Each year the BA(Hons) Photography course at Leeds College of Art produces a cohort of talented students working across multiple fields within the creative industries. There yearbook provides them with a chance to showcase there talent and grow there professional network of contacts.
BRIEF 12: YEARBOOK
DISCOVER
DEFINE
DESIGN
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Brief
Pitch
Market
Visual
Each year across the courses at Leeds College of Art, the graduating year receive a yearbook to showcase there work to industry. The Graphic Design course is responsible for the design and production of these yearbooks. Working in small teams, students are assigned one of the six courses who are requiring a yearbook. These teams will then be required to work closly with an editorial team on there chosen course to develop and design the yearbook. Format is to be considered by said team however college brand guidelines are to be taken into consideration.
Each year the all of the students on the Graphic Design course get to pitch for the chance to work on the graphi design yearbook, if unsuccesfull the remaining teams are assigned to other courses across the college. Myself, Eve Warren and Samuel Hoh joined forces to pitch for the Graphic Design yearbook. After an inital brainstorming sessions we developed the concept ‘Graphic Designer &’ we felt this reflected our time on the course as we’ve grown as graphic designer but we also have other personaility traits, activies and hobbies that we do outside of university which influence us as designers. Additionally the concept resented with Ambers words about how real life is more important than Graphic Design.
Before meeting with photography we explored and investigated the year book for previous years on the course. The photography course did not have a yearbook for the 2013 graduating year. We did find examples from the graduating years of 2011 and 2012.
After a few inital meetings with photography and project manager Phil, it was decided that the best format for the yearbook would be to produce a set of postcards rather than a full yearbook. The students of the photography course felt this was a more appropriate format for there work. As a result of this we started to explore how this format can be expoilted to create something unique.
User The primary goals for the photography year book is for the book to distributed to prospective students of Leeds College of Art. The Yearbook will also be avaliable throughout the duration of the End of Year Show as well as providing current students with a copy. The yearbook should aim to promote each student equally and provide there contact details a selection of there work and brief synopsis or Bio.
Infinity - 2012 The infinity yearbook for students who graduated in 2012, used the traditional square format for the book. Inside students had been given between 1-2 double page spreads to showcase there work, this was decided dependant on the type of work they produced. The yearbook was printed on a matt stock throughout with satin cover which featured a spot varnish. A layout features a range of composition again which were dependent on the images and the style of work.
Deliverables -
On going documentation on Blog A minimum of 5 submission boards Photography Yearbook (500 Copies) Relevant End of Year Show promotional materials
Unseen - 2011 The 2011 yearbook unseen, is printed on a satin stock and is of extremely high quality as students raised money to fund thr higher production costs. The same approach as the 2012 yearbook has been appled to it’s design.
BRIEF 12: YEARBOOK
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Inital Exploration
Further Experimentation
Devoloping the Grid
Developing the Cover
As we were limited to the A6 format of a postcard we felt that we wanted to make the most of the avaliable space. As each student was also only recieving one postcard this meant it was one image per person, so we really wnated to showcase the work. We decided to fill the the postcard entirity of one side with the image. We then explored how this would work with portrait and landscape images as well as the potential for sumbitted work to be a in square format. The square format was particularly different as it can’t fill the card entirely and it felt divorced from the rest of the postcards. We also looked into potentially having a border on the postcard and again experimented with how this would look across the three image formats. Aditionally we explored how text would function on the back of the postcard and how whether it owuld be dependent on if the image was portrait or landscape.
After again meeting with the Photography team we discussed the work we had produced thus far, although the team were happy with the work we decided that the idea was a little too safe and we needed to be a bit more experimental with how we used the format of the postcard. We then discussed the idea of having the images positioned on the postcard in a range of different ways and this was to be decided as a collection and to also think about how each image relates to the next images. As a result of this discussion we went away a printed all of the images and began a curation process in which we printed all of the submitted work and placed them into a grid of images which were matched together based on a range of criteria from colour, composition, style and tone.
After developing a grid of images that we were happy with we curated this same grid digital within illustator. We explored two idea, one in which images overlapped onto other posctards and another in which they remained in the grid but images didin’t overlap. We presented these two ideas to the photography team. After some discussion we decided that having the images overlaping each postcard was a strong idea and that they worked well as both individual postcards as well as a series when placed all together. After this meeting we want away and tweaked some of the postcards as some of the images either overlapped too much or some overlapped too little. We developed the idea of having the image overlapp outside of the grid so that a continous grid of images could be created, on a wall for example.
The photography team went away and talked to the rest of the photography students and as a group they came up with a group of names for the yearbook, through process of elimination they decided on ‘Not Good With Words’. Using this name as a basis we looked at produced a front and back cover for the cards. We had decided on using an X-band to hold the cards together this infuenced how we designed the cover, it was important to think about how this obstructs the covers and how this can be used advantageously. We looked at two different layouts however we felt the designed in which words were cut off the cover reflected the name visually as well mirroring how the cards in the pack overlap each other and are cut off at the edges.
BRIEF 12: YEARBOOK
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Photography Yearbook The completed photography yearbook features a front and back cover which is constructed from GF Smith ColorPlan stock, in 700gsm weight in the colour smoke grey. A white spot varnish has been used to print the text on both the front and back of the cover. Sandwiched between these two covers is 32 invididual poctards, one for each students and as well one extra postcard which details how the cards work together as a series as well as on there own. The Final typography using on the cover in Arnhem Pro in the weight Black, the typeface is complimented inside with the sans-serif font, Calluna Sans. The postcards and covers are secured together with an 80mm X-Band in a vibrant yellow colour.
BRIEF 12: YEARBOOK
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Postcards Each postcard has been created in a landscape format, the image on the front of the colour is positioned landscape, all of the images needed to remain within one format so that they could fit together and become one whole. However the information on the back of the postcard has been kept to the portait format, this is better readability as well ergonimic reasons when we read we like to hold the postcard in the portrait format. On each of the postcards Arnhem Pro has been used to for the name and the bio about the student is set in a contrasting Calluna Sans. The reverse of every postcard is the student name, a brief bio about either there work as a whole of the specific image featured on the postard, at the bottom of the postcard is the student contact information which is features there web address and email address.
BRIEF 12: YEARBOOK
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Grid As well as the postcard working as an individual showcase for each students work, they also work as a wall mounted grid of the entire cohort of students. Each postcard overlaps at leats one other postcard in the series. They have been ordered in a manner which matches images together based on various aesthetic qualities within the image. The images also overlap out of the grid meaning a repeating sequence of grids can be created. Visually this grid represents both the students work as well as how they have growth a developed as photographers over there three years at Leeds College of Art through collaboration.
BRIEF 12: YEARBOOK
DESIGN
DEFINE
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