Biology: How Life Works

Carling Design was asked by W.H. Freeman to design the second edition of Biology: How Life Works, a 1200-page, upper-level textbook for pre-med students. A primary objective was to step away from the intimidating, dense, understated design of 1e by adding color and opening up the layout a bit—without looking low-level or adding page-count. Brightening the palette while maintaining the minimalist format seemed to strike the right balance and, especially in a 1200-page book, very careful, incremental, adjustments to basal text can make for considerable space efficiencies. “Mission: Accomplished!”