More Inspiration from the Land of Children's Books

This time around the topic isn't children's books themselves, but a how-to on illustrating them. This was another find from Eureka Books that dates to the 1950s. There really is so much overlap when it comes to the design of kids' books and that of artists' books.

This especially got me thinking about possibilities for illustrated end papers and book covers, along with other aspects of book structure.


But what I most wanted to do was share the chapter on typography with bookmakers I know who tend to think of font and type matters as afterthoughts, if they think about them at all. Henry P. here says:


"Type is the most important element in most books. Even in the young child's picture books it is still a factor of great moment. No book could be considered well designed unless its type faces were well chosen, its size appropriate, and the type panels well proportioned and well printed. And the relation between type and illustration must be a successful one....Illustrations are almost always near neighbors of type in some form, and they must be compatible...


Occasionally, an illustrator is tempted to use an exotic type face because it goes well with his pictures, but here another factor enters: legibility. There are many...display types which excite and delight the eye for a line or two but which bore and repulse if pursued page after page. The so-called book types have stood the test of countless hours of reading and have survived because they do not weary....


Picture and text are bound to influence each other, beneficially or adversely. Who would choose any but the way of cooperation between them?"


Indeed.