Hamlet Book Design: aesthetics and usability combined

I recently designed a día de los muertos-themed piece inspired by Hamlet:

I liked this so much that I wondered what it would look like as a book cover. From there, it didn't take much for me to go ahead and design the entire book. Coming at this project as an artist with an English degree who practices human-centered design, I felt like my book design might be able to do the following things, which I feel are sometimes forgotten or even never considered:

• Create a unified visual aesthetic throughout the entire book.

1. It is often the case that the cover design/art is done by someone other than the book designer. Here I have the chance to build a book in its entirety.
2. As my design began with the cover art, I have a particular chance to make the book layout and design extra striking.

• Design the book layout in a way that is true to the traditions of book design, but which also emphasizes design for usability.

1. As Hamlet is a play from the early 17th century, this book needs to function for actors and directors, users with specific needs which I will go into.

The Cover: selecting typefaces and designing a spine

The cover of the book is the visual beginning of the book design, both in terms of what readers see and in terms of my design process. I took visual cues from my original cover art to think about my aesthetic.

As I wrote in my post about the art itself, the skull is a día de los muertos-style representation of Yorick’s skull. I felt that Yorick’s skull, as the skull of a jester Hamlet loved as a child, embodied several key themes of the book: insanity and madness, severed relationships, and death. I draw out madness through the día de los muertos sugar skull and its exaggerated carnival designs. My sugar skull is of course a variation on traditional día de los muertos designs in that the character of the lines is derived from 16th century blackletter lettering and gothicism. The violence of Hamlet comes out in the color choice of the art: red and white (blood and bone).

Note the historical, and now obsolete, center justification of the back cover text.

Choosing typefaces

Though my art is a postmodern pastiche of these two styles, I wanted to ground the rest of the book design in that 16th century historical moment. This meant choosing typefaces true to this Shakespearian time. There are several digital versions of classic 16th century and incunabula  typefaces, and I ended up selecting Adobe Jenson Pro, cut by Robert Slimbach. One of the main reasons I chose it is that the periods are diamond shaped, much like the diamonds that decorate Yorick’s sugar skull.

Adobe Jenson Pro

The diamond ellipses

Adobe Jenson is based on a Venetian typeface by Nicolas Jenson, which initially turned me off. I had been looking for a good typeface by a Danish or at least Northern European designer - as if the book were from the historical moment of Hamlet itself. Hamlet, however, is based on 12th century legend and at that point a carolingian typeface would have been more appropriate, but ultimately unreadable at length. So, I decided to go with something Shakespeare would have recognized, and I’m happy with the choice. Adobe Jenson is beautiful and idiosyncratic.

This being decided, I felt like using a blackletter in combination with Adobe Jenson would further the sense of the historical moment of Hamlet and set the design apart, since no one really uses blackletter anymore. I landed on a free font designed by Dieter Steffmann called Moderne Fraktur. It’s a highly readable blackletter and despite its high x-height it goes well with Adobe Jenson. The cross bars on the "e" characters are both diagonal and they share a kind of roundness in their letterforms.

Moderne Fraktur and several faces of Adobe Jenson working together.

A striking spine

Before I continue to the text itself, I want to bring up the spine design. It is customary for book spines to have the author, the publisher, and the book title. Because Hamlet is such a well-known title, I didn’t feel that the author was necessary at all. Visually, it detracted from the spine design’s stark contrast between red and white, blood and bone. The result is a simple and severe book spine which stands out on a bookshelf.

The simplicity afforded by skipping the author's name lets this book stand out in the crowd.

My book among some successful book spines.

Inside the Book: aesthetics and design for usability

Traditional typography with some important changes. Read about them below.

Aesthetically, the book largely honors traditional renaissance book design, with a few crucial differences.

To begin with, the page size is a golden section proportion. The golden section is the self-repeating 1 : 1.62 ratio which defines the scales of the human body among many other aspects of nature. This pleasant ratio has been used for 1,000s of years in every type of human design, and was common during the renaissance.

Margin design as described by Jan Tschichold

Proportions of the margins

The margins are a modified golden-section relationship, as defined by Jan Tschichold in The Form of the Book, where the bottom margin is twice the inner margin, not thrice. In this configuration, the margins lock the text block into place. This is particularly important considering that this is a play, and the right margin is very loose and ragged.

In terms of typography, the body text is simple but readable. Character names appear in small caps and lines of dialogue are indented 1 em to make it clear when the speaker changes, something which would otherwise be confusing at times.

Extra care was taken with the bracket characters around stage action. Though stage action is italicized, the brackets remain roman. I do not feel that italicized brackets are appropriate or historically true, so I didn’t use them. Besides, the extra thin spaces and roman brackets give an extra sense of care and refinement to the typography.

Note the roman brackets and the use of Moderne Fraktur inside the book as an aesthetic echo of the cover.

You will notice that the line numbers are away from the spine rather than both on a particular side of the text. I did this for a few reasons. The first is that aesthetically, I need to acknowledge the page spread as a unit. The page itself is important but we also see experience pages together in spreads. Secondly, line numbers are reference information, and reference information such as page numbers, the act and scene number, etc. need to be toward the outer margin or they aren’t useful as you flip through a book. This serves the additional end of typographic unity: all reference material is located together, in the outside margin.

designing for usability

The elephant in the room at this point is the fact that I imagine this book design as printing in two colors: black and red. While this is ultimately a more expensive option, it is visually striking and incredibly useful in ways that set the book apart, both from other books, and from e-ink devices.

Red and black inks separate reference material from the text proper.

Visually, the red ink binds the text to its cover design, but how is the red ink useful? I realized when designing this book that in reading a play there are two basic ways of looking at a book. The first is obvious: reading. This book is traditional in terms of its design towards readability. The second is also important: searching. Plays are texts through which performers and directors are bound to leap. Actors may read several hundred lines and go back to practice at a specific moment, or they may begin midway through the book and then go back to practice earlier parts. Actors may only want to read through scenes they are a part of. Searching for the right line is a unique part of reading a play and it must be made easy to do. It is also separate from reading, and thus is must be separated typographically.

Thus, red ink denotes and separates reference material. Differentiating the colors makes it easier to focus on either the text itself or the reference numbers and materials. I should also note that modern synonyms to the occasionally antiquated words of Hamlet also appear in red. So, as an actor, this two-toned system will help you find the right material, and then focus on it when you do.

I call this book concept “the globe theatre performer’s edition” because I focused my design on the needs of actors reading texts. The scale and binding of the book have been selected with these needs in mind. Blocking and physically acting is an important part of reading a play even before actors go off-book. For this reason, this edition has to facilitate one-handed reading.

The book is 4.75” wide for this reason. According to the human-factors book The Measure of Man and Woman, most men and women can accommodate a 4.75” object between their thumb and the final joints of their fingers, so the book is very holdable.

Every aspect of the design must be considered: holding the book with one hand makes performing with it comfortable.

A book designed to be held.

The book is also loosely bound, so that the pages will lay flat even if you’ve just purchased it.

The book opens flat because it is not bound very tightly.

Behold the reason that margins exist: a place for the thumbs.

Conclusion

Maybe the best part of this project was constructing the prototype book. As a matter of full disclosure, I only printed out the first act. The rest of the paper in my bound copy is scrap paper. It would have been pointless pain in the ass to stitch all those signatures together. There’s nothing quite like seeing your work in front of you, physically realized.

Having the physical prototype in my hand was also incredibly useful. Holding the book gave me more insight than I could have ever had staring at an InDesign file. The book feels great in the hand. If I could change anything, I would probably make the book’s width even thinner and use some quality paper.

Working with book design has been interesting because there are so many rules to follow, so many conventions. At times it doesn’t really seem like you can call your work your own, since you’re working from so many elements that other people made, masterfully I might add. But this is also a rewarding context. The elements of typography are hundreds of years old and these people whose work you are using are, again, masters. So even if I made only a few innovations in designing this book, those are innovations set against the backdrop of masters of this craft. I feel honored and humbled to have done so.

A book can spring to life when it is printed.

gorgeous letters are the key to successful typography

Soma Sofa

Last year I took a graduate course in Architecture called "Body-Conscious Design" which transformed my view of furniture design. Taught by Galen Cranz, the course explored the relationship between the body, design, and architecture and, while dismantling attitudes towards furniture design old and new, promoted the tenets of a design and lifestyle movement called "somatics." "Somatics," like the ergonomics that it seeks to refine and broaden, is of greek origin. Where "ergonomics" is the study of work, and thus our Aeron chairs and OXO brand items are confined to work-related activities, "somatics," meaning "of the body," offers the opportunity to take the kind of body-conscious thought of ergonomic design and extend it into the rest of our lives.
     So, somatics can involve work-related activities--it can discuss the proper table heights for different kinds of work--or it can be used to help with body movement and pain--the Alexander technique, for example, teaches people how to use their bodies, spines, and necks properly to prevent the pain that plagues most of western society. More to the point, somatics advocates can talk about how to sit, as my teacher Galen Cranz did in her book The Chair and continues to do so in her teaching. My newest design, the Soma Sofa, seeks to embody the somatic principles of The Chair and the course "Body-Conscious Design." It is my response to somatics, ergonomics, the failure of traditional furniture to provide comfort, and the failure of body-conscious furniture to penetrate the average consumer's living room.

Design
As I planned this project, I began seeing this particular loveseat in my parents' house as my benchmark. The loveseat is a terrible thing. It forces you to either sit upright at 90 degrees, or squish into an awkward laying position. Because there is zero head or neck support, the simple act of looking straight ahead, to a television perhaps, becomes strenuous. Your back curls into a C shape which, over decades, leads to humps and slipped discs and, in the short term, produces lower back pain. If you spend any time in the seat at all, blood will pool in your legs, increasing your risk of deadly clots. Sitting kills. 
     The Soma Sofa responds to the evils (yes, evils) of the loveseat in creating a lounging space for two individuals that performs nearly every function of the sofa while being more comfortable and less deadly. And though the Soma Sofa appears large, it is actually slightly smaller than a conventional loveseat.
     I want to start by talking about the mechanics of the Soma Sofa, or more precisely, the human body on the Soma Sofa.

The angle between the back and seat cushioning is 135 degrees, midway between sitting and standing. In the diagram from The Chair below, note how the lower back muscles perform nearly all of the work supporting the spine in the traditional 90 degree seat. Standing, muscle work is distributed between the lower back, the butt, and the legs, and at 135 degrees, perching, we get much the same distribution as standing. This perching position is an ideal rest position. Try this if you're interested: lay on your back on the ground and feel your lower body muscles. Laying completely flat, you should still feel strain in your lower back. Easing this into the perching position relaxes those muscles.

From Galen Cranz' book, The Chair

     What's more, laying as you do in the Soma Sofa evenly distributes the force of gravity on the body. This means a few things: you won't fatigue your body and you won't fatigue the Soma Sofa. Traditional couches tend to collapse overtime as the force of most of your weight in one spot (coming from your butt), compresses the foam or stuffing. Distributed evenly over a larger area, your body is more like a snow shoe, and has less impact on the furniture, making it possible to create lighter, longer lasting pieces.

     
You'll notice too one of the stranger features of the cushion in the back pad: butt space. This is a key aspect of the Soma Sofa. As I noted before, laying flat tends to cause stress in the lower back muscles. Part of the reason is because your butt sticks out and forces your lower back in. Any body-conscious seat design must account for our asses.
     Usually, however, you only find butt space in ergonomic design. Ergonomic design, as I've said, is usually the domain of office and workspace designers. I see my potential contribution to body-conscious design as an interest in bringing the observations, science, and philosophy of ergonomics and somatics to home furniture like the sofa and the dining table chair. If ergonomic and somatic principles really will help us live more body-conscious lives, they have to be incorporated into every aspect of our lives. 
     I acknowledge that the ergonomic and somatic aspects of the Soma Sofa are not original. I am deeply indebted to my teachers and the designs of the past - such as Le Corbusier's chaise, an icon of modernism that shares the Soma's 135 degree back-seat angle. This is even where I drew the idea of requiring a separate pillow for neck support. An early choice for a name in fact was the Corbusideux, punning on the fact that my chaise is very similar to Corbusier's save that it seats two.

Aesthetics
Corbusier's chaise has some aesthetic baggage that I didn't want to bring into my own design. Could you see the Corbusier in your home? It's so cold and uninviting (yet incredibly comfortable) that it seems at worst seating in a chic dentist's offices and at best the unused show furniture in the office of a wasteful executive. Modernism's heyday is over, and we need furniture not just for the super rich, but for everyone.
     That's what I thought as I worked out the visual elements of the Soma Sofa. Though the design is inherently based on stark, Modernist angles, the "Blue Moon" upholstery counters it, and the big black buttons take the Soma to a kinder, perhaps even feminine, place while breaking up the monotony of the big flat cushion.

     Don't get me wrong, Modernism's industrial look has given us great designs, new and old. Apple's designs are Modernism incarnate, and truly beautiful. So in rounding the edges of the poplar frame, I mimicked the radius of the iPhone 4 curves.

Wooden dowels hide the construction.

Usability


Tests on my friends and family have all gone very well: the Soma is comfortable beyond a doubt. It successfully captures the somatic principles I began with. But the bigger question that more tests may begin to answer is how usable is it in a living room environment. Can you do the things that you normally do on a sofa on the Soma Sofa?

Listening to Music and Thinking

If this lounge has ideal usage, it is as a thinking and listening device. Without the body strain of a loveseat or sofa, you can listen to music or walk through things in your head until your heart's content.

Watching Television

Television too, is better enjoyed on the Soma Sofa. I initially worried that, with your head back 67.5 degrees, you wouldn't be able to see the television. But a neck pillow, which is a necessary part of the Soma Sofa, resolves this and leaves your resting eye position--between 15 and 30 degrees down from horizontal--level with the ground and perfect for a television set at modest height. People often complain of eye and neck strain watching movies at the theater or in their homes. The Soma Sofa's reconfigured angles seem to resolve these issues.

Reading

The only big problems are reading and playing handheld games. The reclined posture forces you to hold books up to your eyes without support. Unless you use a music stand or some other supporting piece of equipment, you won't be able to read for very long without getting tired.
     As of writing this, there are few options for reading/music stands that seem ideal. But this is only the beginning of the beginning. If more designers apply somatic principles to home furniture, the body-conscious consumer will have an entire ecosystem of tools for sitting and moving and doing to support them properly. But for that, we'll have to wait.