After spending the last few weeks trying to think in more minimalist terms with my own design, A Cook's Tour caught my attention through its liveliness. I love the use of a diner-style order pad as a backdrop for a cook/foodie's journey, and the strip of photos that reminds me almost of what you would get in a photo booth. Combined with the round, friendly, sans serif typeface, I immediately get an impression of the playfulness, adventure and nostalgia of an old-fashioned roadtrip. The cover has a cinematic quality to it as well, with the photos serving as a preview of scenes in the book, and the text acting as credits. This also puts me in a place of expecting a journey with an element of adventure, which is fun. I'm impressed by how Chip Kidd manages such a busy design without it feeling cluttered.
It's absolutely amazing to me to look at the pages of the Gutenberg Bible and realize how much in pub design has remained constant for the last five hundred years. Entire languages have changed since that time, but this kind of neat column, drop caps, and red lettering for important lines are still common features in many modern Bibles. I like how the text block is thoughtfully placed, but not centered. It reminds me of Villard de Honnecourt's diagram, from the reading (and since he's a 13th century guy, Gutenberg may well have used it, or something like it, as the guide for his design).
As a person, Gutenberg impresses me most with his irrepressible creativity. I hadn't known that he had a streak of financial and legal problems, and the fact that he kept coming up with indulgences and experiments and other innovative projects is really inspiring. He strikes me as the kind of person who saw the next great thing just around the bend, and used that to give himself the hope and energy to get through difficulties in the moment.
