Editions:   Second   Third  

The making of Calligraphy for Everyone

Overview   Process  

Calligraphy for Everyone was first published in 1990. A number of significant changes have taken place since then, so republishing the existing issue from the nineties did not prove reasonable.


Mid 2008

For a start, we ask the author to make necessary additions to the text and choose a fresh set of illustrations. While the author and the editor are busy, we are revisiting the old volume.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 01         kalligrafia dlya vseh process 02
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 03         kalligrafia dlya vseh process 04
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 05         kalligrafia dlya vseh process 06
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 07         kalligrafia dlya vseh process 08
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 09

After all the material is collected and has passed the initial reading we fit it into a layout of a book by Gordon. Studying the results.


May 2009

A PDF with a test layout.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 10
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 11
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 12
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 13
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 14
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 15
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 16
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 17

Until June 22, 2009 the book is in hibernation mode, while we are saving the world from the crisis and focusing on commercial projects.


June 22, 2009

An idea to change the book’s format pops up. The landscape format looks too wide with the margins orphaned without expected footnotes. Trying to trim it width-wise.

Taking the golden ratio for a guideline. The advantage of using it is to support the book’s “art” feel plus it adds a certain visual interest.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 18         kalligrafia dlya vseh process 19

June 22–25, 2009

Experimenting with the grid. Testing the “album” version. Namely, just trimming off a part of a standard album sheet (220×290 mm), leaving the same margins.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 20

The margins turned out quite marginal. The whole thing does not look right. Deciding to change it to nine-columns. That results in a page that is vertically too symmetrical. Bringing back the top and the bottom margins from the album format.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 21

June 25–27, 2009

Running through the whole book again, placing the illustrations properly. Fixing the captions that got separated from their images by all the manipulations with the format and the grid. It’s time to touch base with Tema Lebedev.


June 29, 2009

Pages 14 and 15 reveal a problem: footnotes become undistinguishable from captions. While they are logically the same, we need to try to separate them by moving all under pictures. It reduces the top and the bottom margins, but does solve the previous problem. The spread looks crisper — a sure indicator of the right direction. Leaving it alone for right now, since the margins can be fixed later when we have the final version of the text.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 22
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 23

Trying another trick: downsizing all the comments on margins by two points, while leaving the captions size untouched.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 24

Comparing. There is something to it, yet it looks messy. The previous version is much cleaner and nicer.

Writing to Tema:

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 25

Receiving a short response “looks cool.”

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 26

Combing through the book once more. Bringing the background colors back to original and placing captions under images, while keeping footnotes at margins.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 27

The book looks suffocated. Starting all over again.

Before:

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 28

After:

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 29

Thinking of putting references in blocks at the bottom of the page to separate them further from the commentary footnotes.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 30

Bad idea as there is not always enough room at the page bottom. Lack of air and margins from Tchichold’s book come to mind. Expanding the bottom margin and adjusting the top one. Bingo.

Pictures. Setting them centered on a page. Does not work. Making it more dynamic by spacing it out with the text. Seems right. Leaving it like this for now.

Two-weeks break for other projects. Back to the book. Still something just is not right. We’ve got the look and the studio guidelines, but it falls apart. Some spreads are true gems, but not the book as a whole. :-(

Maybe, we got stuck on following the rules? Separating text from illustrations and “decorating” the page.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 31
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 32

End of 2009

Stepping away to clear the focus. Drafting the dust jacket. The author wishes to see this beautiful artwork by Gunnlaugur Briem on the DJ:

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 33

Adjusting the dust jacket according to the studio style, trying on different colors and materials.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 34         kalligrafia dlya vseh process 35
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 36         kalligrafia dlya vseh process 37

Exploring other ideas for the DJ, including the author’s work as a base.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 38

Moving on to typesetting. Comparing the effect of the text flush left vs. centered.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 39         kalligrafia dlya vseh process 40

Practicing our caption setting.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 41

Our studio has its custom typeface Artemius that is used for all our paperwork and books. The type itself is in a constant process of improving: new characters are added and the lines are refined further. For “Calligraphy for everyone” and all the following volumes, Artemius got new modifications: the lines became rounder and softer to work better in books.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 42

Breaking the monotony of the text by setting artists’ names in bold and ditching quotation marks for italics.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 43

Adorning titles with a hand-drawn script that Yelena Novosyolova just started to design. So far we only have lower case characters and the kerning does not work yet, but all we need at the moment is the pattern in general.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 44

Illustrator Lisaveta Romantseva prepares different images for the endpapers.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 45         kalligrafia dlya vseh process 46
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 47         kalligrafia dlya vseh process 48
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 49

They all are beautiful. Picking the last one and slightly altering its texture.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 50

Mid to end of 2010

Either it takes us forever or the book really does not “sing.” Making captions justified. No showing offs.

Klementina typeface for titles acquire Cyrillic character set.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 51
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 52
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 53
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 54
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 55

In attempt to make the book more expressive we design it with a fabric spine, embossing, pictures at the end, laid-on front and back plates, and color-coded chapters, so you can see the whole structure from the edge and study all the illustrations in one place.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 56

Beginning of 2011

We want to support good binding structure throughout the book. So we make the whole inside stronger and more solid, which by contrast brings out the delicateness of the art better.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 57
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 58

A tiny error in format reveals itself at this point. We should’ve started with 2/3 proportions, just like regular-size books have, and enlarge it to the height of an album. The illustrations are better presented now, without the format calling attention away from them.

All footnotes move to the end of the book. The bottom of the page gets reserved for captions only. We spread pictures one per page. The blue-tone paper highlights the “white” background on illustrations. Adding texture to the page by splashing upsized accents in copy text and in margin text. Now it “sings.”

Framing all the pictures with white background and setting captions in Artemius Black.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 59
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 60
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 61
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 62
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 63
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 64
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 65
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 66
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 67
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 68

March—May 2011

Art director says no to everything. Stepping back. Conventional layout with a touch of experiments like narrowing text blocks to accommodate illustrations. Margins shrank, but still contain captions. Collecting unfairly forgotten artists from all over the world and incorporating their work into our layout. Proofreading.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 69

The dust jacket does not scream “calligraphy.” Drawing alphabet for the cover. First attempt.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 70         kalligrafia dlya vseh process 71
kalligrafia dlya vseh process 72         kalligrafia dlya vseh process 73

Picking the last version, redrawing it, and polishing details to avoid any gaps.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 74

Placing the picture in the cover layout and painting it light golden-bronze pantone.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 75        kalligrafia dlya vseh process 76

Drawing letters for the spine.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 77

Choosing blue for half-titles to bring out the color of the binding.

kalligrafia dlya vseh process 78        kalligrafia dlya vseh process 79

Planning to print it in pantone metallic. Running a color test.

Sending the book to printers.

Aaaah.


Order a design...