TAKEAWAY: The first Designers & Books Fair featured some interesting opinions on print and digital design books from prominent publishers and editors.
Purchase the book on the iBookstore
“iPad Design Lab” trailer on Vimeo.
The EPUB version of book is HERE:
Now available: The EPUB version of iPad Design Lab: Storytelling in the Age of the Tablet, ready for download via Amazon.com for Kindle:
http://tinyurl.com/8u99txw.
Read the Society of Publication Designers’ review of The iPad Design Lab here:
http://www.spd.org/2012/10/must-read-ipad-design-lab.php
Read the review from Dr. Pegie Stark Adam in her blog
http://pegiestarkadam.com/
This post by Reed Reibstein, art director & project manager
This weekend was the first Designers & Books Fair. The titular website is a terrific compendium of books from designers of all stripes. The Fair combined panels featuring design and publishing luminaries with a wide range of publishers’ booths.
Perspectives on publishing print and digital
One of the Fair’s panels may be of particular interest to this blog’s readers. In “From Type to Tablet: Publishers and Editors Talk about Directions in Design Book Publishing,” the speakers described a range of approaches to publishing today.
The “From Type to Tablet” panel: left to right, Lars Mueller, Julie Iovine, Dung Ngo, Justin McGuirk and Julius Wiedemann
Dung Ngo, Senior Editor for Architecture and Design for Rizzoli International Publications, described the strategy of publishing high-quality editions to give readers a reason to purchase a printed book. Instead of competing on price, he seeks to create the “must-have” book about a subject.
A very different model was presented by Justin McGuirk, the director of the new Strelka Press. Strelka only publishes ebooks, though McGuirk says they may consider print-on-demand editions in the future. Instead of typical book-length works, McGuirk focuses on longform design essays—an ideal length for carving out a bit of time from a reader’s busy schedule. McGuirk is skeptical of ebook “enhancements” like video and expandable images: As he said, referring to the dialog between reader and author through a text, “What’s more interactive than a book?”
A point of friendly contention was whether certain books were more suited for one medium or another. Lars Mueller of Lars Mueller Publishers started the panel by showing a series of books made from architect’s sketchbooks. He said that this kind of content feels more appropriate in print given its analog origins. But Julius Wiedemann of TASCHEN Publishing argued that all books could be digital given the right platform. He described TASCHEN’s lengthy development of their digital book software, which is not yet available. Wiedemann also noted that a challenge for interactive book apps is that readers do not yet seem willing to pay significant prices for downloading them, with many apps free or available for just a few dollars. Printed books still have a greater perceived value, allowing publishers to charge more and profit.
One point all the panelists could agree on: The key to publishing in print or on screens is superb editing. Another intriguing idea, brought up by moderator Julie Iovine, architecture columnist for The Wall Street Journal: Could digital books every feature advertising the same way digital publications do? As a potential first step, Amazon’s more recent Kindles have optional ads on the lock screens.
More from the Designers & Books Fair
A Storify compilation of tweets from the keynote panel, “Designing the Future of the Design Book,” featuring Michael Bierut, Massimo Vignelli, Irma Boom, Lorraine Wild and Barry Bergdoll
http://storify.com/designersbooks/the-future-of-the-design-book-at-designers-and-boo
