Book designer CS Richardson’s nuggets of wisdom

Presumably to generate a bit of extra promotion for one of the books designed by him (Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner), Portobello Books has posted a nice article by CS Richardson on the glorious subject of book design.

This is a man who by his own admission has designed around 1500 books, so he knows a thing or two on book design, and it shows in this thoughful and entertaining article which contains many nuggets of wisdom, despite is relatively short length. My favourite has to be this one:

Because a book is “emotional” doesn’t mean it should look like a sympathy card you’d receive from dear Aunt Agatha.

Hehehe..too funny but oh so true. That said Mr. Richardson does point out that designers should stop showing off and simply serve the work and its author, so bearing that in mind maybe a cover that looks like a sympathy card would be appropriate in some cases, especially if the author is Aunt Agatha? )

Anyway get yourself along to the Portobello Book website and check out the article for yourself.

I’m not actually done with Mr. Richardson yet though, because methinks he must be on a ‘book design evangalising kick’ right now. I also stumbled across a trio of videos which were freshly posted on YouTube last week. Exclusively created for BookLounge.ca, and under his esteemed title of VP, Creative Director, Random House of Canada, Mr. Richardson runs through the history of book design from the twelfth-century to present day. It’s well worth watching, and at less than 20 minutes running length for the whole lot, it isn’t going to cut into your schedule too much – and look I’m even posting them below so you don’t even have to go and look for them. Is there no end to my generosity? )

Anyway thanks to both CS Richardson and BookLounge.ca for putting this together. Here’s the vid clips: