#1: Sample Design

Before the first word of any of the Blasta Books had even been written, we had already begun work on the series design.

First we had to finalise the format. How many pages? What size? Hardcover or paperback? Matte or glossy paper? We requested dummy books from various EU printers to help us decide.

Next was fonts. The challenge with Blasta Books was choosing one that would be crisp and clear in our small books. Our designer, Jane Matthews, used lorem ipsum as sample text for half a dozen different fonts to help us decide. (For the record, we went with Avenir.)

Last was putting it all together: format, fonts, a sample illustration pulled from our artist's Instagram feed and an unedited salsa recipe from Tacos. We went through multiple versions, tweaking things like the recipe intro placement, line spacing and text box styles until everything was perfect. Compare one of the early versions below to the bonus recipe for Lily's pork pibil tacos to see how the design has evolved – though it's been tweaked even more since then for the final book.

You can read the rest of the newsletter here.