The Visual Identity of the Book

Vice Rector for Academic Affairs, International Relations and Extraversion, Associate Professor (Dep. of Archives, Library Science and Museology), Ionian University. Dr Banou holds a Ph.D. on the ornamentation and illustration of Greek books printed in Italy during the Renaissance and the early Baroque era (Dep. of History, Ionian University, 2002). She has been a visiting lecturer in autumn 2014 at the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Business School, Dep. of Information Management. Her main areas of research interests include publishing, book policy, current trends of the publishing industry, history of the book publishing industry, aesthetics of the printed book, reading policy, development of the publishing policy and of promotion strategies, art history of the printed book, and the impact of new technologies on the book publishing activity. She has presented papers in refereed journals and has participated at international conferences. Two monographs of her concerning the publishing industry have been published in Greek: Banou, Christina (2012), Gutenberg's Next Step: the Publishing Companies in Greece at the Beginning of the 21st century, Athens: Papazisis Publishers. Banou, Christina (2008), Diachronic Features of the Publishing Industry in the Western World, Athens: Kotinos Publications.

The Visual Identity of the Book: From the Renaissance to the Digital Age provides a framework that considers the 'materiality' of the book (from printed to digital/electronic), the aspects of the stakeholders in the publishing chain, the traditional and ongoing promotion strategies, reader engagement, and personalized publishing services. The aim of the book is to interpret current issues in the publishing industry and to provide an overview of the evolution of the visual appearance/identity of the book in order to approach and explain current issues and to discuss aspects of visual information and aesthetics of the book.Other sections introduce promotion strategies, publish policies, and provide a methodological framework that can also be used in the book business.

1. Introduction. The visual identity of the book2. Through the page: The evolution of the visual identity of the book form the Gutenberg Age to today3. Converged aesthetics: Personalized publishing services then and now4. Conclusions: challenges and opportunities