge these features, they will need to be with something unique and native to the electronic format.
Having created a book cover and editorial magazine during my Graphics Design course, I have had experience with illustration and have my own opinions when considering viewing them on an electronic format or if the physical version is best. Considering the book cover I made, most of it was put together by hand. I designed the cover on illustrator however the rest was done off the computer. I was thinking about the materials I wanted to use and the type of look I wanted for the cover. So I transferred the image of the cover onto cotton roughening the edges. I did this to create a unique book cover out of a material that is not usually used. So if my cotton based book cover was on a kindle, then the reader would not be able to see the unique cover and be able to witness the actual material. Some book covers are made using various materials and techniques – like hand stitching, using wood, zips… different artist work is made in different ways and if book covers made in these ways were on an electronic format, then how would the reader be able to see and feel the intricate detail? However when I created the editorial magazine I stuck to the computer. It was not like the book cover as the publishing was not as important. It was laid out liked a typical magazine so if it was viewed on an electronic format or physically – it wouldn’t make any difference. Throughout all my projects I’ve done, one artist that has constantly influenced me is David Carson. David Carson (born September 8, 1954) is an American graphic designer. He is best known for his innovative magazine design, and use of experimental typography. He was the art director for the magazine Ray Gun. Carson was perhaps the most influential graphic designer of the 1990s. In particular, his widely imitated aesthetic defined the so-called “grunge typography” era. Carson’s first book, with Lewis Blackwell, The End of Print is the top selling graphic design book of all time, selling over 200,000 copies. The work featured in The End of Print is the subject of various one-man exhibitions throughout Europe and Latin America, Asia and Australia. Carson’s other titles include 2nd Sight, Fotografiks (with design historian Philip Meggs). He has two recently released books, TREK and The Book of Probes with Marshall McLuhan. Typography, a title published by Graphis magazine (NY), lists Carson as a “Master of Typography.” I.D. magazine chose Carson for their list of “America’s most innovative designers”. A feature in Newsweek magazine said of Carson “he changed the public face of graphic design”. The graphic design publication Emigre devoted an entire issue to Carson, the only American designer to be so honored in the magazine’s history. And in April 2004, London based creative review magazine calls Carson “the most famous graphic designer on the planet”. Carson recently picked up 4 gold awards at the Charleston ADDY awards, including a “special judges award” for “professionalism”.
I chose to look at the work of David Carson because I wanted to study an illustrator who really inspires me. I really like his typographic unique style and his way of creating strong compositions by putting together a range of text, shapes and images. I like the way he combines bold contemporary colours with the image within his work. He either uses a wide range of colour or sticks to the subtle black and white and balances his compositions effectively. The image to the right has an elegant 90s feel to it as if the model in the photograph is trying to draw us in. The typeface he used going across the face works very well as it fills up the space and works with the elements. This sort of technique helped me when designing my book cover as I use typography quite often. The placement of the text works with the photograph. This gave me ideas and influenced to make the design I did as it showed that the cover does not have to be busy. Subtle colour, limited photographs and simple text can be combined and make a beautiful cover. Carson uses a wide variety of different media in his work combining typography, photography, shapes, and sometimes printing techniques. He often combines colours, images, text and shapes to create bold pieces. He collages work usually on the computer various media and materials together in his designs. His compositions are effective because even though it is busy, the colours and the text really work together allowing it to be dominant holding the design together. It can be argued with books made in the format of David Carson would have no problem being on an electronic format. It is said by Suzanne Dean (creative director of Random House) that e-books offer designers of physical books the opportunity to be more creative. However it is also said that “I think we should seize the initiative and make the best books we can. However I can’t imagine a world that didn’t have books on shelves – it would be like having no paintings on walls or photographs in frames. All of these things are part of what makes you who you are.” I feel that if the use and purchases e-books continue to rise, the ‘buzz’, that feeling that illustrators have after creating such masterpieces would vanish. I disagree with Dean’s point that e-books offer designer to be more creative. I feel that it actually does the opposite. E-books do not give the designer the same ability to be creative than physical books. E-books offer the standard layout of any books illustrated by a designer. They do not allow the viewer to view the book in its natural beauty. When deciding how expensively to produce a book, Dean found that making something extraordinary often pays off. With Barnes’s Arthur and George, for example, a Victorian green cloth cover, or Tom McCarthy’s books which were wrapped in doodled acetate, word quickly spread that only early print runs would take that form. People rushed out to buy the collectors’-items-to-be, and Dean
heard of fights breaking out in bookshops. But how would illustrators to be able to create such collectables with the rise of e-books as physical books are becoming more covetable? Alexander Korzer-Robinson is a Bristol-based artist who creates incredible works of art by carving discarded encyclopedias and literally exposing their inner beauty. Book carving is one of the fastest growing art forms of the moment, and artists like Alexander KorzerRobinson, Brian Dettmer and Guy Laramee are leading the movement. But the rise of e-books will stop this movement. If physical books are becoming more covetable then artists like Korzer-Robinson won’t be able to create these beautiful book objects. Korzer-Robinson carefully cuts into the pages of old encyclopaedias, exposing a part of its illustrations, while removing others, to create narrative scenes that are truly unique. While the images seem like they’re somehow suspended in a series of layers inside the book sculptures, they are actually left in their original place. It’s the artist’s technique that makes it look like they were placed there by hand. As you can probably guess by looking at the artworks below, book carving is a delicate and time-consuming process, but the end results are absolutely mind-blowing. Korzer-Robinson says his creations are my by cutting into book and around some illustrations removing others. The composition is built only using imagery that is already in a particular volume. The end result is a hollowed out book with a layered composition that is like the Victorian paper theatres that were hugely popular at the time. The work of Kozer-Robinson is very inspiring. The structure and planning towards his work means a lot to the final piece. For him and other artisits, the creation of the book is a big part of the art. Kozer-Robinson patiently creates three dimensional artworks that tell a story. These beautiful collages of book carvings from old and rare books bring us into another world. All images in the final artwork are from original pages of a book. He goes through page by page to look for images and does not add in anything else. He turns books from being a tool to learn from the world into a means to gain insight about oneself. Many illustrators use the techniques of Korzer-Robinson. So if physical books become covetable, they will not truly be able to display their work of art. Three dimensional book covers would suffer as this cannot be portrayed on an e-book so how would the viewer be able view a book in its true beauty? It has been said that methods used for making, printing and binding books have continued to fundamentally change since the 15th century. Modern paper books are
printed on papers which are designed specifically for the publication of printed books. But many believe that book design is the art of incorporating the content, style, format, design, and sequence of the various components of a book into a coherent whole and the art suffers through the electronic book. Reflecting on this study leads me to ask the question if the e–book will have a major influence on the nation’s reading habits. But some argue that reading books from an electronic format strains the eyes and can make them tired. Some seem not worry about medium but just about reading the book at all. However I think that the art of the illustrator is what will suffer if physical books continue to become more covetable as objects. Of course there are positives and negatives for each medium. Obviously e-books are environmentally friendly, and I feel e-books win hands down for convenience as you can carry an entire library. I’m currently reading the Amy Winehouse biography which the hardback version is not that ideal to carry around everywhere all day. I like that you never have to worry about a reading light because there’s one built-in. But this sets aside the issue of eye strain. Then considering the physical book, they are more personal. An e-book can never revoke the memories of an old cherished book when you pick it up. The book binding and typeface are both often carefully selected by publishing companies for their paper editions. It can make a big difference to one's reading experience. Libraries and bookshops will suffer in the future world. They’re the ambiance and warmth of the place where one could lose themselves in the stacks of great literature. People could spend hours in a book shop just wandering around picking up books with compelling cover art. To conclude, I feel that the physical experience of reading and seeing real art is a very important factor. What is a book without the experimental design and the visual appeal? But e-books are still too new to the market to say that they are superior to physical books. E-books do have a lot of advantages over physical books, but in no way are physical books a thing of the past. There is a place for both ebooks and physical books in the market as much of this debate comes down to personal preferences. Bibliography http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/08/03/back-story-books-vs-e-books.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8929045/Suzanne-Dean-the-secret-to-a-goodbook-cover.html http://yafictionauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/what-makes-you-pick-book-off-shelf.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2131800/Alexander-Korzer-Robinson-based-Bristoltakes-old-books-make-3D-works-art.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Carson_(graphic_designer)