A noble title

Title pages and half-title pages often follow the typographical design elements of the cover. A designer might try something a bit different, however, where the cover is more image focused for instance, in order to best communicate the information. There will usually be some commonality between a half-title page, where it exists, and the title page that follows it.

Ways of Seeing – John Berger (BBC & Penguin, 2008)

This title page is located at page 155 of the book, after the entire text. As noted earlier, this book plays with conventions of book design as a reflection of the challenges it poses to traditional modes of art criticism. This is a typographical page with no other elements than the text. Clean and functional even though its traditional function has been turned on its head.

Woe is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English – Patricia T. O'Connor (Riverhead Trade, 2nd edition, 2004)

This is one example where following the typographical style of the cover really would have been the better choice. The style of the title page (which sets the typographical style of the rest of the book) bears no relationship to the cover and, in my view, little relationship to the book's content. It looks as if it's introducing tween fiction for girls! Thankfully, the current third edition is has eliminated all sign of spangles and wacky type.

Super Natural Cooking – Heidi Swanson (Celestial Arts, 2007)

This half-title page retains the typographical elements of both the cover and the title page. The text placement is a little unconventional, however, being slightly below the mid-point of the the page. The white type contrasts with the photograph, but not vividly. These factors might suggest that the text is secondary to the image on the page. It is appropriate that the title page that follows gives greater emphasis to the text, as this is where the any sub-title and the author's name are to be found.

Endless City (Phaidon, 2007)

Finally, a double-page chapter title. You may recall the contents page of this book was discussed earlier. On that page a colour coding system was used to identify the different city chapters. That system is implemented in the chapter titles for each city. Here, purple Shanghai. There's nothing terribly remarkable about this chapter title, but it does draw on the general typographical style – bold caps, underlining – of the cover and headings.