ghostofamerica book design

5 — A Cat with a Bird in its Mouth

Spread opening chapter 5 with a column of running text in a warm literary serif facing a full-bleed illustration
This book's chapters all open with a strong grounding chapter number, which is important in a story that uses verse, prose, and image. The reader wants to rely on something for center.
Spread of running narrative text continuing the chapter, set in the same warm serif with generous leading and a quiet folio
Verse mixes with image. It disrupts itself.
Page 43 holding a watercolor illustration of a bird skull rendered in soft, bleeding washes of grey and rust
Then the prose body of the narrative begins, halfway down the page, in Powell typeface.
Spread of running text resuming after the illustration, set in the same warm serif and single-column grid
Page 45 with the chapter title set in a heavy blackletter face and a large illuminated drop capital 'O' opening the first paragraph
Breaks are accomplished with a reiteration of image, more disruption. Enough disruption becomes a pattern. A pattern becomes a ground.
Spread showing a mostly blank divider page marked simply 'page 5,' set in small type at the foot of the page