Boring Boring Boring Boring Boring Boring Boring, the new novel come graphic design experiment by Zach Plague (aka: Zach Dodson) is equal parts both. It is what you get when a writer, who becomes a graphic designer, is also his own publisher. As with any auteur, his total control means one thing, he can break all the rules. Because no one is there to stop him. So this is what he does.
The first and most obvious is the notion that a book’s signatures are a means to an end, and not an end in themselves. Dodson has decided to turn this process around and design the signatures first, as whole uncut objects worthy of display. For the launch of the book, he even created limited edition silkscreen posters of these signatures for sale, in a gallery.
Of course he also offers the cut-up-and-bound book format for those of you interested in actually reading the thing. But wait, you have four options as to how you would like to read it. Would you like to read it in audio format? In pdf format? In an online flash app? The possibilities are endless, if not also a bit gimmicky.
Let’s say you make your way through the myriad of choices, and find yourself back at the print version. If you do actually read the thing, there is ample to enjoy. Type aficionados will appreciate the experimentation and random collaging. The typefaces change for every character, the orientation of the type changes depending on what point in time the narrative takes place (past is printed sideways, present printed right-side up). Emotional phrases are styled with italics or bolding, or sometimes even crossed-out.
And below, an example of character development through typeface selection. Here the two main characters, Ollister and Adelaide, are introduced as much through text as through their mishmash letterforms. Dodson used over 100 typefaces in all to develop the emotions and personalities throughout the book.
Luckily, he is a decent writer as well, so this book is not easily dismissed as some misguided graphic design student’s thesis project. It reads as well as it looks, and that is important since the visuals are so closely linked to the content. In a recent interview with AIGA, Dodson said, “It’s about using type variation as a vehicle for expressing a new layer of meaning beneath the words. Some people will find it hard to read. It is harder to read. The goal is to have those patterns assimilate into the reader’s experience and bring another dimension to the text.”
This sounds like any number of squashed concepts from ambitious book designers fresh out of college, still high on Marshall McLuhan-speak. In the “real” world, concepts like these typically wind-up getting rejected before they leave the InDesign layout screen. Or in some cases even before they are executed, thanks to the foresight of the more seasoned design-management pragmatist.
With all these broken rules, it seems nearly impossible to fathom this thing slipping through any established publishing-house. But thanks to the accessibility of desktop publishing, we may start to see more design auteurs like this in the future. So a question arises, what exactly would the publishing world look like if graphic designers were calling all the shots? Hmmmm…