SD3209
PUBLICATION DESIGN YANG SHU FAN Abby 19084538d
AIMs of the SUBJECT
Pub·li·ca·tion
(n.)
/ The act or process of producing (a printed work) and selling it to the public / An item that has been published, especially in printed form / The communication of information to the public
Subject Background: Publication Design Subject 3209 Publication Design is a course that delivers the knowledge and practice of publication design. Through the courses, students will learn the principles of typography layout, book cover appreciation and design, printing process, and the ability to design and print out a hard copy publication.
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Aim 01: Enhance Typography Skills From SD3209 Publication Design, I expected to enhance my typography skills and the sensibility in the relationship between space, images, graphics, and texts. Reviewing my learning journey so far, I found that I hadn't really print out any layout design and do the adjustment on real paper. It is scary to discovered that as a design student I heavily rely on digital device, mouse, and keyboards to do the design instead of using my raw eyes and hands with pencils and rulers to do the layout adjustment. Therefore, I hope to enhance my typography skills and getting my hands dirty in the courses to be more familiar with paper materials and the senisibility of my raw eyes.
Aim 02: Equip the Printing Knowledge As a design student who have studied in communication design for 3 years, it is embarassing to say that I haven't really print out any hard copy of design before. Owing to the outbreak of pandemic since 2020 when I was year 1, it was sad that I had Typography 2 in online mode. Therefore I missed out quite a lot of chances to do the practical execution on layout design and book design. Printing is the crucial part that turns a publication in intangible digital format into an actual tangible objects. To make the publication really come true, designers need to be familiar with the printing process and feasibility to have a better picture about the design result and therefore can avoid as many design mistakes as possbiles in advanced. Hence, after the study of the courses, I hope that I can equip the printing knowlege and really print out a publication.
Aim 03: Explore More Communication Approaches As the digital devices has become the center of the communication medium of the society today, designers can create stunning visual effects by softwares and through screen displays. However, I think sometimes as a design student growing and learning in such a high technology era, we over pursuit the fabuluous and crazy visual display on the screens and overlook the same potential of traditional medium. Therefore, through this subject, I hope to expand my design sensibility and approach to experience more communication possibility to convey the message not only with visual sense but also other human senses.
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LEARNING RECORDs Week 01 Why Printed Books? The role of books have changed from the conatiner of information to the sculpture of information. The existence of the printed books has been questioned since the advance of the technology. It is inevitable that people shifting from reading printed books to 3C media whether in the format of texts, video, or audio.
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flow into my figner tips is a communication and connection with the book. Through this connection linked up by whatever kind of papers, I become part of the book.
As a person with reading habits, I always prefer the printed book instead of the e-books. The role of printed books to me is a shelter for me to escape from the world overwhelmed with noise, especially the world dominated by screens today. Although the 3C technology claims to be powerful in rendering immersive experience, yet I would say the experience is flat. The digital technology may be superior than traditional printied books in rendering the visual and audio experience, but the fatal disadvantage of digital devices is the rendering the feeling of material texture.
Weight issue is often discussed as the weakness of printed books. Indeed, compared with phone and tablets, books are too clumsy to carry if carry more than a book at the same time. However, if we put aside the issue of mobility, the weight of the books demonstrate the part of the personalities of the books that 3C device fail to achieve. For instance, comic books are usaually light because it is intended to let reader relax whereas the toolbooks are heavy because abudance of knowledge is compile together. Somehow the weight of the books is like a metaphor of the book's personality. In addtion, the weight of books is as if an anchor that make my heart calms down, showing its existence and companion to me.
How can the smooth and cold screens hold the warmness and roughness of papers? "Feeling" the books is the irreplacable fun and fascination of reading printed books. Everytime I turn the pages when reading, it feels like the rougness or smoothness of the paper
Another fascination of printed books for me is the documentation of time. As the papers expose under air longer, the surface turns yellowish and pops up sporadic brown dots. Everytime the readers take out the books and turn the pages, subtle wrinkles and
stains attach to the surface. Although these properties are seem as the flaw that lowers the price of the book in the used-book market, however instead these imperfectnese is an obsession. The time the books spend with their owners is recorded on their bodies, and perhaps they will be passed to other new owners someday or accompany with the same owners to the world end.
Week 02 & 09 Book Cover - Understanding, Decomposition, Recomposition Although the saying goes "Never judge a book by its cover", however, it is undiniable that we always made our decision largely depending on what we see at the first sight. To be a book cover designer, having reading interests and habits is necessary, otherwise the design result is impossible to correspond with the body content and strike a resonance with the readers.
the first sight. For instance, the Taiwan book designer WANG ZHIHONG has a distinctive style in playing with the the geometric shape, typography, and photography to generate a bold and impressive book cover design. His brilliant sense in space arrangement generate a strong tension and precise message that you can tell the book is designed by WANG ZHIHONG, by which I always got attracted and purchases the books at the end.
"Layers" is the key that make a book cover design perfect. Designers need to have a clear idea about what kind of experiences they want to generate and then plan them into different stages. Usually, visual layouts are the first level of experience that a book cover generate. The arrangement of space and visual elements should be precisely designed. To make the experience deeper and more multiple, designers can play with the other 4 human senses through the use of materials to build up more messages. From my observation, there are two types of book designers. First is the one that strongly show his/her own styles that you can tell at
_/ Memory of Vermilion, designed by WANG ZHIHONG
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The other kind of designers, on the contrary, will not show too much of his/her charactersitcs on the design, which make the design more diverse and do not stick to a specific style and image. 祖父江慎Shin Sobue is the representative of this kind of designers. From the Japan interview show with Sobue, Sobue said that when he was working on a project for a comic book cover design, the cartoonist just told him that his comics did not need to be formally designed becuase the essence of the comics is the content inside of it insteasd of the cover. I think this quite similar to the design practice of Sobue that he never let the cover design take away the attention from the body content by showing diverse aspect of design and not letting his personal label superior than the author. In my opinion, it is hard to tell which kind of designers is more suitable for book cover design. For designers who show their strong personal design traits can make the book asscociate with the brand of the designers to build up a trustworthy connection image about the body content. As for designers who do not fixed to specific visual approach, their designs, I'd say, are less aggresive to the body content compared with the former kind of designs because designers like Sobue make the author as the center of the stage instead of his visual design.
_/ A Book of Colour, designed by WANG ZHIHONG
_/ The Interpretation of Dreams, designed by WANG ZHIHONG
_/ Book covers designed by Shin Sobue. It's obvious that there's no "style" in Sobue's design.
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Week 03 Making MagazinesWith Takahiro Kinoshita Magazine, different from the publication in the form of comics, fictions, or brochures, is a series of publication that have a clear core theme but the sub topics of the magazine may not be necessary the same with the core themes, which is an interesting form of publication that need to strike the balance between the characteristic of the magazine and the topics in every issue to maintain the harmony of a whole. While doing research about LifeWear magazine for project 01, I got to learn about the renowned Japanese magazine editor and art director, Takahiro Kinoshita and his design philosophy. Different from the ordinary magazine content editing, which is based on the interest if target audiences, Kinoshita instead hold a opposite opinion.
"I think the most important thing is not to set a target audience. Usually, most magazines design the content based on the target audience, which I don't favor this approach. I hope to open the door wider to as many people as possible so more people can pay attention to the issue I'd like to represent through the magazine." I think Kinoshita's design philosophy is inspiring. In the world overloaded with information, consumers often do not really know what they want. Therefore, the role of designers and editors is to compile and digest the information and lead the consumers to discover what they really want through magazines. This also point out the importance of information design ability that designers and editors should equip.
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Week 08 & 11 Birth of a Book & Printing House Visiting After the author finsih the content, editors need to proofread the content to pick out any error and then send to the book desginer to start cover and layout design. When the design is finished, the book will be foward to the printing house. In the printing process, the author, editors, and designer need to proofread through all the content, design, colors and effects again to make sure everything is in the right position and start the mass printing. After the binding is finished, the books will be distributed to the publishers and bookstores. Finally, the books will be picked up by somebod at someplaces.
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_/ The printing dots show under the maginifier.
_/ Comic books waiting to be binded and combined.
In the site visiting to Elegance Printing and Book binnding Co., Ltd., I finally saw the printing process and the binding process of a book. What you see from the screen is totally different from the print out. Therefore, it is important and a must for a responsible designer to check and proofread every print out to make sure the result is as ideal as expected. It is amazing to see how 4 colors inks are printed on stacks of paper seperately and then combined into the colorful and vibrant images that we see on the screen. Through the site visiting, I witness the birth of a book and realize that the birth of a book is the effort of different professionals in different roles.
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PROJECT 1: MAGAZINE REDESIGN About LifeWear Magazine Founded by UNIQLO in 2019, LifeWear Magazine is issued bi-annually to introduce the stories behind the production of clothing and the stories of people from all corners of the world in UNIQLO's clothing. Each issue theme surrounds people's daily life, which corresponds to the nature of clothing and the philosophy of UNIQLO. LifeWear Magazine is free for everyone. Whether the customers of UNIQLO or the passersby can take away the magazine when they stop by the physical stores. The magazine is also available on UNIQLO's official website. Readers can read the past issues of the LifeWear magazine on the official site.
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_/Dimension 215mm(W) * 274mm(H)
_/Number of Pages 120 pages
Redesign Approach & Strategies
Lo
c al Fo c us,
Gl
obal Vision
To make the adjustment and layout more flexible, I set up a 16-column grid systems to do 2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2, 4-4-4-4, or 8-8 arrangement for the photos and keep the body text be 8-8 to maintain the clarity of bilingual content. Since the photos in the cover stories are all architectures, therefore, I played with the leading line and perspective in the photos to extend them as another layer of invisible leading line to cooperate with the layout grid system. To make the overall design more dynamic, I added circular graphics and angular line to make the overall layout less rigid but at the sametime maintain the constructive and rational feeling of the architectures.
Difficulties Encountered during Project 01
What I've Learnt through Project 01
Throughout the layout redesign project, the most difficult task for me is to redsign the sectional page. The original sectional pages in LifeWear magazine feature the interviewees wearing UNIQLO's clothes. As for the body contents are about the design philodophy and the point of views about their roles as architects of two interviewees. Therefore, after digesting the body content, I considered that the architects are the main focus of the cover story. Since the title of the cover stories is "Local Focus, Global Vision", which generates a strong image of constrast, hence throughout the whole project I struggled to choose the suitable visual language to generate the tension and at the same time highlight the two architects.
At the beginning I thought that the original design had no room for improvement and felt worried about how to redesign the layout. However, after calming down and digest the content and visual elements again and again, I discovered that the leading lines in the photo of the architectures are the potential elements that I can play with the grid system to generate the layout with constructive feeling and sense of depth to correspond with the theme of the content - architects, architectures and their design practices. After project 01, I felt that I've become more sensitive about grid systems and be more flexible with the relationships between text, images, and grids, which are the aspect that I couldn't realise and execute when I was still in Typography 2. Therefore, I'm really glad to see these changes and growths happened on me.
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FIRST *Cover image The original cover image doesn't have strong connection with the article theme. Cover image need to be changed. Can try out the juxtaposiotion of "Local" and "Global", "Detail" and "Overview"... etc.
←Subtitle The point size can be larger.
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↑Title Can try out the combination of different typefaces to bring out the contrast show in title.
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*Color adjustment→ The color of the image can be brighther.
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↑*Size adjustment The size of the profile can be larger a little bit.
↓*Change the caption style Try out the abstract shape of the introduced architecture.
*Try out new arrangement ↓
*Place one more element Maybe find another Tate Modern picture or add quotes here.
Try out different caption styles since in new layout different topics of architectures are seperated.
↑*Leading Adjustment The leading of the chinese content can be larger. 15
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Switch position ↓
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Need to rearrange
Switch position ↓↑
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Paragraph line break adjustment→
Do line breaking adjustment or justifiy the paragraph.
Remove or change the g
Try out new graphic or the graphic can be removed
↔Size Adjustment Make the image become full page
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→
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↔Size Adjustment The image size try out to be larger
graphic→
d.
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Need to rearrange
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Paragraph line break adjustment→ Do line breaking adjustment or justifiy the paragraph.
←The quote can have overlapping with the image
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SECOND
←*Subtitle Be bolder and larger.
←*Intro(CH)&(EN) Be bolder.
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*Dot→ Smaller.
*Grid→ Change to 9*9.
↑*Typeface adjustment Try out one bold one thin or both sans serifs or both serifs
*Overall the layout is a bit messy 25
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*Remove or change to sectional page→ If removed then need to add one more photo of Tate Modern.
*Left Alignment→ Try out left alignment.
*Need to rearrange
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*Alignment
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*Need to rearrange
←Too Complex
*Need to rearrange
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↔Size Adjustment Make the image become full page
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↓*Try Moving downward
↑*Try Moving upward
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*S
*Size: larger→
*Try Wider column
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Size: larger→
n width
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THIRD
←*Subtitle Enlarge a bit.
←*Intro (CH) Increase Tracking
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↔Size Adjustment Stretch to the right more
↓*Try Moving downward
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*Try overlapping
*Alignment
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FINAL
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PROJECT 2: ALL THINGS BEAU Project Background
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Why Chose Islanders Space?
Interviewee 01: Bookstore Owner - Kit
The chosen topic of our group is an independent bookstore called "Islanders Space" located in Peng Chau. The independent publication, ISLANDERS, is a series of "map" zine discussing about the urban context and ordinary phenomenon happened in the daily life of Peng Chau.
Kit is the founder of Islanders Space. The idea of issueing the independent publication, ISLANDERS, was based on the profession and research fields of his wife, Myriem. We were really grateful that Mr. Kit accepted our invitation for the interview instantly and had an inspiring talk for us.
Unlike the common booklet form of zine publication, ISLANDERS, corresponded with its label "map zine", is a B2 size paper folded 3 times into a B5 size zine. The unique form and publication genre triggered our interest to learn more about the zine and its publisherIslanders Space and the designer of the zine.
Interviewee 02: Urban Designer - Myriem Myriem is the leading researcher and content generator of the ISLANDERS project. Compared with other field of design, Myriem's
UTIFUL urban design works are more conceptual and academic-oriented, which is a bit hard to really demonstrate concrete artworks in the book. Therefore, it is quite challenging to choose the suitable photos for Myriem's part.
Interviewee 03: Zine Designer - Hong Hui Hong Hui is the designer of the zine and the brand designer of Islanders Space. It was surprising to find out that Hong Hui was the student of PolyU Communication Design. Since currently Hong Hui is in Sweden, there-fore we conducted the interview with him at 1 a.m. HKT, which was a crazy experience but inspiring talk and sharing with our talented senior.
_/ The folding structure of ISLANDERS Zine
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Art Direction Calm, Tranquil, Chill Peng Chau is a small island that you can go through a round of it within one day. After paying visit to the bookstore and walking through the island, we gained the inspiration of calm and chill image for the book art direction. Therefore, for the book we decided to use white background with palatte color scheme to bring out the tranquil feeling of Peng Chau. When conceiving the art direction and layout design, I encountered several struggles. Since the topics of our book surround the bookstore Islanders Space and the zine ISLANDERS, the art direction and visual elements inevitably be similar with the zine. Therefore, it was challenging that how to come up an unique art direction for our book that is not too similar with ISLANDERS but at the same time brings out the island feeling of Peng Chau.
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Content Layout
_/Dimension
_/Grid System
_/Typeface System
B5 (176mm* 250mm)
12 columns (4.2 mm Gutter)
Heading 1 (CH/EN) Noto Serif CJK Semibold 13pt leadning: 15.6/ kerning: 0 Cream font Regular 12 pt leadning: 14.4/ kerning: 0
Body Text (CH/EN) Noto Serif CJK Regular 9pt leadning: 13.5/ kerning: 10 TT Commons Light 9.7 pt leadning: 12/ kerning: 0
Heading 2 (CH/EN) Noto Serif CJK Semibold 10pt leadning: 12/ kerning: 0 Cream font Regular 10 pt leadning: 12/ kerning: 0
Caption (CH/EN) Noto Serif CJK Medium 7.5pt leadning: 11/ kerning: 0 Cream font Regular 7.5 pt leadning: 10/ kerning: 0
_/Number of Pages 92 pages
_/Margin Top: 18mm Bottom: 25mm Outer: 13mm Inner: 15mm
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Visual element 1_ Vertical, Horizontal, Circle I was in charge of the illustration for this book project. After digesting the interview content, I came up the line style illustration and three symbols to represent three interviewee respectively.
For symbol 3, the circular and orbit like graphic represents the spirit of the communication designer Hong Hui that he combines the ideas of people from different profession background through visual approaches.
For symbol 1, the vertical line represents the spirit of the bookstore owner Kit that he digs deeper to understand more about the island he is living in.
Personally I'm quite satisfied with the art direction I came up because the line graphics fit well with the conceptual interview we have with the interviewees.
For symbol 2, the horizontal line represents the spirit of the urban designer Myriem that her journey spaned across different places and at last decided to stay at Peng Chau to conduct her research and apply her professions to the island.
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Visual element 2_ Map The common point of the three interviewees are that their past journey has an important influence on the things they are practicing right now. Therefore, to highlight the information, I drew the map of their past route and placed it at the opening pages to better demonstrate the information to the reader and add more dynamics to the layout.
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坪日 Re: Ordinary I did the typography design for the chinese book title, 坪日 . The chinese title is the pun of Peng Chau and Daily day in Chinese pronounciation. Everytime I visited Peng Chau for the book project, the shimmering reflection of the sun on the water surface always attracts me. Therefore, I made the connection part in the Chinese character to be like the glittering sparks on the sea surface to represent the island life of Peng Chau and the ordinary but fascinating scenary.
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_/ The stroke weight of the character is bold and the thick-thin contrast is low in order to generate the intimate and low-profile feeling of the island.
_/ The English title is based on Cream font ( 凝書體 ) and then added with some little tweak to maintain the consistency with Chinese character. _/ The glitter spread on the water surface, implying the low-profile beauty of Peng Chau.
_/ Personally I'm quite satisfied with the subtle feeling generated by the negative space.
_/ To match with the anatomy of Chinese character, the intersected part of the bowl and stem of letter "d" and "a" are seperated to create the similar subtle feeling.
_/ The design draft of the typography. I traced down the outline in procreate with rough texture brushes and then sent to illustrator for further adjustment.
_/ The initial book title and typography design. The size of the notch was much smaller in the inital version, which make the effect and metaphor not obvious enough and may be confused as priniting mistake.
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Jacket Design Design Rationale The material used for the book jacket is a paper called Oxford that has the rough and cloth-like texture which I think is quite suitable for bringing out the ordinary image of Peng Chau. The pure white color of the paper deliver a silent and tranquil feeling, as if the sky and sand in Peng Chau. For the jacket image, I chose the photo of a plastic chair placed near by the sea shore at Peng Chau. Chairs in Peng Chau are ubiquous and become a feature of the island. Therefore, I chose this photo with a white plastic chair and azure sea at the background to bring out a clean and chill image of island life. The structure of the chair back also forms a pattern for the jacket.
The raw line with knots extended from the top left corner of the jacket to the right folded flap represent the journey and exploration of the three interviewees. When readers read the jacket with the guiding of the raw line from top left to the bottom, they will discover that the letter "O" in the English title is also one of the knots in the graphic. Next to the subtitles, the grpahic with two groups of 3 circles connected with a line represent the image of paper telephone handset that most of the people have in their childhood to convey the image of conversation between readers and the three interviewees.
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UV Effect I also applied uv print on the book title and the line graphics on the jacket to add more textures and layers for the experience. I quite like the effect especially the result showed on the line graphic because the texture strengthen the original leading line function and add more playful feeling to it.
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The graphic next to the subtitles also applied the UV effect. I hope the reader can "feel" the transmisting process and image of communication.
The symbol at the back of the jacket is a combination of the 3 symbols representing the 3 interviewees. I placed this symbol at the back of the jacket as a metaophoric summary of the book, hoping the reader can decode the meaning of it after finish reading the book.
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Cover Design Design Rationale The material of the inner cover is toccata, a card board paper with the rough texture. Since the grammage of the jacket is 118gsm, therefore I picked a harder material for the inner cover to support the whole structure of the book. It is a city scenary that Peng Chau residents grab their seats into the public space and sit along the seashore or under the shade together to have a chat. Hence, on the cover, there are three chairs representing the scenario of three interviewees sitting together and have a chill chat (although one of the interviewee is currently outside of Hong Kong).
_/ The colour of the cover is inspired by the yellow paint drew along the seashore of Peng Chau.
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A hidden surprise for the reader when they read to the end of book. The illustration looks similar with the illustration on the front cover but still looks a bit different. Readers with good spot will discover that the illustration is actually the back perspective of the front cover, as if standing back at the three interviewees and enjoying their chat quietly.
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_/ I personally quite like the contrast between the tranquil white and playful yellow, which gives more layers for the visual experience and surprise.
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Previous Design Drafts for Jacket & Inner Cover
_/ Initially I chose the photo about the entangled ropes at the pier of Peng Chau to represent the intersected ideas of the three interviewees. However, the tutor commented that there's no tension and Peng Chau feeling in the layout.
_/ The tutor suggested me to think of the most iconic element about Peng Chau or the most impressive thing I found in the book. Therefore, I tried out photos of different iconic objects at Peng Chau and at last decided to use chairs.
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Difficulties Encountered during Cover Design Since I started the cover design quite late, therefore I did not have enough time to have more tutorials with the tutor about the cover design. The most struggling process for me is to decide which photo I should use for the jacket. Actually I was a bit reluctant to use the photo of chairs because the theme of the cover will overlap with the ISLANDERS zine. However since the scenary of chairs are really impressive to me and hence at last I went for chairs. I tried out illustartion approach and found out that the illustrative styles could applied on the inner cover. Hence to create layers, I decided to go for photography for the jacket and illustration for the inner cover to create contrast and surprise.
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Responsible Part 01_ Chapter 01 (p.1~p.32)
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Responsible Part 02_ Closing part (p.88~p.92)
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Dummies v.s. Final Result
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Throughout the whole project, the layouts went through 3 times of revision. Compared with the earliest version, the final output showed significant improvement. Alhough the entire journey was quite tiring, however, I enjoyed the process a lot and felt paid off when recieving the compliment from the tutor.
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What I've Learnt through Project 02 Project 02 is really a challenging task compared with the previous projects I have in my past learning journey. It is really demanding but interesting journey to do text editing, photo shooting, layout design and cover design and print out the books by our own. I feel like project 02 is a big wrap-up of the typography knowledge I learnt from Typography 01 & 02 in year 1, the lectures in Publication Design, and the experience gained from project 01 (Magazine Redesign). Especially when doing the paragraph line breaking adjustment, the process reminded me of the line breaking exercise given by Roberto in Typography 01. At that time I thought the exercise was quite non-senese and didn't understand the purpose of it. However, when doing the two projects of this subjects, I realized that those seemingly mundane training is helpining me to build up a solid foundation that enables me to spot the minor details in the layout when really doing a publication design. The typeface analysis assignment in Typography 2 also helps me to pay on the detail of the typography design for the book title typeface to come up a suitable feeling for the book. Apart from the improvement of personal design skills, I also learned doing teamwork with others. The birth of a book is really a hardship that it will be extremely demanding for a person to finish all the tasks. Therefore, it is important to distribute and share the workloads based on the strengths of each team member. Overall, I really enjoyed the whole process starting from doing interview, collecting photos, art direction discussion, executing the design to the final output and print out of a real book. The experience I gained from this project is undeniable a precious nourishment for my further study in design.
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_/ Group photos with Myriem, Kit, and my groupmates - Justin and Kay.
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ANALYSIS: TYPOGRAPHIC SYSTEMS Typographic Systems 文字排印設計系統
Author_
Kimberly Elam
Translator_
呂奕欣
Designer_
卵形 Oval Graphic ｜葉忠宜
Publisher_
臉譜出版
Issue_
2018 May
Genre_
Graphic Design, Typography
Dimension_
17 cm*22 cm
Numbers of Pages_
160 pages
Art Direction_ Rational, Constructive, Typographic
Introduction_
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Written by Kimberly Elam, the book Typographic Systems introduces about the 8 systems of typography frameworksAxial System, Radial System, Dilatational System, Random System, Grid System, Transitional System, Modular System, and Bilateral system to the readers with visual explanation and examples analysis. The author leads the readers to get familiar with the grid systems from the works of design students and the professional by breaking down the layouts and giving suggestion for the improvements.
Exterior Analysis 3 Layers Design The exterior of the book consists of three layers- jacket, tummy band, and cover. The beige tummy band form a strong contrast with the grey jacket, dividing the layout into two sections. The design of the jacket is rather simple yet dynamic. To resonate with the theme of the book, typographic systems, the designer simply used texts, lines, and geometric shapes as the visual elements of the jacket design.
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Jacket & Tummy Band : Front Side The negative space at the top left area supports the visual elements in the layout and narrow down the focus to the positive space. The visual weight of the layout mainly lies in the top right and bottom left. As the first level information, the book title is placed at the top right with 90-degree rotation and written in all capital letters. To balance the lengths of “TYPOGRAPHIC” and “SYSTEMS”, a vertical line aligned with the ascender line of the word “SYSTEMS” extends from the top of the layout to the place below the y-axis position of the word “TYPOGRAPHIC” . Apart from balancing the visual weight, the vertical line also leads the reading flow from
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top to bottom and pause at the circle in black. The reading flow then bounces back from the black circle and goes to the name of the introduced eight grid systems. To make a contrast and balance, the names of the grid systems are written in horizontal direction and grouped in four, placed along the left of the two words of the title respectively. The reading flow moving forward to the bottom left space and the diagonal line printed in fluorescent orange take over the most visual weight (fig.4). The information at the bottom left area is the quote of the
book designer ( 葉忠宜 葉忠宜) and the names of the grid systems in Chinese. The texts form strips of vertical rectangular outlines that again forms a balance with the two big vertical rectangular outlines created by the English book title(fig.5). It is interesting to discover that the visual weight of the top right area and the bottom left area are the same. Although the size of the vertical rectangles at the top right is larger and those at the bottom left is smaller, however, the numbers of the rectangles at the bottom left is more, neutralize the visual weight. In addition, the vertical line stretches from the Chinese comma to the bottom correspond with the line at the top right. In terms of colors, the diagonal line in fluorescent orange is no doubt the most eye
catching one. Yet the circle in black, seemingly inconspicuous compared with its vibrant counterpart, catches back the attention of the readers from the left back to the right and then lead reading flow to the Chinese book title(fig.6). The circle has the function of anchoring the reading flow because of its color, black, but at the same time adding the rhythm to the layout without compromising the dynamic. It is interesting to discover that the two poles apart visual elements- vibrant and dark, dynamic and stable, loud and quite – create a strong contrast to the layout yet at the same time maintain the harmony.
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_/ The reading flow bounces in zig-zag direction dynamically, leading the reader to read through the information in clear logic.
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Jacket & Tummy Band : Back Side Except the ISBN code and bar code placed at the top left area, the remaining space of the back side of the jacket remains empty. The text introduction of the book is placed at the tummy band. Again, the same visual elements- fluorescent diagonal line and the black circle – appear. The diagonal line is used to highlight the first level information- English
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book title. The reading flow again is pulled back by the black circle at the bottom right. Compared with the circle at the front, the one at the back is less dynamic because it is placed closely to the bottom, as if the period of the whole information on the tummy band which fits its role as the visual element at the back of the book.
Taking off the Tummy Band If we remove the tummy band, the overall information structure immediately decreases one level and the layers of visual experience drop. Compared with the design with tummy band on, the book with jacket covered only is more flat and less interesting. It is obvious that without the diagonal line on the tummy band, the circle at the front of the jacket becomes silent. From the design and the big difference that the tummy band bring to the jacket, we can conclude that the tummy band is designed to be part of the jacket unlike the common tummy bands of other books that are simply used for placing optional additional information.
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Cover Analysis The designer used the raw cardboard paper for the cover, which I think fits well with the greyscale color scheme and gives an industrial feeling that implies the rational and systematic essence of grid systems. The information on the cover, same as the jacket, is book title and introduced grid systems in English only. The designer duplicates the layout on the jacket and rotate it 90 degree and place it at the left area of the cover. By doing so, the point symmetry structure forms a balance, and the circles increase the dynamic.
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At the bottom of the cover are the symbols of the eight grid systems respectively. The geometric and abstract shapes match well with the art direction of the book and give surprise for the readers when the jacket is taken off.
Top margin: 5mm
Outer margin: 5mm
Inner margin: 15mm
Gutter: 6mm
Outer margin: 5mm
Column width : 21mm
Bottom margin: 8.5mm
Interior Analysis There are 4 main layouts for the content pagesectional page, demonstration page, and pure text page. The grid system of the book is 5 columns for a page and 10 columns in total for a spread. The book title is placed at the top of each columns respectively as the decoration and the indicator of the grid systems. Based on the function of the pages, the designer arranged the content systematically.
_/Dimension
_/Grid System
_/Margin
17cm*22 cm (Single) 34cm*22cm(Spread)
5 columns
Top: 5mm Bottom: 8.5mm Outer: 5mm Inner: 15mm
_/Column Width 21 mm
_/Gutter 4.2 mm
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Sectional Page The margins of the spread are small, and the visual components are placed closed to the margin, giving a modern and bold feeling. The chapter title is placed close to the top margin. At the left of the layout is a rectangle printed in silver ink which takes up 7.5 columns space and overlaps the thin diagonal line, creating a strong and beautiful tension for the layout. At the top right of the spread is the visual demonstration of the system in a small square layout. The demonstration graphic aligned with the ascender line of the title instead of the top of the silver rectangle. The dislocation of two rectangle and the contrast in their sizes (big and small), colors (silver and white), and information (simple and detail) gives dynamic to the layout and maintain the harmony.
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Demonstration Page Layout 01 The layout of the demonstration page is evenly divided into two main columns. Next to the Chinese running head is an eye-catching red dot. The red dot always follows the Chinese running head and therefore the writing order of the English running head is reversed in the right spread. Instead of using even numbers of columns like six or eight for the page to make the book titles at the top align with the text box, the five columns system at the top and the two columns system create the dynamic of dislocation. It is clever that the designer printed the guiding line for work analysis on the tracing paper, making the visual explanation easy to understand and create a sense of decoding when turning to the next page.
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Demonstration Page Layout 02 In this format demonstartion page, The information is organizelly placed in 3 roles with less dynamic arrangement. The layout is more static to demonstrate the development process of the grid systems.
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_/Heading
_/Body Text
Typeface: ? Weight: Medium Point Size: 10pt
Typeface: ? Weight: Regular Point Size: 8.5pt Leading: 12pt
Demonstration Page Layout 03 In the format with larger demonstration graphic, the body text takes up 2 columns wheras the graphs takes up 3. The layout again is clear but show rhythms for the overall spread. However, we can see that the contrast between the heading and body text is bit low, making the hierachy of text information a bit weak and vague.
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Fly Leaf The material used for the fly leaf is similar with the Japanese paper with strong texture. The greyish blue of the fly leaf forms a contrast with the fluorescent orange on the tummy band. In my opinion, I think the paper choice for the fly leaf is clever not only because of another layer of experience it brings to the book but also offset the rigid and cold feeling of the art direction with the subtle texture.
_/ The texture of the inner cover and the fly leaf give the industrial style design more temperature.
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Conclusion Overall, I think the cover design and the layout design of the book is outstanding and the designs themselves are the demonstration of the grid system. Without any redundant elements, every component in the cover design is precisely placed and the negative space is well planned. The body layout design manages to arrange the text explanations and graphs clearly to make the information be easy to understand and refer to. Although the book is more like a textbook, however, the attractive and brilliant layout design absorbs me to keep reading and learn from the spirit of typographic systems from the design of the book itself.
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REFLECTIONs & EVALUATIONs Looking Back to My Journey... After finishing the courses, I can feel that I have an improvement in typography skills and raising interest in publication design. Throughout the projects and the workshops, I understand the importance of getting your hands dirty as a designer, which is the practice that I seldom do in my past learning experience. Looking back to my leanring journey of the coures started from week 1, me at that time was actually kind of be afraid of grid systems becuase I feel like grid systems is a restriction. Therefore, initially I was quite reluctant to try out grid systems. However, after practicing and analysing great works again and again, I realise that grid systems are not restriction. Instead, grid systems are the foundation and structure that sustain the stability of your design and at the same time generate rhythms and dynamics to the layout design.
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I would say the process of doing layout design is like filling the notes into the sheet music to compose a music. Some are lethargic, some are gentle, and some are vibrant. It is amazing that although the layout doesn't actually make a sound, however, good layout design can make you hear the melody
played by the texts, graphics, and spaces. Layouts are like the music sheets whereas the materials are like the instruments. Designers are the composers that compose a harmony symphony that stimulus the 5 senses experience of the audience. Examining through my learning process, I can confidently say that I have make im-provements in typography skills. However, I think I was not active enough on experiment-ing more materials and binding methods in project 2. If there was more time for project 02, I should experiment more approaches to elevate the overall reading experience of the book. Enhance typography skills, equip the printing knowledge, and explore more communication approaches are my aims of the subject. After going through the lectures, workshops, and projects, I can see that I have shown improvements in these three aspects. However, there are still large spaces for me to keeo improving and I'm excited about the further on journey in typography field.
Reference •
Wang, Z. H. (n.d.). wangzhihong.com. Wangzhihong.Com. Retrieved December 14, 2021, from http://wangzhihong.com/ Project/filter/book
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Oval Graphic. (n.d.). Typographic System — Oval Graphic. Retrieved December 14, 2021, from https://oval-graphic.com/ Typographic-System
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2016.07.07 Goro Deluxe 父江慎.祖 (2017, June 14). 2016.07.07 Goro Deluxe 父江慎.祖 Retrieved December 14, 2021, from https:// www.bilibili.com/video/BV16s411y7D9?from=search&se id=6806757954355536784
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