After five years, I get to hold in my hands the second book (not counting the annual report I designed two years ago) I’ve been privileged to design! I chuckle at the fact that both books I’ve laid out are both square. I love square books, even though they’re a little challenging to layout.
Of course, I cannot take credit for doing the whole book cover to cover. The cover was designed by my friend and colleague Ali Figueroa!
Similar to the annual report I designed in 2016 (I should put that up in my portfolio, too), I was asked to do a bit of illustration work for some infographics to follow the aesthetic of the book. It was great that I could switch between Illustrator and InDesign, because it gets tiring staring at baseline grids all day.
There are a few illustrations here and there by Ms. Nina Lim-Yuson which I absolutely adore.
I think the reason why I enjoy designing books like this is that, despite the amount of time and effort it takes, I like how there are so many moving parts which can make it so much more interesting to leaf through. Rather than having just blocks and blocks of text, playing around with shapes, color, size, typography, and grids allows for more dynamic layouts which make people appreciate the final product more. I mean it can be a bitch, the fact that it does have a lot of moving parts (adjusting one small thing on one page can knock everything else out of your carefully planned layout). But it’s a good thing I can be a bit obsessive with details and precision.
I’ll admit I got giddy while taking photos of this book, because looking at the pictures now, I feel like it’s a really nicely rendered mockup. But it’s real, it’s real!
