Final Book Design

My final design is based on a 5x5 modular grid system, this is something that is often used within editorial design within publications, and I believe it was the best option for me to choose; as previously discussed.

The intro shortly discussed the contents of the book without actually giving it away this is a common theme throughout the book where the audience is working constantly to figure out and make sense of the content through their own cultural journey through the location, using the short snappy comments and photos as a suggestive guide. The text is sized to 143pt, this was sized as it fits perfectly within the grid system and this is something that is the same as all of the titles in the book, as well as the main short sentences over the divider pages. This is to add a sense of consistency to the design, this size also takes up a lot of the page, really dragging the attention forcibly to this content, creating a more memorable impact on the audience; which can be seen later in the publication.

On the left-hand side of the publication as you turn through is the short influential statements that are used to be suggestive to the audience to guide their journey, the more instructional parts of these statements have been made bold and capitalised; in order to make them visually evident in comparison to the other text. This allows the audience to quickly locate them within the book and choose whether or not to follow it; thus, adding to the subjective nature of the book. The red marks are where the photo corners are to be added, they have been placed in a measure template of a polaroid, which the user of the boom would insert their own photo. Each place where extra photos can be inserted always covers some of the content of the book itself, this is incidental and evident throughout. I did this so each time the user of the book adds to it they are slowly making the book their own, making it about their own personal experience and journey rather than the book suggesting how to make it.

The sequence of never having two formats of the same image can also be seen through the book, the use of the three types has been previously justified, and through keeping to this sequence throughout (because of the length of the book) it gives the book a sense of consistency whilst retaining the journalistic type style.

Numbers have been placed throughout some of the pages and images of the book, even though these are not explained at any point they correspond with various photos co-ordinates. This has also been done on purpose, the whole concept of the book is to not fully give away any of the information/full picture without the user having to do any work towards finding out what the content is trying to tell them.

Double page spread images have been used to divide up the clean and minimal white space, these are done on three page intervals. The images themselves have been further manipulated, again playing on this idea of not giving all of the information to do with the content away at once. The samples that overlay the base image are squares that have been taken from the original image; they have all been rotated to add to the sense of unfamiliarity within the design.

As the book progresses the covering of the content with the users own inserts becomes more evident, the tip ons are on each page as I have tried to make each spread have a sense of interactivity whether it be the addition of their own content, or the discovery of finding the location for themselves. The content is covered but not completely as I wanted it to remain evident that there was original content behind the tip ons.

The polaroid style images have a small 0.25pt border, this is used as an indication of where to place the spot varnish afterwards, as I wanted the proportions to remain as accurately as possible.

I believe by setting myself a set amount of rules and sequences to stick to as well as abiding by the grid I chose it has given the book a strong consistent independent visual identity, which would be able to be carried across a variation of a series of the books, as and when needed. This is supported by the consistent use of two typefaces throughout.