This website does a good job of covering the myriad standard ISO page sizes. The page sizes under the obsolete page size menu are quite entertaining — who wouldn't want to order the Double Elephant, or the Super Royal? Modern rationalised page size series are dull by comparison.
Australian Calendars for 2017 — Cover Design
Craig Lewis' photographs of iconic Australian pubs and huts adorn a long-running series calendars and books. We enjoyed working on the 2017 iterations of his calendars, especially the high country huts. Typefaces used included Trajan Sans, Homestead and Amberly.
Singing as a Science — Book Cover
This book details the history of the teaching of singing, and how it transformed from a craft into something approaching a science. We combined an old opera handbill with an image of Maria Callas and used Trajan Sans for the title type.
Back to Paper
It never crashes, it's flexible, requires no power and is stable over several centuries ... yes, it's that old communications stalwart, paper! Most designers still break out a sketchpad on a regular basis, and according to this BBC article, there's a movement afoot amongst even the most digitally literate to keep their pads, pens and pencils in regular use. However, at the same time, PC designers are making it easier than ever to sketch intuitively on screen.
Making it Simple — Book Cover
Our client was looking for a cover that appealed to both genders and communicated in a direct, dignified fashion. After much experimentation with a variety of icons and logos, the final draft was characterised by symmetry and white space, with very clean type use. Typefaces used: Latina, National.
Converting Troublesome Files
Stuck with an obscure file you can't open? Cloud Convert supports a huge range of file types in a number of different categories. Conversion for the casual user is free with registration — the service has paid tiers for users with hundreds of files to convert. My own use-case was an old .pages file I couldn't open with any of my software, solved immediately on accessing this site.
Victorian Executioners — Cover Design
Trevor Poultney has put together a comprehensive discussion of all the official executions carried out in Victoria since colonial times. Executioners often worked under false names due to the opprobrium that went with the job. A lovely 19th Century portrait of Melbourne formed a suitable background to the title type and the rather sinister looking image of Walker, a hangman. Available soon.
Global Street Art
If street art is to your taste, Google is making a special effort to make viewing it exceptionally easy. The tromp l'oeil tricks used by some of the artists are genuinely remarkable. And given that street art in most places is likely to be rather ephemeral, cataloguing its diverse nature and global reach seems a worthwhile project. Unfortunately, google also has a history of offering short-lived services, so view it while you can...
Arts Law Trademarks
Copyright applies automatically to any creative work, but sometimes creators seek the stronger protection afforded by trademarking. An interesting discussion of the issue on a fact sheet supplied by the invaluable Arts Law Centre: www.artslaw.com.au/info-sheets/info-sheet/trade-marks .
Finding and Using Free Images
Authors and cost-conscious designers often find themselves searching for low-cost or free imagery for covers and illustrations. This site explains in detail the copyright and usage issues associated with the employment of such imagery. It also maintains an extensive and extremely useful list of free image sites.
Book Launch in the Sunshine
Rosemary Holmes, author of Adaptation, an engaging multi-generational epic about life on the land in western Victoria, reports on a successful launch for her book:
It was a great day on Wednesday, the sun shone and morning tea was outside in the courtyard and Michael Ronaldson (former Federal minister) spoke beautifully. After the launch there was a morning tea of scones, tea/coffee, served outside on the lawn. The next book launch is to be the 29th November here in Ballarat, at the Midlands Golf Club and the literary person from the Ballarat Courier is to make a speech. There are about 30 people coming to this event. Collins Bookstore here in Ballarat will be taking responsibility for selling the books and they are to promote it in their windows and around the store. Hopefully the local paper will write something about it.
I will be glad when the launches are over but it is all very exciting. My publisher has also suggested thatI submit the novel to the Foundation for Australian Literacy awards at James Cook University.
Noto — A Typeface for Every Language
Google has an endearing penchant for quixotic projects. Noto is that, but also a noble effort to construct a completely inclusive set of typefaces — covering all of the world's major scripts but also most of the minor ones. The name is derived from 'no tofu' — the little white squares that pop up when one attempts to type a character outside the character set of the font in question. The font itself is fairly vanilla, but highly readable and comes in four sans and four serif weights, and is free from Google.
Your Name Here — The Zen of a Blank Product
Department of There's an Internet Business for Everything: Yellow Images sells blank products ready for you to superimpose your own brand/product. There's something so soothing about a plain object not covered in all of the cruft designers are paid to create.
How to Design Children's Non Fiction
To get an idea of the quality of illustration in modern children's books, check out these two non-fiction titles: Tiny, by Nicola Davies and The Book of Bees by Piotr Socha. Both tackle big, complex topics and do so with humour, sophistication and amazing graphic impact. There has been an explosion of beautiful large format children's books in recent years, perhaps driven in part by parents keen to provide their children with an alternative to small glowing screens.
Typography and Elephants
A charming look at the architecture of typefaces, and a useful mnemonic for remembering the terms used for their constituent parts. Posters available from the author's website.
The Silver is Mine — WorkingType Cover
The Silver is Mine is an edgy psychological thriller published by Impact Press. Our client wanted a stark and high-contrast design. We used Akrobat Sans for the title type and a monochromatic starscape with enigmatic figure. The author's name provided the only splash of colour.
200 Gigabyte Wireless Data Plan
For those of us who with a very poor quality ADSL connection and NBN still years in the future, mobile data has seemed like a tempting alternative. Price has been the sole limiting factor -- running to $10 per gigabyte. A recent package released by Optus represents a dramatic improvement in affordability. Home users in approved areas can now sign up for a $80 per month plan that gives users 200Gb of data. If this trend continues, landlines might be a thing of the past, even for power users. And NBN will find itself up against competitors with much lower infrastructure costs.
The Rise and Rise of Indie Authors
The Author Earnings website has worked hard at 'scraping' data from Amazon's various sites to provide unprecedented detail on sales data. As Amazon now represents close to a majority of print titles sold, knowing what is being sold and by whom is very interesting indeed. The data shows that independent authors represent a large and rapidly growing fraction of book sales on Amazon. There is also ample evidence that having a book listed on the Amazon bestseller lists provides a substantial boost to non-listed titles from the same author. Overall, Author Earnings claim that they identified over 9,000 authors earning more than USD $10,000 per year, and half of that number were earning over USD $20,000 per year. Read the whole report, which goes into much greater detail.
Property Finance Made Simple in the Kindle Bestseller List
Andrew Crossley's just-uploaded "Property Finance Made Simple" has immediately debuted on the Kindle bestseller list. Our cover design focused on a strong, straightforward combination of text and iconic image, that would reproduce well as a thumbnail and at larger sizes.
A Man of the Land — Book Cover
Bob Gillespie has taken five decades of farming experience as the basis of this saga of life on the land. He wanted the cover to show some of the character of the land in the southern Riverina, combined with images of the protagonists. Typefaces used: Amberly and Didot.