Also hunting solutions for small formats (i.e. 5" or less)
I got commissioned to design a pocket sized resource guide (I won't say who, but I'll publish a copy here when its ready.)
So armed with a ruler and my phone camera, I headed to the MoMA Design Store in SoHo.
You would be surprised how much TeNeues was able to fit in their New York City Architecture Guide. At a whopping 5" x 5", it uses a modular cube grid:
My estimate is that at least 100-200 words easily fit into these grid; but the point size is incredibly small, and the font is very slender. But the grid is extremely versatile.
It has a great photographers' credit and cross-reference by neighborhood, type of architecture Index that allows you to quickly locate the entry you are interested in. It's a great information system that Tufte would be proud of.
Another great small format book that is pocket size. This one is 4 x 4.
Much simpler layout, no use of columns or complicated grid.
I did like that sometimes the backgrounds were varied - soft egg shell color, or light blue.
Came across this Erik Spiekermann illustration in a design book there that I loved:
Oh right, it was from that gratuitous, Helvetica-worshipping book:
I was actually more interested in what was going on in the page on the right.
Helvetica's great; but enough already.
New book on my wish-list:
Sometimes I question myself about the ethics of taking photos of spreads instead of buying the damn thing. Some people might go as far as saying it's stealing by photography. Well it's probably closer to stealing if you are using a high pixel digital camera (I'll admit to bringing books to snap photos of spreads I'm interested in in a corner.)
Well, I spend a good amount of money as it is on design books and magazines (a good amount.) You can't really buy an entire book for just one spread.
Well, it's better than ripping it out and walking off with it, that my friend said he had seen people done in the '80s (hmm, you can't do small caps in Blogger.)
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