The paperback book has a somewhat bad reputation. It conjures the image of romance novels, cheap bargain buys and sub-par writing. The Electric Information Age Book by 'Jeffrey T. Schnapp and Adam Michaels challenges this stereotype. A well designed book can do wonders in reinvigorating the love of books. So often, books are designed in a safe way. Standard typefaces, standard margins, standard size and orientation. What I enjoy about his book is that it breaks away from the book publishing mold. I think words can be easy to be boring with as a designer. They commonly read left to right, they are horizontal in orientation and stay around 10 point size. Schnapp and Michael's book takes advantages of angles, dynamic layout and variation.
With the digital age and the computer, we expect a level of interactivity with our media. We want to control it, adjust it, and to have a relationship with it. This book plays to this idea in that it portrays its message in a way that mimics electronic media. Arguably, digital media is much more playful and fun when it comes to publishing information. The book still needs to catch up to this type of movement and energy; but I think that with the attention from determined designers like Schnapp and Michaels, the book has the potential to evolve to tailor to our digital preferences. As a graphic designer with a passion for the written word, I sincerely hope that the physical book gets a push that makes it relevant to the digital-inclined but stays true to its glorious roots. In a transition time such as ours, it is all about evolution and upgrading; building upon what has been standard.
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