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Accordion Revolution: Book Design (a look inside)

December 6, 2019
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I worked with publishing designers Peter Cocking and Taysia Louie to create this beautiful book.

Page from book, Stylized like an old-fashioned printed poster with multi-font Text: "Part Four American Wheeze: An Alternative Pre-History of Rock"
The Five Parts of the book open with “block print” splash pages
Page from pg 253 of Accordion Revolution, Flaming Heart behind a button accordion" image is set above text. Text begins, "Most of the written story of North American popular music was crafted amidst the extreme anti-accordion stereotypes of the late twentieth-century."
Section openers are set off with the “Flaming Heart” Accordion image, and a slightly larger font

Comparison of Print and eBook Texts:

eBook screenshot: "Top Ten Reasons the Accordion Never Made It in Rock 'n' Roll (followed by list beginning with: "Early blues players abandoned accordions around 1915, cutting the instrument off from most of the African American music that fed into rock."
eBook Text “Sidebar” Design
Grey background with rounded darker border on top and bottom with three rows of white buttons suggesting a Button Accordion. Text: "Top Ten Reasons the Accordion Never Made It in Rock 'n' Roll (followed by list beginning with: "Early blues players abandoned accordions around 1915, cutting the instrument off from most of the African American music that fed into rock."
Print book “Sidebar” design
Two-page spread from Accordion Revolution. Left side, pg 270, last section of Chapter 13 on the Black accordion tradition, two paragraphs subtitled "Windjammer Century." Right Page 271: Large centered chapter-opening title text: "14 Country and Western: Cowboys and Squeezeboxes" Then starting with a large drop-cap "C" standard text reading, "Country music sprang from a mix of multi-ethnic folk songs and fiddling, black blues and banjo, Hawaiian guitar, vaudeville and minstrel yodeling, and a dash of ethnic polkas and waltzes."
Left side: “Bite-sized” subheadings. Right side: Chapters with thoughtful subtitles
two page spread from Accordion Revolution (pages 110-111). Left, full page black and white photo of Alice Hall. Smiling Jazz Accordionist with short 1940s hairdo. playing a "finto piano" accordion with three rows of buttons disguised to look like extensions on a piano keyboard. Right side text of book, beginning with "She admitted later that she wasn’t that interested in recording: 'I was too busy gigging to record much.'"
Full-page images paired with text.
Two page spread from Accordion Revolution. Left side text: "The Cordovox Maneuver" about organ accordions. Right page: The vintage Advertisement photo-image from book: of clean-cut looking dude playing Cordovox Electronic Organ Accordion, surrounded by 1960's hipsters with trendy clothes. Text: "They laughed when I sat down to play the accordion." Sidebar pages have a gray background to separate them from the main text, and have a darker border on top and bottom with rounded corners and three rows of white dots that suggest the keyboard of a really long button accordion.
Stand-alone sidebar pages framed by “button accordion” border.
"Selected Bibliography" opening page 401. Text starts: "General: 1-Apr-2017 12:54 Bachich, George Piano Accordion Owner's Manual and Buyer's Guide 2012." Followed by a page full o fsimilar references.
“Best of” bibliography of 100 books and recordings that inspired Accordion Revolution
Index opening page 407. Includes: "Accordion:" with items: Amplification, Benefits of, Canadian traditions, instruction guides, and more.
Index details individuals and groups, events, places, and key concepts (i.e.. “Industrial Revolution”) discussed in the book.
from → Accordion Revolution (the book)
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