AIGA Design Archives

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Design Category
Book design, 2000
Design firm
Helfand/Drenttel Inc. (Falls Village, Connecticut)
Collection
(2001) 50 Books/50 Covers of 2000

Description

The study of econometrics focuses upon the application of statistical and mathematical methods in the field of economics to describe the numerical relationships between key economic forces such as capital, interest rates and labor. While we experimented briefly with more abstract representations as befit these numerical relationships, we felt the design was best approached as a typographic problem, not a mathematical one. Because the author is also a keen typography enthusiast, and because he feared the book could easily look like any other statistical textbook, he agreed that this was an ideal direction. It soon became evident that the author’s name and the book’s title were each comprised of 12 letters. Our intention was to design a typographic constellation that would at once read as a single concept, yet at the same time could maintain dynamic tension between the letterforms of the book’s title and the author’s name.

Credits
Art director/jacket designer: Jessica Helfand
Production coordinator: Betsey Litz
Trim size: 7 x 10 inches
Pages: 712
Quantity printed: 16,500
Compositor: Type Weight
Typefaces: Marten Grotesque, Bembo
Printer/binder: Maple-Vail
Binding method: Sewn
Binding materials: Pre-printed case
Jacket printer: Lehigh Press
Editor: Fumio Hayashi
Publisher: Princeton University Press