Notes on Book Design: By Formal Settings

Insightful texts on book design that explore the visual, tactile, and cultural aspects of books through the perspective of graphic designers

Fifty readings on book design, authored by Siri Lee Lindskrog and Amanda-Li Kollberg of Formal Settings, unfold across the pages of this volume. Drawn from a curated selection of titles in the private collection of the Hopscotch Reading Room – a conceptual bookshop and event space in Berlin – each text focuses on a single book, examining its visual and tactile qualities, from materials and layout to binding and typography. “Our aim is to understand the role and potential of books through a design lens, mapping what they communicate through their physical form.” 

The authors guide readers through the intricacies of book design, showing how form can become message – how a book can serve as a vessel, a statement, and an object of beauty in its own right. They explore and examine each book as a design object, situating it within the cultural movements, political climates, and economic conditions in which it was produced. This publication reveals how book design can foster shared languages and cultures, create space for the exchange and exploration of ideas, and underscore the social and cultural dimensions of design itself. 

With an afterword by designer, author, and teacher Prem Krishnamurthy, providing further context and insight into the project.

Formal Settings is a type and graphic design studio based in Berlin and Copenhagen. It creates typographically driven visual communications and publications in collaboration with various international clients, mainly in the fields of art and culture. Founded in 2014 by Amanda-Li Kollberg and Siri Lee Lindskrog, the studio is characterised by its strong engagement in the field. Its reflective practice blends tradition and experimentation, as well as Scandinavian and international influences.