Book Layout & Design Ideas: Layout 5

This blog series is designed to provide some basic book design ideas for your books, magazines, or ebooks. The spreads you see here, and the added notes, are not meant to be reflections of perfect book design or book layout, only a baseline from which to begin your own book journey.

Layout 5

Image 5.1

This is my favorite layout of the three, and I’m paying compliments to a very famous designer on this spread. I’m using a single, bold, clean, and easily readable image on the right that is immediately recognizable as Paris. I’m juxtaposing this with an equally bold, massive title on the left. There is a second layer of copy underneath, presented in a lesser density so the title and subtitles jump off the page. This spread is slightly busy, but I like it.

Image 5.2

Some of the features here are similar to the first spread, but I have inverted the main image to provide an X-RAY style look to the layout. I’ve kept the same bold title but lessened its impact by keeping it black which bleeds into the background a bit more. I’ve put the subtitle in white to jump off the page. The right page is a simple, clean copy block in 10 pt.

Image 5.3

This is a slightly different spread, but I do find it interesting. Again, I’m paying homage to a certain designer by mimicking his type treatment. There is no title, since the image on the right coveys the sense of place. The subtitle takes up an entire page and uses multiple fonts in multiple sizes. The image is, again, clean and simple and says what needs to be said in regard to where we are.

What are your top tips when it comes to page layout and book design? Share your comments, questions, and ideas on these layouts below.