Assignment 5: Visual Book

Zoe Yee Teoh
Nov 2 · 14 min read

Ideation

My sister is getting married this December and I hope to create a book to illustrate the journey and story of her and her fiancé as a gift for her wedding.

The first part of the book would be the stories of how they grew up and an introduction to who they are as individuals. The second part of the book would be stories of how they met and their journey together. In terms of content, it would consist of (1) photographs of them throughout their life, (2) text to describe the photographs and (3) illustrations that would tie the entire book together.

As part of the preparation of the project, I would have to start compiling photographs, gathering content (through interviewing the couple) and creating illustrations to tie the book together.

Design Considerations

  1. Find design references to get a good understanding of effective visual-verbal interaction
  2. Use effective typography and employ visual hierarchy to improve readability
  3. Choose or create appropriate images to communicate along with the text (show and tell)
  4. Use a grid system to create a clear, engaging composition
  5. Use color effectively and create a visual style that is compelling and appropriate
  6. Pay careful attention to detail and craft in the final printed piece

Brainstorming

I would hope that there would be more pages to the book because how could you fit the story of two unique individuals in just 16 pages? However, due to the constraints of the project, I hope to split the 16 pages of my book this way:

Page 0 (end sheets): title of the book, with some description

Page 1–2: aged 0–3

Page 3–4: family

Page 5–6: schooling — primary school, secondary school and junior college

Page 7–8: korea community service trip, graduating from junior college and paths changing

Page 9–10: hanging out — gym together, the text

Page 11–12: dating — long distance letters, packages, traveling, nicole graduates

Page 13–14: engaged — moving in together, graduation

Page 15–16: wedding — a verse/ quote and hope for the future

TED Video: Designing Books is no laughing matter. Ok, it is by Chip Kidd

From this short film, Chip mentions the balance between form and content. An example he mention that made me think is the phrase “you either say this (words) or you show this (picture)” as he shows a book cover with the image of an apple and the word ‘Apple’. He explains that this balance between image and text is used to respect the audience and allow them to use their imaginations.

It was really interesting to see some of his book cover samples and how he utilize the physical boundaries of the book by using the spine and considering the action of pulling a book out the shelf. The book ‘Dry’ was especially funny because it looked like the book was drenched.

One thing Chip does really well is the balance between the content and the audience, which I hope to do in my book exploration

Design Reference / Inspiration

Book Cover

I am still contemplating between an illustrated cover or a photograph as the cover. I hope that my book would be light hearted and fun and hope that by using illustrations, I would be able to achieve that. I chose a few book covers I really like — mainly because of the colors used, as well as a very clean and simple cover.

Page Layout

In terms of page layouts, I hope to stick to a few basic layouts and use them throughout the entire book. One thing I really like is the balance between leaving margins and having the image bleed across the image. Some of the layouts I have seem are also rounded in corners, which looks really appealling to me.

Illustration Style

I hope to incorporate some small illustrations and was searching for inspiration. I really like the slightly muted and pastel color palette and hope that I might be able to use them in my actual product.

Incorporating photo and illustrations

One thing I might incorporate for old photos is to illustrate on them. I wanted to search how to accomplish this to lighten the tone of the entire book and make it more lively.

Photo Layout

One thing I struggled with as I began with the layout of photographs is how to keep them clean and consistent but also fun. I decided to look into how wedding books are laid out and really like the following layouts because they are all very clean and incorporates a lot of whitespace I can see myself using as captions.

I really like the photo layout of the square book on the bottom left. It reminds me a little about instagram in the past.

InDesign Test Layouts

Digital Brainstorming

Approach: I wanted to keep a very clean layout for my photo journal. In order to do so, I wanted to use a standard grid throughout the entire book. In terms of color, I want to be able to show the change of the relationship by having the book start with black and white photos and colored when their lives cross.

Reflection: My approach when creating the digital brainstorming was so that the book would look professional. However, using a serif font makes the entire book less personal and more formal. In order to add in my own personal touch. i hope to include some personality by adding in hand written notes and drawings. Also, since they story is about the lives of two individuals that came together, I wanted to make it more clear how their lives were distinct by using colors.

Digital and Analog Integration

Approach: In order to distinguish between the lives of the two individuals, I wanted to use two different colors to represent them. I chose blue for Nicole and green for Edmond because I did not want to use the typical blue and red to represent their gender.

Reflection: There are a lot of information and very little breathing space. Also, when getting others to read through the book, they would be slightly confused where the book was going, and thinking that Nicole and Edmond are siblings. In order to provide more breathing space, I decided to add in blank pages to some spreads.

One other change I hope to make is for the images on the fifth spread (on the memories Nicole and Edmond shared together) to be more coherent.

Prototyping

Experimenting with a Vellum Overlays (Saddle Stitch)

Approach: One thing I wanted to achieve for the visual book was to maintain a sense of professionalism as well as some personality. In order to do so, I was thinking of having my handwriting be on vellum and the images be on paper.

Reflection: One thing I realized with saddle stitch is that the book would bunch up and would not lay flat. In order to solve this, I hope to explore different types of binding that would help the book lay flat.

Experimenting with Perfect Binding

Reflection: Though perfect binding helped the book lay flat, it was hard to keep the book tight together.

Experimenting with Colors

Reflection: Since the book is smaller than I initially planned out for it to be, some pictures appear really small. Also, one comment I got is to add in more texture into the colored pages.

Digital Iterations

Approach: For this iteration, I wanted to add in textured to the block colored pages. I chose a basic wavy stripe texture so that it would not be too distracting but not too restrictive. I have also changed the colors used, using blue to recommend Nicole, purple for Edmond and red for the times they are together.

Prototype Iterations

Approach: One thing I realized is that the translucent vellum I used was rather thick and slightly more opaque than I wanted it to be. I decided to use tracing paper for this iteration but my main concern is whether it would be printable. Upon testing it out, I realize that tracing paper would be too thin to be printed and would jam the printer. :(

Approach: Another roadblock was that larger printers used by the campus print shop were not able to print on the vellum because it is too translucent. In order to solve this problem, I hope to try printing on my own.

Final Iterations

I decided on the last design where the story would be in its own page so as to fully utilize the blank pages. One thing I realize was that the wording was too big. This increase in font size was mainly due to a critique comment saying that the main story flow is conflicting with the doodle. However, I feel that it will not be a big problem with the design chosen because the main story flow will be on its own page.

Final Product

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