Vietnam Guidebook Imagery Research

To be able to begin to understand my new brief I started to research into my new brief by looking at what the author of my new content had looked into. This is a necessary step to be able to understand the brief properly, as the book is based on a subject I have no background or understanding of.

The initial research I found on the blog of the author of the content was displaying their own personal first hand imagery from the travelling itself. This was useful as it allowed me to properly look into the visual journey they undertook whilst thinking about the content creation and direction this book should take.

To be able to use these images within the publication itself I will be receiving all of these relevant images, which will enable me to create a visual development and understanding of how these images could influence the books design and format itself.

Within the secondary imagery research, I discovered the type of imagery that the author was going for when considering the content for the book. The photographer which is looked at here focuses on capturing the essence of places, the souls of people and the world as it is through his eyes. Which is important to the place itself. This links also back to the brief, as they wish the book to visually portray a cultural trail through Sapa based on a personal experience as a young traveler. A series of subjective images, clues and thoughts to help you focus on what cultural lessons a trail through Sapa can truly provide by simply stepping away from the cliché tourist activities. This is a consideration to take into account when selecting the images that will be used within the book to best put across this point and almost portray the journey in a similar way to that of Daniel Korzeniewski.

The research also showed me a way of visually stripping the images back to purely focusing on the subject itself, through the use of black and white photography. This is something I will be investigating further within my later developments.

Through completing this research into the content original research I have been able to gain a better insight into the meaning of the book and the visual direction to begin to take into account when designing.