Blog

MB Profile: Designer Zach Hooker

+ Why did you decide to pursue graphic design?

I spent most of high school drawing logos and sketching album covers for nonexistent bands. No guidance counselor had the sense to tell me that people get paid to do that, so I ended up studying film in college. After school I started working at a copy shop, then moved to an actual print shop doing prepress and a tiny bit of design, and I gradually transitioned from the production world to the design world over the next few years. Somewhere along the way I went to grad school for library science. Like most people who somehow find themselves in their ideal job, I got here entirely by accident.

+ What’s your design process/style?

I’m not very process-oriented, and in general I think style is bad for design—or at least for the kind of design we do. My job isn’t to have a recognizable style, it’s to let each book be what it needs to be. Of course, we want our books to have compelling designs because we want people to pick them up, but ultimately the design has to be subordinate to the content. That’s basically true of all kinds of design, but it’s especially true in our area. Some kinds of design, say ads or album covers, can be pretty freewheeling, but books require a more delicate balance—this is particularly true with the kind of illustrated art books we make, because each book’s content already has a highly developed visual identity. That’s not to say that there isn’t room for aggressive design sometimes—some books you can push further than others.

+ How did you develop an interest in letterpress/book arts?

I think the question is really “How does anybody avoid developing an interest in letterpress/book arts?” Everybody loves books. It’s very rare for people not to respond positively to a well-printed, well-bound book. In fact, when you hand somebody an example of nice printing or binding, the vast majority of reactions range from positive at the low end to the sort of gushing, zealous enthusiasm that’s almost uncomfortable in its intensity. So, you know, I love books but don’t think I’m at all unusual in that regard.

I love technology too, and I look forward to the day (probably very soon) when I can have a little handy tablet that I can keep in my back pocket that holds one thousand novels and is actually pleasant to read. But loving to read and loving books are not the same thing—they’re related but not the same. Fine illustrated art books are never going to go away, because everybody loves them. The realities of producing and distributing them have changed and will continue to do so, but I think people need these books and aren’t going to give them up.

+ What’s your process for selecting fonts when designing a book?

This is probably the part of designing a book that I spend the most time on. It’s definitely the part I enjoy the most. Obviously, type is pretty critical for books. I often think that as a book designer, choosing the right type is about 90% of my job. And I also think that when a design of mine is successful, I owe about 90% of the credit to whoever designed the type I chose. Sometimes it seems like you find the right type to go with the art and all you have to do is sit back and let the book be pretty.

I think many book designers have a couple of typefaces that they know well and tend to go back to over and over. Mine are Whitman and Caecilia, but I try not to beat them to death. We’re living in a sort of golden age when it comes to typography, and the big problem is that there’s just too much good stuff to choose from. There are lots of ways to choose type, like using Dutch type for a book about Netherlandish paintings for example, but that kind of rationale is generally just that: a rationale. It’s not a process so much as a coping mechanism, because you have to narrow the field somehow. Ultimately it comes down to choosing a bunch of candidates and then setting some text and printing out a gajillion pages until you’ve got the right type at the right size.

+ How do you become inspired when designing a new book?

In general, I think inspiration is for suckers. You just start working, and you get some ideas down, and those ideas lead to other ideas, and eventually you find the right idea which you then develop. That said, we’re really lucky in what we do because inspiration is basically built in to all our books. We’re not starting from scratch, or even from a design brief*—we’re starting from the art. It’s not too hard to look at a bunch of art and get inspired. The content of the books suggests the design direction for the books, and you go from there.

* I hear designers talking about “briefs” all the time, but I don’t actually know what a “brief” is. I’ve never seen one. I’ve never worked in a “regular” design firm. I’m sure that all designers are secretly picturing underpants when talking about briefs, but this is especially easy for me to do since I have no concept of a real design brief that could compete with the underpants.

+ What design blogs/Web sites are you reading these days?

Coudal.com is a many-times-daily thing. Lately I’m really enjoying The Ministry of Type, Type for you., and I Love Typography. The Nonist,* BLDGBLOG, and Language Log are further afield but really gratifying, though they’re maybe all a bit too meaty for reading at work. I’m addicted to Achewood, which is almost never about design, although there’s a character who is a designer and it is written (and crappily drawn) by a (former? recovering?) designer.

*I just discovered The Nonist has been retired, which is a shame, but there’s still tons there.

+ When you design, what do you listen to on your iPod?

I listen to soft music that doesn’t have words, so that I don’t get too distracted. Right now I’m listening to When the Detail Lost its Freedom by Brian McBride.