SPACIOUS BUT NOT BARREN

67. Pace Yourself

Layout is storytelling, especially in a highly illustrated work with multiple pages. Many projects, especially book chapters or feature articles in magazines, involve devising layouts for multiple pages or screens.

Project
Portrait of an Eden

Client
Feirabend

Design
Rebecca Rose

A book detailing the growth and history of an area employs varied spreads to guide the reader through time.

Opening spreads provide opportunities for full-bleed layouts. This spread dramatically sets the scene for what follows, much as titles set the tone for a film.

Varying type sizes, shapes, columns, images, and colors from one page or spread to the next guides the flow of the story and provides drama.

68. Create an Oasis

To present a sense of authority and focus attention, less is indeed more. Space allows the viewer to concentrate.

Project

Cuadro Interiors capabilities book

Client
Cuadro Interiors

Design
Jacqueline Thaw Design

Designer
Jacqueline Thaw

Primary Photographers
Elizabeth Felicella, Andrew Zuckerman

Founded on a modular grid, a capabilities brochure for an interior design firm is stripped down to focus on the featured homes and offices.

A modular motif introduces the piece.

An oasis of white affords the reader an opportunity to linger over every aspect of the images and information.

69. Let the Images Shine

A spare page will quickly direct the focus on the photo or illustration being featured. Viewers can take in the main attraction without distraction.

MAKING SPACE

As always, the content of a piece leads the designer in apportioning space for text or images. If the text refers to specific photos, art, or diagrams, it’s clearest to the reader if the image appears near the reference. Flipping forward or backward through a piece to compare text is counterproductive.

Scale of images counts, too. Enlarging a piece of art to feature a detail lends energy to a spread. As for getting attention, image surrounded by white space tends to draw in the viewer more than images that are grouped with many other elements.

Project
Mazaar Bazaar: Design and Visual Culture in Pakistan

Client
Oxford University Press, Karachi, with Prince Claus Funds Library, the Hague

Design
Saima Zaidi

A history of design in Pakistan employs a strict grid to hold a trove of Pakistani design artifacts, with ample resting space built in.

An essay, titled “Storyboards in Stone,” features a hand holding a lotus; it’s given plenty of room and is balanced by captions, an essay, and footnotes on the opposite page.

Packaging for hair oil is paired with a portrait, with plenty of room for review.

Paintings and patterns, one from the back of a truck, create a colorfully textured layout.

A strong image opens an essay.