Book Design and Editing
During the time I worked at Chang Chihlung Studio, part of my job was book design. Each book had its own editing difficulty. For example, collections were made by fragmented writings; the context did not show a clear theme, also the historical book might have many appendices which made the notes the same quantity as the main article. But after I finished the first book and I ran through the whole editing and design process, I now have a better understanding of books. Editing a biography and a picture album need quite opposite organizational skills, that is to say, finding the correct arrangement - knowing when and where to add or delete material - is the first thing to do for designers. After producing a rudimentary sketch for the upcoming book, then designers are ready to move to the next step: layout.
Master Hsing Yun Poetry collection
Commonwealth Publishing Group
This book is a combination of poems, prayers, and songs written by famous Buddhist master Hsing Yun. What makes editing so difficult is the length variation of each passage, and the lack of connection between articles which strongly reduces the readability. I selected almost 60 pieces of calligraphy from master Hsing Yun' s work before and put them at the end of every prayer- based on the meaning of articles. This will give space to readers; increasing the passage flow. The different design for each part also makes the organization clearer.
The Swirling Echo
Commonwealth Publishing Group
This book is a sequel to the famous Chinese literature "The Grand River“ (unofficial translation name), which is a biography that depicted the profound fleeing story that happened in northeast China during World War Two. The Swirling Echo (unofficial translation name) contains responses to the "The Grand River“ all over the world, including letters and poems from readers to the author and excerpts of professor Chi Pangyuan's interview. I used lots of boxes, annotations, and columns to separate the different formats, and tried to present it in a clear and straightforward style.
General Pai Chung-hsi and The February 28 Incident
China Times Publishing Co.
The February 28th event is a tremendous wound in Taiwanese history. This book is written together by a renowned literary author Pai Hsienyung and a history scholar Liao Yanbo. Mr. Pai, son of general Pai Chunghsi, provides first-hand material to Mr. Liao and then let the researcher scan and clear up what happen after the general came to Taiwan.
Edgar Degas: Rediscovered by Chiang Hsun
Commonwealth Publishing Group
This book comes from a series called "Rediscovered by Chiang Hsun", and this time, the author introduced the famous western Impressionist painter- Edgar Degas. Despite the fact that being as an Impressionist artist, the painting of Degas shows heavy dark color. This book used the same layout as others in the series and the only difficulty when I worked with the material is how to align pictures and make them right next to the paragraph where they are being discussed.
