The Fold (Gutter) Between Pages
Every picture book hinges on a fold, the space where pacing, balance, and emotion live. An essay on how design and story meet in the quiet middle.
Lately I’ve been slowing down and thinking more about how books are built, how they move, and what holds them together. It’s been good to step back, to work more intentionally, and to notice small things again: the paper, the pacing, the quiet folds that keeps two pages connected.
Every picture book has a small space in the middle, the part that keeps the pages together. From the outside, it’s the spine. From the inside, it’s the gutter, the bit of the spread that swallows whatever comes too close. Designers use that word for the technical part, but I like to think of it as the fold, a quiet hinge that anchors everything in place.
