Notes on Book Design examines 50 individual books as design objects, reading their physical form — materials, typography, binding, format — as evidence of the cultural and political conditions that produced them.
About This Book
Born from the collection of Hopscotch Reading Room in Berlin, this volume compiles 50 texts by Amanda-Li Kollberg and Siri Lee Lindskrog of graphic and type design studio Formal Settings. Each text takes a single book as its subject, attending to the visual and tactile decisions that constitute it — not as incidental craft, but as meaning-making. The project maps how book design communicates ideology, economy, and cultural moment through physical form. For designers, typographers, and anyone invested in the material intelligence of printed matter, it reframes the book itself as a primary design artefact. An introduction by Formal Settings, a foreword by Hopscotch Reading Room, and an afterword by designer, author, and educator Prem Krishnamurthy complete the volume.
Key Features
- 344 pages of critical design writing, each text focused on a distinct book as a typographic and material object
- Authors: Amanda-Li Kollberg and Siri Lee Lindskrog of Formal Settings; afterword by Prem Krishnamurthy; foreword by Hopscotch Reading Room
- Published by Onomatopee
What You'll Discover
- How the physical properties of a book — its format, binding, paper, and typography — function as a form of communication distinct from its written content
- The relationships between book design decisions and the cultural movements, political landscapes, and economic conditions of their time
- A methodology for reading printed matter through a design lens, developed across 50 close studies drawn from a single curated collection
- Prem Krishnamurthy's contextualising framework, which situates the project within broader conversations about design authorship and material culture
About the Author
Amanda-Li Kollberg and Siri Lee Lindskrog are the designers behind Formal Settings, a graphic and type design studio. Notes on Book Design grew from their sustained engagement with the Hopscotch Reading Room collection in Berlin, applying their practice-based perspective to the analysis of book design as cultural artefact.
Specifications
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 344
- Dimensions: 181 x 111 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9789493148963
- Publisher: Onomatopee
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Graphic designers, typographers, book artists, design historians, and anyone who treats printed matter as a subject of critical inquiry rather than mere container for content.