CITY IN FLUX
Abby McKenzie
CITY IN FLUX Cities everywhere are constantly changing, with our everyday lives affected by the latest trends and technology. Our way of life is dramatically affected every time a change comes into effect. Many cities started out with populations of merely hundreds of people, now the norm is for cities to be populated from the thousands to even millions. The changes of the city are very gradual but noticeable, such as the effects of global warming. This issue causes the population to become energy-saving and greener in a bid to save our planet and cleaning up the cities we occupy daily. The way we design and use our buildings has also changed, with architecture becoming modern and minimal, serving its purpose fluently and without fuss. Whereas the architecture we view as old and sacred is full of detail and life, adapting to our taste for the modern and sleek looks. Technology is a huge part of life, it aids us with everything from communicating, cooking, creating art and making music. The online world is a growing empire, with businesses and trading available within a click, the worlds business and trading market is bigger than ever which results in better economies and boosting quality of life for some.
Sheffield Sheffield is a city located in South Yorkshire. The origins of the city can be traced back to the founding of a settlement in a clearing beside the River Sheaf in the second half of the 1st millennium AD. During the 19th century, Sheffield gained an international reputation for steel production. Many innovations were developed locally, including crucible and stainless steel.
Sheffield has a lot of beautiful and natural attractions such as the Peace Gardens and botanical gardens. 61% of Sheffield’s entire area is green space, and a third of the city lies within the Peak District national park. There are more than 250 parks, woodlands and gardens in the city, and an estimated 2 million trees, giving Sheffield the highest ratio of trees to people of any city in Europe.
The population of the City of Sheffield is 555,500 (2010 est.) and it is one of the eight largest regional English cities, n the Nineteenth Century. Sheffield gained reputation for being a top producer of steel. It made key innovations in the development of stainless steel. This was used in a variety of tools and cutlery and became very popular. This growth of the steel industry made Sheffield a key player in the industrial revolution.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/ universities-and-colleges/9917708/University-of-Sheffield-guide.html http://www.campbellharrison.co.uk/blog/10-things-to-do-insheffield-this-summer http://www.sheffieldpolitics.com/blog/ http://ml.dcs.shef.ac.uk/prib2009/pages/how_to_reach.html http://www.sheffield.towntalk.co.uk/events/d/60068/sheffield-botanical-gardens/
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/74148554
Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. In 2011, it had an estimated population of 757,700 making it the third largest city in the United Kingdom. The history of Leeds can be traced right back to the 5th century when the Kingdom of Elmet was covered by the forest of “Loidis”, the origin of the name Leeds. In the 17th and 18th centuries Leeds became a major centre for the production and trading of wool. Then, during the Industrial Revolution, Leeds developed into a major mill town; wool was the dominant industry but flax, engineering, iron foundries, printing, and other industries were important.
There’s a lot of attractions in Leeds, one of which is the Grand Theatre. Situated in the heart of Leeds, the Grand Theatre opened in 1878 and has been entertaining people ever since. Leeds Town Hall was built between 1853 and 1858 on Park Lane, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, to a design by architect Cuthbert Brodrick.
http://www.e-architect.co.uk/leeds/leeds-city-markets http://www.iticse04.leeds.ac.uk/participation/social/ http://www.the-lep.com/about/local-growth-deal/ http://thecitytalking.com/content/2013/6/10/big-conversation-debates-leeds-city-centre-living http://www.coolplaces.co.uk/places/uk/england/west-yorkshire/2467-roundhay-park
https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnyg1955/6726834115/22
City I chose - Huddersfield Huddersfield Huddersfield is a large market town and is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. It is the 11th largest town in the United Kingdom with a population of 162,949 (2011 census) On first glance it looks like manufacturing is in decline in the area, but Huddersfield still has numerous mills functioning today. Taylor and Lodge are one of the oldest wool manufacturers in the town.
Huddersfield has an abundance of Victorian architecture. The most conspicuous landmark is the Victoria Tower on Castle Hill. Overlooking the town, the tower was constructed to mark Queen Victoria’s 60th Jubilee Year.
http://www.examiner.co.uk/whats-on/arts-culture-news/lawrence-batley-theatre-opera-workshop-7718317 http://www.sdhbuildingservices.co.uk/blog/ http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/ kirklees-council-cuts-number-middle-4933754 https://www.flickr.com/photos/45777493@N06/6851710596/ http://www.studenthaven.com/area-guides.php?aid=10
http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/leisure/countryside/greenheadPark.aspx http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-w/05/ d6/37/10/emley-moor-transmitting.jpg
Takeaway Trains
Buses
Foreign cuisine
Bikes
Adverts
Restaurants
Car
Flyer
Graffiti
Clothing
City in Flux
Design Architecture
Food
Recipe book
Transport
Art
Logos
Illustration
Museums
Graffiti Buskers
Shops
Music Concerts
Typography
Fashion
Logos
Adverts Signs
How can I represent a city?
Photography
Illustration
Media/Advertisement
Photography is probably the most obvious one when we think about showing off our city. Photographs allow us to capture, edit and manipulate the day to day life that we see around us. Photographs can have meaning, structure or just pictures that we find aesthetically pleasing. They can also be easily manipulated and edited in the creative suite, making the outcome either slightly or very different from what we started out with.
One idea is to focus on the illustration aspect of graphic design. I would want to create something visually appealing, colourful and different.
Another idea is to focus on the media of the city. Flyers, posters, wristbands, packaging, anything that is used to promote something. My thoughts are to collect anything and everything I can, and arrange this into a collage. This collage would represent the city as a whole, what and how we are promoting.
Huddersfield has a lot of old and new buildings, making the modern crash with the older architecture around the city. This photography could focus on the detailed, unusual parts of buildings. Such as the carvings into the stone, the way the windows jut out and back into the building or anything that catches attention. Another thing photography could capture would be the people of the city. This could mean commuters, pedestrians, workers, anything. I think the flaw with this plan could be co-operation of the public and the ethics. E.g. Accidentally capturing children in the photograph and publishing them without the parents permission.
Illustration can be done in many different ways, it has so man styles and is open t interpretation. Illustration doesn’t always have to make sense to be good, and I like that aspect. I think a flaw in doing illustration is thinking up something interesting enough to be featured and used in many different ways rather than doing a boring A4 poster or flyer. I enjoy illustration and would consider doing this in my work, but I think photography is probably the best direction to go in for this particular project. I would consider pairing both photography with illustration, if I found an interesting way to edit and make the combination work and still be relevant.
Flyers and posters are used for so many different things that they could be paired and manipulated to mean something entirely different E.g. ripping up different pieces of flyers and putting them together to create different messages entirely. I think this idea could work if I found enough interesting and differ flyers/leaflets for different events, but I think the problem is it may not be clear if my work has a message, or even a composition. I am unsure about whether this idea would be a solid grounds to base my work on just yet.
ILLUSTRATION Research
Ben Barry
Ben lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Previously, he was a designer at Facebook in Menlo Park, California, and worked with Decoder Ring / Helms Workshop in Austin, Texas. He is also an alumnus and advisor of Project M. Ben’s work has a minimalistic style, he mostly focuses on simple detail rather than intricate illustrations, except for the example (bottom right) which has a lot more detail. He highlights the most important recognisable arts of the buildings and focuses on those aspects to make his artwork. His limited colour scheme draws attention to the darker shadows around the building itself.
Mike Hall
Mike Hall is a freelance illustrator and map designer from London. He specialises in digital illustration and line drawing on paper, mainly concentrating on cityscapes, architectural illustration, map design and character studies. Mike’s work focuses a lot on architecture which is what I want to focus on in my work. I enjoy his ‘comic book’ style (such as the middle-top image) and how intricate and clear his map illustrations are. Mike’s work is very influential, as it could inspire my photos and give me inspiration for possible illustration.
Aspects of a City Page 1: Colour Page 2: People/Culture/ Subcultures Page 3: Texture
The city is full of colour, even if we don’t always notice it. From traffic lights to even the vehicles we drive, colour is everywhere.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26782864@N00/2460655511/
http://blog.toonpool.com/community/a-letter-from-brussels/attachment/ city-of-colours/
http://www.iscomigoo.com/2014/04/tokyo.html
http://www.puretravel.com/blog/2013/06/16/european-capital-of-culture2013-to-2017-in-pictures/
http://www.cubebreaker.com/skyline-new-york-city-2018/
http://jonwhitephotography.com/tag/new-york-city/
One major thing about a lot of cities is the people and subcultures that thrive there, revealing unique fashions and ways of life.
http://stylehunterman.com/punk-influence-on-fashion-today/
http://fashnglamour.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/indian-designers-beautiful-bridal.html
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tokyofashion/5977743571/
http://fashionplaceface.com/mens-business-fashion-2013/
http://fashionplaceface.com/hipster-clothes-tumblr-guys/
http://freetopone.com/hip-hop-clothing.html/hip-hop-clothing-date
The city is full of different textures, from manmade such as buildings and cars to the nature surrounding it.
http://www.1366x768.net/textures/502-gorod-doroga-tekstury-plitka-krug-tekstura-kamen.html
http://www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=9126192
https://finchertrist.wordpress.com/category/texture/
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=130818324
https://finchertrist.wordpress.com/category/texture/page/2/
http://ideareattiva.deviantart.com/art/City-texture-285042972
PHOTOGRAPHY
Structure Trains
Buses
Old buildings
Bikes
Workers
Historical books
Car
Adverts
Graffiti
Age groups
Photography
People Sub cultures
History
Old vs New
Transport
Art
Visitors
uildings
Museums
Graffiti Texture
Features
Architecture Detail
Typography
Old vs new
Logos
Adverts Signs
Experimentation Because I was unsure which direction I wanted my work to go in I decided to do a sample illustration on Illustrator. I used a photo showing the a building in New York. I traced the outline using the pen tool, quickly skipping over the details and just getting the basic shapes. I then added a few simple windows. If I was to continue this, I’d add colour and detail and made the line-art smoother and more precise. I would also use my own photography.
I also decided to do some photo manipulation using Photoshop. For these two images, I used the basic tools such as the elliptical tool, and used that selection to change the hue, saturation and levels of a certain part of the building. I like the idea of manipulating and deforming images, making things uneven, blending them and changing the colours. I may use this technique in my photographs.
In this image I layered the photograph multiple times, changing the saturation and levels every time I did it. I blended parts of the photo with the background, putting the opacity down very low just so that the building is just slightly visible.
Photography in the city
Examples
Urban photography
In these images from German photographer Ronya Galka in the city of London, she captures the city in many different ways, not just focusing on one aspect. “I depict the urban environment and its many inhabitants in various shapes and forms and for a wide number of clients. In my compositions I aim for simplicity- whilst each image tells its very own story and captures the mood.” I enjoy Ronya’s images because she is able to capture mood and setting. The busy streets of London littered with taxis, she captures it perfectly without having to depict a wide view of the traffic. I also like the use of black and white on the rainy picture, with the pedestrian shielding their face from the bad weather. It gives the imagine an atmosphere and a dreary/bleak mood setting, representing the person and the weather.
Architectural photography
Award-winning photographer Matt Livey focuses on the architectural art of the buildings in the environment around him. I like the abstract feel of the top right image. The way he’s zoomed into the detail of the building and doesn’t capture the whole thing in a wide view. I also like the colour and design contrast between them. The old style windows and darker colours at the top, with the lighter more modern looking building at the bottom. Matt’s work inspires me, especially the bottom left image. I love the contrast and the way he only selects a portion of the building to photograph instead of trying to capture the whole thing.
People photography
Humans of New York is a website created by a man called Brandon. It focuses on the people he meets on the streets of New York, and they always have in interesting story to tell. He documents what they say alongside a picture of them on his website. “I thought it would be really cool to create an exhaustive catalogue of New York City’s inhabitants, so I set out to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers and plot their photos on a map. I worked for several months with this goal in mind, but somewhere along the way, HONY began to take on a much different character. I started collecting quotes and short stories from the people I met, and began including these snippets alongside the photographs.” Brandon’s website is a really good and inspirational place, but I think in order to do something like this I’d have to travel to a very busy city e.g. Sheffield or Manchester. There’s also the risk of people not co-operating and the ethics of taking photographs in the street, but I really liked the idea of this project.
Typography photography
Typography is everywhere in the city. From graffiti to the signposts that direct us around the streets, the “LOOK RIGHT” painted right onto the road, there’s no escape. Lidia Varesco Racoma runs a blog in which she takes photos of typography around her city, Chicago. I like the idea focusing on the words and typography we’d walk past every day, looking at the different typefaces and the way the words are presented to us. I think focusing on typography is a good idea, as there’s so much of it around us all the time. Whether it be artistic or informational, its all unique in its own way.
ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Research
Abstract Architectural photographers Adrian Gaut
Adrian Gaut was born in Oregon, but now lives in New York City. Adrian took up photography after studying as a painter. Whilst being a student he found inspiration in minimalistic 20th century paintings, which inspired his early photography of architecture. I was drawn to Adrian’s work because of the unique and diverse angles he uses in his photography. The ones where he’s particularly zoomed in on a feature of the building, focusing on the build and the texture of that specific part with hardly any background. I like this element of his work and this has inspired me to take on some of his techniques to try out on my own.
Abstract Architectural photographers Alex Ekins
Alex Ekins studied photojournalism at Sheffield College and he now specialises in documentary outdoor, adventure and architectural photography and photojournalism. His work has been published in places such as The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The Financial Times and National Geographic.
Alex’s work inspired me due to the way he captures the buildings at different angles. Using the rule of thirds with the sky acting as a blank space to draw more attention to the beauty of the architecture he is trying to capture. I think elements of Alex’s work will inspire my own and create an outcome I am happy with.
Photography techniques Rule of Thirds The rule of thirds technique is well known in the photography community. This rule is essentially breaking an image down into parts, in order to plan the photo. For example, within landscape photography, the point of interest is usually in the distance, which means planning around the point to make it stand out.
http://www.photographymad.com/pages/view/rule-of-thirds
http://www.photographymad.com/pages/view/rule-of-thirds
For example, the image above has been divided into sections. http://www.photovideoedu.com/Learn/Articles/jim-zuckerman-on-composition-the-ruleof-thirds.aspx
http://digital-photography-school.com/rule-of-thirds/
This image confirms the idea that anything placed in the centre of a photograph looks awkward, rather than placing it off to the side with considerable space around it, which makes the eyes naturally drawn to the main section of the photo.
http://www.photographymad.com/pages/view/rule-of-thirds
Idea experimentation To start my experiment I went out into the city to look at the buildings around me and took some sample images on my phone. I came across a lot of things I hadn’t previously noticed on my walks around Huddersfield. There’s a lot of buildings with interesting features, such as the top middle image with the windows jutting out of the building. I particularly like the far-left image on the second row, due to the detail on the side of the buildings and intricate windows. Doing this with a professional camera would give me a better advantage, such as higher quality photos and the ability to adjust and focus on what I want to capture in the image.
Modern vs Old While navigating around Huddersfield, i noticed the start differences between some of the new and older structures. I identified the differences in building material, such as the older buildings (i.e church and train station) were much more detailed in terms of being aesthetically pleasing when viewed. I feel that the older buildings in Huddersfield have a lot to offer in terms of character and detail, but I could possibly have a mix of both in my book.
This is a contact sheet of the images I took while out in Huddersfield. I tended to focus on parts of the building rather than the buildings as a whole. I think most of these turned out how I wanted, I like how I took some of them at interesting angles. I tried to keep the ‘rule of thirds’ in mind as I took my pictures, and I think in some of them it has worked, but if I was to do it again I would try and implement this technique more consciously.
Project composition
Idea generation
Fold out book
“A Walk Through London” is a handmade book, made by Nancy Edwards and is featured on the website http://www.notonthehighstreet.com This book features illustrations of the landmarks in London, such as Hyde Park, St Pauls and The London Eye. “This is a handmade book; a walk through London, showing various views of London, some iconic and others not so well known.”
The layout of the book is very simple, with the illustration taking up at least half of the page on most of the pages. I think because my work contains photography my layouts would have to be a little more dynamic, but overall I like the design and layout of this book.
Swedish Design Agency – Bold
These books are designed by a Swedish design agency named Bold. The design of the left book is very simple and minimal. The cover uses a plain block colour with a shiny bold sans-serif font. I think this front cover design works well with the style because it looks modern and clean. The inside of the book matches the outside, with black shiny pages and a very minimal layout design, which I think works well in this case. The darker pages make the colours more prominent on the page. The layout of the inside also interests me, as there’s either one large image on one page or 2/3 put together neatly. I feel that this could inspire my book layout quite a lot. Finally the top-right image. This is another design by Bold. This one has very minimal illustrations as well as photographs, which I think look neatly presented and I like the text placement and titles.
How would I make it? Because there are so many different styles of fold out book, there’s a lot of different ways to make them, as well as different kinds to look at. The design of the leaflet/book depends on what the book is displaying
http://weluvdesign.com/freebies/ultimate-collection-of-free-adobe-indesign-templates/
http://aa2a.biz/pg/photos/view/12937/handmade-book Another way to create a leaflet/book is to hand make it. Hand made things have a very personal flair to them, but they may not come across as refined or professional if handmade. I particularly think because my book will contain photography it would be best to create it on a computer.
Adobe InDesign is a simple and effective way to create your own leaflet. Creating it digitally is one way to make it look professional and clean. The fact that illustrations can be placed straight onto the document without losing their quality is also a bonus of creating it this way.
As stated before, because my book will contain a lot of detailed imagery provided by a camera, I will be producing my booklet using Adobe InDesign, since this would be the easiest and most high-quality option for me.
Who is my audience? Because my leaflet focuses on Huddersfield and the appealing appearances of it’s architecture, my target audience would most likely be young to older adults. Therefore, my design would probably be simple and professional, yet still appealing for the younger generation who could take an interest in the architecture Huddersfield has to offer. The audience for my book doesn’t particularly have to be people new to the area, people who have lived in Huddersfield for years may take an interest in the beauty of the town, or people who are studying/interested in architecture.
http://www.edubuzz.org/prestonpansinfant/category/health/
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/09/27124046/28
http://www.stocklayouts.com/Templates/Leaflet/Non-Profit/Business-Services/Template-Design-Library.aspx
Types of fold out books
Letter fold
Z fold
Open gate fold
Double gate fold
Parallel map fold
Accordion fold
French fold
Single fold
Layout sketches Below are the thumbnails for my front cover design of my book. I am unsure whether these covers are going to be illustration, photography or a mixture of the two. I like the look of the 2nd and 4th design, but until I develop them on Photoshop/Illustrator I’m unsure which one I’d use.
These are my rough page layout sketches for my book. I sketched them out quickly, mapping out where I want my images to go. I will most likely use a variation of each of these layouts in my book so that no two pages looks the same next to each other as you’re flicking through.
Book/leaflet drafts
Front cover development
Typography page 1: sans-serif page 2: serif
Here I have collected many examples of sans serif fonts. This is to help me decide what kind of style I am most drawn to when deciding on what typography to place on the front cover of my book. I feel that sans serif fonts can look more professional and modern when used in the right context. I think they can be clearer and easier to read and work well for titles, headers and other things. I think because my book focuses on architecture, a bold font that would be distinct and clear would work best. I’m not sure if I’d want to use a sans serif font, because my book mostly focuses on the older looking architecture around Huddersfield, I’d perhaps want the font to have an older/classier look.
HUDDERSFIELD - A VISUAL GUIDE
HUDDERSFIELD - A VISUAL GUIDE
HUDDERSFIELD - A VISUAL GUIDE HUDDERSFIELD - A VISUAL GUIDE HUDDERSFIELD - A VISUAL GUIDE
HUDDERSFIELD - A VISUAL GUIDE
Here I have done the same but with serif fonts. I like the style of many of these, especially the first and second examples I have collected. I feel that using a serif font may be best for what my book is trying to portray, the older style of architecture that is placed around Huddersfield. I think I would be better using a bolder-style of serif font, especially for titles and headers. Serif fonts can be hard to pick out of a page sometimes due to the stems and/or serifs of the font having a thin delicate design. It’s hard to say which style of font I will use, but once I have tested them on my font cover designs, I will be able to make a justified decision.
HUDDERSFIELD - A VISUAL GUIDE HUDDERSFIELD - A VISUAL GUIDE HUDDERSFIELD - A VISUAL GUIDE
HUDDERSFIELD - A VISUAL GUIDE HUDDERSFIELD - A VISUAL GUIDE HUDDERSFIELD - A VISUAL GUIDE
Front cover development
Thumbnail development
Following on from my thumbnail sketches, I decided to do quick mock-ups in Photoshop of them. The first one I tried was the one with 3 circles with photos placed inside. I simply used the ellipse tool and placed my image inside, resized the photo I was using until I was happy with it and then created a 20px border around the circles to separate the images and make them clearer. The font I sampled for this cover was ‘Alegre Sans’ and I paired this with ‘JF Shill Text’ I don’t really think any of these fonts would work my cover as this look isn’t exactly what I was going for. I decided to not use any colour and just observe the design placement and look. Whilst developing this I noticed it was hard to place and size the images to how I wanted them without it looking overcrowded and messy on the page. I have decided not to take this design forward as I don’t believe it works particularly well as a front cover design for my book.
This is my second photo mock-up done in Photoshop. I was unsure of the layout I wanted to do, but I wanted to try a design where the photo was quite large on the page rather than a series of small ones. I did this and tested out the title using the font ‘Sekar Arum’ I dislike the look of this font so I will not be using it on my further experimentations. Because I didn’t choose a background colour because I didn’t want it to clash with the colours of the photograph, I decided to just create a simple black border around the edges of the page. I don’t think I like this design concept, it doesn’t look professional enough for what I want it for, and I don’t think it would appeal to any kind of audience so I will not be taking this design forward.
This is my illustration mock up. I created this quickly, only outlining the shapes of buildings and roofs using the shape tool, freehand. This mock up was to give me an idea of how the basic illustration would be layed out. I think because my book focuses on photography, I should make my main designs focus on my own photographs rather than just placing random bouts of illustration in there. I don’t think I will continue this idea.
My second illusration idea was to focus on typography as the main design. Here I used Photoshop and the fonts ‘Cicle’ to create this. I used a default font to create the H, then rasterized and extended the bottom of the H to create a ‘platform’ for the rest of the word to sit on. I then used the lower-case font Cicle for the small header underneath. I like the idea of my cover having a typographic element, but I’m unsure I want to execute it in this particular way, unless I find a more aesthetically pleasing way to use it.
Development
Further experimentation
This is my further cover experimentation done in Photoshop. I like the look of design mock-up better. I had some trouble with the font sizing and box size, but if I choose to take this design forward I will experiment and change it until it looks how I wanted it to. I chose to use a full image as a background, slightly faded so it was easy on the eye, and so that the text would protrude off the page more. I think this design makes it look more mature and targets the audience it is aimed at, which is young to older adults.
For this cover I took the same design approach but changed the typography and layout. I like this cover a lot better than the first, mostly because the picture is interesting, for example it’s taken at an unusual angle and has slightly more colour than the other. I like the typography used as well, when placing the text on I decided it looked plain and I wanted to make it pop out a bit more, so I added a simple shadow behind the typeface. I think this was effective in making the cover more attractive and interesting looking. I again faded out the image/background to make the text noticeable. I like this cover design a lot, if I were to change it I would experiment with typefaces, positioning and possibly adding small graphics.
For these two designs, I wanted to keep the typographic and photographic elements in my front cover design, but I wanted to change up the designs slightly and come up with something different. I thought about cutting the letters into a photograph, but I decided to flip the idea and cut the letters out of the photograph I had chosen to use. To test this I used two of my own photos to sample the technique.
To create these pieces I opened my desired photograph in Photoshop. I then chose a font I wanted (I chose to sample both a serif and sans-serif font). I rasterized the font layer and used the magic wand tool to select the letters. I then selected my photograph and inverted the selection and pressed cut. This gave me basic letter shapes as seen in the example above. After I finished this, I didn’t think the letters looked defined enough, so on my sans-serif example to the right, I used the magic wand selection again, expanded the selection around the letters to make a border and filled it in with white. I think because my book is focused on photography, I should feature full photography on the page so the viewer knows what they are consuming.
I decided I was going to take forward the full photo style cover and play around with the type. For this one I simply moved the words around into a different position.
With this one I kept the placement of the first example but changed the font to a sans-serif typeface (Bebas Neue)
I don’t think this works as well as the original, due to the text overlapping a dark part of the photograph, I think it takes the attention away from the actual photograph itself. I also think the header text may be too big in this example, so in further examples I would probably shrink that particular text down by a few point sizes depending on where the text is placed.
Looking at this I definitely prefer the serif typeface style on my work, but I prefer the sizing of the sans-serif typeface on this example so I would probably resize the font a few times in my final product until I like the outcome.
With this example the stems and serifs are much thinner (truebo serif) I like this font style a lot, I feel it works better than the font “ChunkFive Ex” To change things up a but I swapped the header font from ‘Cicle’ to ‘Osrich Sans Inline’ I feel that the letters not being ‘filled in’ would be difficult to place on anywhere but the lighter background of the picture, because if I would to place it onto the details of the building it would get lost.
With this I decided to go with an entirely different approach. I wanted to move the font around the page more but was unsure how I could do that without losing the font between the buildings detail. So I decided to create a box around the words, with the Rectangular tool. I drew a simple box with a white fill and changed the opacity to 62 so it wasn’t as harsh on the page. I really like this design and the way the box just makes the text stand out that little bit more, so I may use this design concept in my final cover piece.
I had decided that I liked the look the box gave my cover, I felt it held the text in place nicely so the words weren’t floating mindlessly on the page. I kept the same font “Bodoni 72� because I still think it works best. I moved the box to the top-right corner like it had been originally, but I think because I added the box to stop the font getting lost in the detail of the building, it would possibly look better back in the bottom left corner. Because I had moved it to the top-right I decided I would make the box darker, so I took it from white to a grey colour (R: 206 G: 206 B: 206)
I thought more about the layout of my cover and decided to tweak it some more. I liked the way the boxed text looked in the bottom left corner of the page more than the top right. After moving it back there I studied the typography I had chosen and decided to change it slightly. I made the point size 55 (as well as the shadow) and changed the font to bold. I think doing this was a good idea because the font is now easier to read and see on the page. For the box I decided to change the colour back to white from the previous grey. I think doing this has worked better than the other designs concepts and I have decided on this being my final cover piece.
This is my final front cover, I decided to redraw the box to a size that fitted the font size I had chosen, which was 48pt. I also adjusted the shadow of the text and put the opacity to 44% I chose to keep ‘Cicle’ as my secondary font, because I felt that the sans font worked with the sans-serif typeface I had picked, which I also chose to centre. Overall, I am happy with my choice of photograph for this cover, I think the photo works well as it is taken at an interesting angle which could potentially draw people into looking at the book. I also think it works because there’s blank space where the sky is in the photo, so the cover itself doesn’t look overcrowded with a massively detailed image which fills the whole page. I like my cover design and the way it is laid out. I am glad I tested a series of fonts and layouts before deciding on this one so I know I made the right decision.
HUDDERSFIELD A visual guide
Page layout
Development
As seen in the screenshot above, I created an InDesign book layout which measured 25x20cm. Referring back to my thumbnails from before I placed my images on the way I wanted them to look.
This is my book layout when a cover and two pages are added. At first glance it looks plain, like there’s not a lot to the book itself but I will add designs to the pages once I have laid them all out.
I then added another image on the opposite page as it was shown on my layout thumbnail drawings. I think this concept works well and there’s enough room to add text underneath both of the photos.
I decided to sample some more of my layout sketches. This one doesn’t leave much room for text or anything. I think with some tweaking this page layout may work but I’m not 100% sure I would consider laying more than one of my pages like this.
I then did another page layout over two pages, with one big one on one side to balance out the two little images placed on the other page.
To balance out the bundle of images on the left I decided to see what it looked like if I placed one larger image by the side of them. I think this helps to balance out the pages and makes the composition on the left look better when placed side by side.
Another page laid out in my book.
Originally I wanted to go for a darker background for my book, since the one I researched had darker backgrounds, it made the images ‘pop out’ of the page more. I tried a dark grey with the RGB: 168, 174, 187. I then tried black. At first I liked the dark grey colour, but I also thought about a lighter grey colour. After input from my peers, I decided that the lighter grey was the best option and that the black and dark grey backgrounds were too dark and took away from the images.
As I was placing my images onto the page and fixing the layout, I felt my images looked too on the page, so I decided to add simple white borders around the images using the ‘rectangle frame tool’ in InDesign. I also tried black but I felt that they looked too harsh on the page.
Page design Development
After being happy with my page colour choices, I decided I wanted to add a simple texture/pattern created using Illustrator to place onto my book pages, to make it less plain and see how it affected the outcome. I created the pattern by layering hexagons next to each other, with a 5px line and no fill. I did this until they filled the page. I then placed them onto my document and reduced the opacity down to 1% for a subtle patterned effect.
I decided to try another pattern, drawn in Photoshop, duplicated then transferred over into Illustrator to be traced. I like this pattern a lot more than the hexagon one, as the shapes are more elegant and fit the theme nicer, rather than just shapes stuck randomly, I think this pattern flows very well. I again faded the image out to 1% opacity so it would only just show, but I may increase this a little if it proves to be a problem for other people to see.
Page contents
Further development
Here I show the changes I made to my pages throughout my development stage. I swapped the background for the one I preferred originally, and put up the opacity to 1.5% to make my chosen pattern show up slightly better on the page. I then decided that my images looked too small on the page, so I was going to enlarge them. I enlarged the images evenly on each page, checking everything was in line and neat. I am now happy with how my pages look.
Final product
Front cover
HUDDERSFIELD A visual guide
Contents