Project Five: Grid, Style, & Format
About the Project
For this project, we were asked to create any piece of our own, and bind the contents together to make a bound book. Being that this was our final project of the year, we incorporated different knowledge that we acquired over the semester: typography, shapes & colors, form & composition, and grid systems.
Step 0: Ideas that were scrapped
One scrapped idea that I brought to the interim critique was creating a bound book of “The Ugly Duckling”. After seeing posters and movies that successfully used the three color scheme of black-white-red, I thought creating a darker version of “The Ugly Duckling” would be appropriate for that color scheme; however, I realized that the short story contained too much text, and the color scheme seemed too dull to be used in a bound book.
Hence, I moved on from this idea.
Step 1: References and Content
Initially, I was interested in creating a bound book about some recommended destinations in the Philippines, but realized that I did not have enough personal photos of those destinations, and the amount of text in the book may be overwhelming. Furthermore, I realized from my last project the effectiveness of using different hues of a single color, and so, instead of pictures, I wanted to create objects using InDesign’s Pen Tool.
Nevertheless, while exploring photos of the Philippines, I came across this photo of the Chocolate Hills. This photo showed me how darker hues at the back and various sizes of the hills can give depth to an image. Hence, instead of creating a book about the Philippines, I decided to create a book about the different surfaces of the planets in our solar system.
Step 2: Sketches and Layouts
My first sketch incorporated two parts of a planet: the exterior on the left page, and the interior on the right page. For my grids, I wanted one to center text over the illustration of the planet to stylize two text colors (when inside the planet & when outside the planet), while another to simply be placed above the illustrations to avoid a clumpish look. However, during the peer review, some feedbacks I received urged me to focus on one aspect of the planet, and so I decided to create another sketch that solely integrated the surface of the planet.
For my second sketch, it made sense to turn the layout of the spread into landscape because the majority of it included basic surface features of each respective planet. The 4x3 tiles were included because I thought one side would comparatively have too much text, and each tile would include one adjective describing the planet. On the right page, a simple two grid system seemed to make sense in order to give balance to the spread, while simultaneously allowing much text to be written.
This project required research outside of the classroom because I wanted to create a non-fiction, educational book about the planets in our solar system. The primary website I used was: https://theplanets.org/planets/.
Step 3: Digital Iterations
After the critiques on our sketches, I made major changes when transitioning from drawing sketches to working on our first digital iterations. To begin, I excluded the 4x3 tiles that would have included adjectives about the planet. This is not only because was there not enough space to include the tiles, but also because white, empty space can alternatively provide balance and highlight the emptiness or color of the sky. Instead of the tiles, I included the nickname of the planet underneath the actual name of the planet. Futura seemed to be a typeface that portrayed balance and reflected the futuristic look of the planets, and so that is the font I use.
The major tool that I used for these iterations was the pen tool on InDesign. Using the pen tool, I was able to create the surfaces of the planet. To give depth to my illustrations, I also added surfaces that laid on top of one another, and had different hues of the colors. I used trial-and-error to pick colors that were not too bright, yet not too dark either. Instead, I changed the tones of the colors by 10 each time in order to ensure that the contrast between colors did not overpower individual colors. In addition, depending on what research showed about the planet, I chose a monochromatic color theme like on Digital Iteration 2, mixed color theme like on Digital Iteration 1.
Finally, for my grid, instead of simply listing facts about the interior of the planet, I thought it would be more appropriate and helpful if made a line between the grid and the illustration.
Step 4: Final Changes and Book Binding
For my next step, I met with Saumya to discuss my digital iterations. The first feedback she gave me was to not use the script typeface for the nicknames of the planets. Hence, instead of trying to highlight and differentiate the nickname by using another typeface, I remained using Futura, but simply used undercase letters, and increased the space between each letter to generate balance.
Saumya also told me place the title of each page on the most-left portion of the spread, and I wholeheartedly agreed because these were continuous spreads instead of individual pages.
The final feedback I was given was to make the dots on my lines smaller, and that is what I did.
For my bookbinding, I had an accordion theme in mind that linked all the surfaces of the planets together continuously; however, due to time constraints, I decided to stick with the classic, three-hole & string binding technique. This type of binding required me to print the spreads so that the first page of the first spread, and the second page of the last spread were on the same spread. The aforementioned layout was continued throughout all the spreads.
Final Crit
Mercury is the first planet in our solar system, as reflected by the drawing underneath the title, in which the left-most circle is highlighted. Because the surface is said to be dense and compact, the illustrations are quite shallow, while the atmosphere is a very dark shade of red because the planet is close to the Sun.
The major feature of this illustration is the volcano, which is comprised of lava flowing down it, and the ash clouds being released from the crater. The brownish color of the sky reflects the high amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and this color scheme also, hopefully, gives the sense that Venus has a very high surface temperature.
Earth is the only planet with life, and I highlight this unique fact by drawing trees, a bird, and a pond. The yellow outlines on the mountains show how the perfect amount of sunlight reaches the surface.
For Mars, I decided to draw the Mars Rover on the surface because I thought it is one of the most interesting feature of the planet, and one of the most amazing human accomplishment ever made. Apart from that, a cloud is drawn at the back with some opacity to portray a dust storm.
The major feature of this illustration is the tornadoes. Initially the tornado I tried to draw looked like below:
However, I thought this version looked to cartoon-ish or simply unrealistic. Hence, I edited the tornadoes to have darker spots incorporated to give them depth and rotational appeal.
Saturn is said to have much sand, and so apart from the furthest surface, the closer surfaces do not bend at sharp angles. Because the planet has similar sandstorms to those on Jupiter, the storm illustration is also used here.
Because Uranus is the coldest planet, I used bright shades of blue to reflect the icy features of the planet. Furthermore, the atmosphere was created using the curvature features of the pen tool, in contrast to using sharp angles.
During the final critique, the major feedbacks I received were compliments on my choice of colors, and the simplicity that my book had that was reflected through all my spreads.
If I were to do this project again, I would attempt the accordion book binding to add another element of continuity to my bound book. I also had struggle drawing tornadoes or storms on InDesign because I did not want to draw it too complicated.
