Pass on Your Passions Julia Hicks
The Brief You are asked to create a printed book that would interest art directors, designers and the people of the creative industry. Using content gathered online you should design, layout and publish a 20-40 page book that communicates a subject that you are passionate about in a way that will appeal to us. The starting point will be your interests, food, clothes, music, games or any subject that you find compelling. Once a subject has been chosen you will need to gather and collate text and images that will help explain the topic and persuade your audience of it’s merit. This will require substantial online research and exploration. One of the constraints of the brief is that all content must have been found online, However, the text can be cut up and combined or edited as you see fit and images can be manipulated in Photoshop or Illustrator. The final book should be designed either using free downloadable software or software of your choice to create a PDF, uploaded to an online publishing service such as www.Blurb.com to create a 20-40 page book that will be a persuasive argument for both your subject and your design skills. To be persuaded that your chosen topic is worth our attention. To be surprised, and intrigued by the presentation of the subject. To create engaging and memorable combinations of type and image. What things are you passionate about? What do you think of when you think I’d rather be... Where can you find out more about your subject online? How can you engage with and communicate to your target audience?
Title Brainstorming Things I might be interested in... 1. Italy 2. Emotions/ couples/ love 3. People 4. Found Objects 5. Notes 6. Typography 7. Music 8. Films 9. Information Design 10. Friends and Family 11. Colours 12. Supermarket Culture 13. Nature 14. Food 15. Photography
Audience: Need to make them think: What is it? Am I interested? Have I seen it before? Do I like it? Remember More is More!
Found Objects. People/ Emotions./ love Supermarket Culture portrait photography black&white Pride and prejudice Passion Topshop/ Dresses Memories After asking people what would be the most interesting subject matter to them out of these options the most common option chosen was memory as it was something that alot of people thought they could relate to in a book. WHO:WHAT:WHERE: HOW:WHEN:WHY:
Memories: My memories and listening to other peoples memories. Naustalgia I took a trip down memory lane and found all my old notes, letters, and drawings. I decided It would be lovely to design a book with my own memories. Things to look at: Post secret Lost Love letters Diary extracts Type which is used in scrap books
who is my target audience? who would be interested in the subject of memory? who looks into the subject of memory? what do I need to gather for the project? what colours represent memory? what do I want to acheive from this project? where do they sell books about memory? where can I learn about image manipulation? when do you see a published piece about memory? when do people want to read books about memory? why would people be interested in memory? why choose memory? why did I choose this project? how do they design layouts about memory? how can I create images about memory? how do I use ‘issu’?
Title Inspiration After deciding on the chosen topic of ‘Memory’ I looked into different books that looked into memories whether it be a diary written by someone else, or a collection of letters written my other people. Looking at photography albums on Blurb also helped as photographs are a great symbolism of memory. I thought that handwritten memories was perhaps more of an interesting route to take rather than a book full of photosgraphs as they are interesting to read, and tells a story itself.
Title Post Secret My initial thoughts when thinking of memories were the books that contained peoples secrets, called ‘Post Secrets’ to me this represented a reflection on a memory that a person has and I love how they visuall convey their secrets. The books present a collection of peoples secrets, where people send in postcards annonymously to ‘Post Secret’ stating or releasing a secret they have in a visual way on a post card size. These are either very deep or commical and the post cards are treated like pieces of art. They have different textures, different types of hand writing, different images, and have been turned into mini collages. Each postcard is beautiful in its own way and has a story.
Title Some Collage Approaches
After looking at different ways people present personail information I continued to look for emotive ways of representing information. Writing ontop of photographs was commonly used. Photographs tended to be used alot within the collages as well. Even though handwriting was used frequently I liked the idea of having the contrast of a font like Helvetica to contrast with something so beautiful and expressive like a letter. I also liked the idea of using tape embossing letters as that used the font courier and explored a different medium. Another thing that I noticed was that when people tended to express themselves with collages they would use a textured background suck as wood, or brown paper. Bellow I tried my own attempts of creating a collage with a textured background and a variety of photographs.
Title Other Peoples Love Letters
After reading the book “Other Peoples Love Letters you were never meant to see� I found myself really drawn to letters. The book was so emotive considering it did not have any type, or any typical graphic design techniques, but I still thought there was something unique, special and attention grabbing to the letters. I think its because they are objects that we can all relate to and each piece has a story behind it. The different textures of paper that would be used made the background of the book, and it was interesting to look at different ways people would write their letters. The handwriting can be seen as an art itself as well as the words that were written. This inspired me to look for all my old letters and photographs. Within the book collages and ripped paper was used, the images did not appear edited as they still had the original border around them that they were scanned in as.
Title Artists that look at
collections of memories These are two artists that talk about memories in their work by collecting hand written pieces. Joseph Grigely- White Conversations He became deaf at the age of 10, so he collected scraps of paper from people who did not know sign language and communicated by writing mesages to him. Tomoko Takahashi- Drawing Room 1998 Collected her post for a year, including love letters, bills, faxes and junk mail, she then read each idem and obilerated the text with marker pens and attached the documents to the wall or ceiling. I also attempted my own version of ‘Drawing Room’ by scanning in old memories and then crossing them off as I re read each one.
Title Front Cover of Diaries When looking at the fronts of different diaries or journals they all tended to be black with embossed writing or white text. I thought that front cover of the diaries which were colourful and bright did not represent memory, but instead a diary of of happiness. I wanted to represent a variety of memories and black is a mysterious, secretive colour and best represents the word. When I asked people if they kept a diary and what colour was the cover the majority answered that the colour was black. I also asked them what colour does the word memory remind them of and again the majority of people answered either black,grey or white.
Title Hand Made Feel I looked into ways of how people presented information andwork when it was handwritten. People tended to scan in objects whether it be handwriting or actual spreads of sketchbooks. People also tended to write ontop of images which would sometimes make the writing hard to read. I also looked at different paper styles that were used as I notied frequently creams,and browns were being used as the background. This seems to be the representation of oldness within images and a classic example of this is a tea stained background with black and white images printed ontop of it. In traditional books such as Jane Austens classics the pages have a slight yellow tint to them so age is always interlinked with this particular coloured background. When things were written ontop of textures it made the hand written word stand out. When there was a vast amount of text however I found that handwriting was hard to read especially when squished together. A sketchbook feel is definately a feel that I think would work well with this book as sketchbooks tend to be personal objects and can be very playful.
Title How to Lay Out Images In all image based books, I noticed that alot of designers would use either just photographs withfolios or as little text as possible. If there was to be alot of text within the page, the image would be blown up to contrast it. Again the font ‘Courier’ or a more elegant simple font I noticed would be used with just images. This is done so the eye is automatically drawn to the image rather than the text. I needed to decide how I was going to write and present information about the topic of memory when using this style as the letters and notes would be treated as images themselves. Here are a few examples which I liked.
Title Typography as an Image Another way of presenting a message is by using just typography. I thought that type can be seen as an image as well so using different textures with just type could be a route to go down. When typgraphy is enlarged on the page it usually is expressing a short message and because I was writing longer sentences within my book it perhaps wouldnt be as effective. I liked the caligraphy style handwriting with a photograph in the background as the two elements contrast well. Again black and white are colours that are being most mostly used within the spreads.
Title People that use hand written approach in books
I looked into different people that used just the format of handwriting within their books. In this book in particular Keri Smith treated the typography as an illustration and used a simple black and white format to express and demonstrate her message. The overall design of wreck this journal has been made to look like a diary. It uses handwriting and different mediums such as masking tape to make the book look more like a hand made journal. The book itself does not need any images as the handwriting is interesting and the simple illustrations that go along side with the text works very welll to express its message.
Title How Images with limited text are presented
When looking at these particular genres of books I noticed that they all had the same thing in common. They either had very limited amounts of text, or no text at all. Folios tended to be used however some books didnt use them at all. The images were the main focus point in all these books so they had to draw attention in, not the writing within the book. If there was writing it would be very limited descriptions about the piece. The colours that were also used in these books was black with a white background.
Title People that use a Hand
Made Collage Approach
Different companies have a hand made feel to their overall brand and here are a few companies that look into that. The most common patterns that can be noticed are things such as wood being a texture which is most commonly used. Scanned in images and textures have been used to make the pages look more personal. Handwriting has also been used to give off a freindly hand made vibe. The type of brands that usually use this feel are food companies as they promote nature and well being within their companies. I want to take the elements that these companies use and use them within my overall design as that is the same feel that I would like the book to take its direction in.
Hand made Look Continued I looked at different elements which made different visuals look hand made in more detail. Teared paper, crinkled paper and collages were the main elements that stood out from the rest of the page. Hand written words were usually used as well as fonts such as Courier. Collages are often used to express feelings and emotions and these use elements such as photographs, masking tape and handwritten words. Collages and different types of paper are something I would like to take forward within the project.
Title Collection of my Memories
I decided to look through my memories and pick up some of the most emotive pieces. I found letters, pictures and little bits and bobs. Some of the memories had been forgotten about or just not as treasured as dearly as others would be. Others were remembered clearly and are close to me still. I have been gathering letters and notes since I was 14, so it was interesting to see the development of language, handwriting, and affection within peoples words. I think that they are all interesting to read and would grab the audiences attention as reading other peoples memories are always interesting, and is left to the imagination of those who are reading it as well.
Title Experimentation with Type
I looked into different writing styles that will make the book more personal with a handwritten feel as well as what kind of text would be most suitable when placed next to the images. Here are some styles I looked into. I also tried typically emotive fonts lthat are used for projects like this such as courier as they represent an old rustique feel. Which ever font I chose it also had to work in white due to the experimentation with different textured backgrounds.
Hand writing Hand Writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing
Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Swift Swift Swift Swift Swift Swift Swift
Swift Swift Swift Swift Swift Swift Swift
Swift Swift Swift Swift Swift Swift Swift
Hand writing Hand Writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing
Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Handwriting Handwriting Handwriting Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing Handwriting Handwriting Handwriting
Hand writing Hand writing Hand writing
SwiftSwiftSwiftSwiftSwiftSwiftSwift
SwiftSwiftSwiftSwiftSwiftSwiftSwift SwiftSwiftSwift-
SwiftSwiftSwiftSwift
Experimentation with Textures I created different ways of using textures, and ways of using tea and paint on the page. I also scanned in elements such as masking tape and burnt the edges of paper to give an antique feel to the diary. These different elements definately helped to make the book look more hand made and older. Textures within books automatically makes people want to hold it and flick through the pages more. I also attempted playing with the idea of paint splats onto textured paper to get some colour into the diary however it did not fit in with the feel I was looking for.
Experimentation for the Layout of the Book I attempted different ways of positioning the images and played around with different ways of presenting the folios. I also wanted to see how the handwriting font contrasted next to the hand written notes for curiousity. When the images had a white border around it, it made it looked out of place, and the masking tape looked very fake. I decided that if the paper was white on the hand written notes then it would be best to mount them up onto a white background as any other colour appeared too harsh. As there was alot of space on the page the folios worked best at a larger scale as it worked along side the text that was written, keeping it as minimal as possible.
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Title Experimenting with Layouts, Body of Text and Backgorunds I wanted to experiment with different ways of presenting a handmade feel so I played with different ways presenting the scanned in letters and photos in Photoshop as well as playing around with the idea of masking tape to make it look as though the diary was made by hand. My photshop skills are not the best so I thought that the images were not blending in with the background enough, and it looked badly edited. I then tried different ways of using a background in conincide with the images. My initial attempts of typography with the images were not successful. Using the type on top of the letters made the letters illegible and they then lost the beauty and personal touch so I had to steer away from writing on top of the images.
Development Here are some of my initial experiments of laying out the images and how I treated the text. I experimented with placing the text and images onto textures such as the tea stained backgrounds, as well as seeing how the images worked on different places on the page along side with the text. I thought that the writing worked best when enlarged on the page when there was no other image, however when there was an imagee on the page it was best to use small amounts of writing not to distract attention.
Development I tried to write extracts within the book about how I felt about the different particular images. I firstly attempted writing about how long ago the memory was from, as well as writing about how exactly I felt or a brief explanation to what the image was about. After a few attempts I decided that the emotive route was not being successful so I decided to gather quotes about the word ‘memory’ from the Internet seeing as part of the brief was about gathering information from the internet. I found quotes from different authors and people and thought this was a much more effective way of writing about the subject matter as it was still emotive but not as corny and cheesy as the previous attempts I also experimented with different ways of alligning the text and images, as well seeing if the names of the authors was needed with the quotes which I then decided against
“Memory is a way of holding on to the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.” “We do not remember days; we remember moments” Cesare Pavese, The Burning Brand Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us. Oscar Wilde, “The Importance of Being Earnest” Leftovers in their less visible form are called memories. Stored in the refrigerator of the mind and the cupboard of the heart. Thomas Fuller Footfalls echo in the memory Down the passage which we did not take Towards the door we never opened ~T.S. Eliot The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant. Salvador Dali She glances at the photo, and the pilot light of memory flickers in her eyes. Frank Deford A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen. Edward de Bono In memory everything seems to happen to music. Tennessee Williams Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quickly you hardly catch it going. Tennessee Williams
Memory is the cabinet of imagination, the treasury of reason, the registry of conscience and the council-chamber of thought. Giambattista Basile Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory. LEONARDO DA VINCI: No matter how far we travel, the memories will follow in the baggage car. AUGUST STRINDBERG, Miss Julie If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than the rest, I do think it is memory. There seems something more speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the inequalities of memory, than in any other of our intelligences . The memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient; at others, so bewildered and so weak; and at others again, so tyrannic, so beyond control! We are, to be sure, a miracle every way; but our powers of recollecting and of forgetting do seem peculiarly past finding out. JANE AUSTEN, Mansfield Park Alzheimer’s ... it is a barren disease, as empty and lifeless as a desert. It is a thief of hearts and souls and memories. NICHOLAS SPARKS, The Notebook Memory is not an instrument for exploring the past but its theatre. It is the medium of past experience, as the ground is the medium in which dead cities lie interred. Walter Benjamin Every man’s memory is his private literature. Aldous Huxley
Title Furthur Development I explored with many different ways of positioning the quotes. The 2 main fonts that I experimented with was ‘Swift’ and ‘Courier’. This being because they were both nostalgic fonts in which when I asked people which fonts in particular reminded them of diary extracts or reminded them of memory. I thought that these two fonts were also the ones that suited the images that were within the book the best. There were alot of testings, here are just a few of them. The font ‘Swift’ worked the best in contrast to the images as well as when it was enlarged and used as an image.The images worked well even when they were placed on the page alone as it can be treated as text as well as an image. When different textured backgrounds were applied to the book I thought they worked best when the text was applied on top, whilst the images worked best usually on a while or black background. I also came up with the idea of using a modern way of representing frames within the images as they are also a way of framing memories when used with photographs. The whole outline was not working so I used corners on the page and thought that it added a bit more edge to the quotes and some of the text.
Title Rationale I thought that the research for this project was perhaps harder to do as although I found alot of books and websites that portray memories and emotional pieces as well as breaking down the subject matter, the topic was also very limited, and during my research I found out that all these books tended to have either no text within them and if they did it would be very limited. I struggled to find the right balance between the images and text, and how I could make them work in harmony. I would like to explore a different way of presenting the information I have. I found this project quite hard to sink my teeth into. I found it very limited and I did alter the brief slightly as I thought that the internet is a very unemotional tool and I wanted to experiment with a subject choice that I got excited about and that was personal at the same time. Despite my experiments I think this has alot of potential to be taken furthur into. It will need to be perfected alot, however I really like the concept and how the images can be seen as text as well as being the main focus on the page. I decided not to print the book as it is currently not something I would put in my portfolio and I would like to perfect it before it gets printed. Talking to Ben and Philipa will aid me in doing this. I felt the images worked better when there was very little text on the page. When there was too much written down I thought that the images lost their personal touch so I tried to keep as little text as possible. I think that the idea of quotes works quite nicely within the book as there is a nice contrast with my personal memories and other peoples opinions and thoughts on memories. I thought that if I was to put my own thoughts within the book like diary extracts, it would then make the book very corny, and this way the images would leave the reader with their own imagination to what the letters and images mean. I thought that sticking to a black, grey and white theme whilst using different backgrounds would suit the book the best as they compliment each other the best and stand out from the page in the most effective way when using this style. They also best represent the feel of memory. I thought that steering away from the handwritten type would be wise as it would clash with the beauty of the actual hand written objects so choosing the font ‘Swift’ I thought worked much better as it was personal but not too cold and stiff as a font. In a way I am glad I have taken on this project as it has made me learn that I am not very good at book design, and it is something I would like improve on or perhaps steer away from!
Bibliography http://issuu.com/home http://www.blurb.com/ http://postsecret.blogspot.com/ http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/opll/ http://www.bitique.co.uk/ http://koikoikoi.com/ http://moansandgroans.tumblr.com/page/8 http://www.formfiftyfive.com/ http://www.indexbook.co.uk/libro.php?983 Fingerprint: The Art of Using Hand-Made Elements in Graphic Design (Hardcover)- Chen Design Associate Hand Job: A Catalog of Type- Michael Perry Layout Workbook: A Real-World Guide to Building Pages in Graphic DesignKristen Cullen Things I have learned in my life so far- Stefan Sagmeister PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives- Frank Warren My Secret: A PostSecret Book- Frank Warren 1000 Journals Project- Kevin Kelly Other People’s Love Letters: 150 Letters You Were Never Meant to See - Bill Shapiro Passive Aggressive Notes: Painfully Polite and Hilariously Hostile Writings - Kerry Miller Postcard- Agathe Jacquillat http://issuu.com/juliahicks/docs/passion_of_memories
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