The
initial design for this book of haiku started with one
simple assumption: each 17-syllable poem should have a
page to itself.
For reasons both of cost and of aesthetics,
I looked for a small page size, and found a digital press
that could print the book at a finished size of 4.25 x
5.7 inches.
The remainder
of the design flowed naturally from graphics by the
author. Mr. Hackett had done a beautiful set of calligraphic
figures,
which he intended to use as illustrations at the
opening of the book's six different sections. I decided to
use
these graphics not only as chapter-openers, but also
as a recurring motif throughout the design. The result: a
column of
calligraphic
icons
lines the
right side
of each page spread. Five of the icons on each spread
are in light grey, while one is inked at full strength. In
addition to the decorative quality, the icons also
serve
as visual reminders of the section a reader is in
at any time, and as one flips through the book, there is
a movement
down the right side of the page spread.
When this
design for the inside pages had been developed, the cover
also
flowed naturally. The calligraphic characters
were arranged as rows of letters, and then spaced so that
they gradually rose
to form a landscape. A key design issue here was to
use all the characters an approximately equal number of times,
but without forming any distracting vertical, horizontal
or diagonal patterns of repetition.
