Grids, Style, & Format
Print / Illustration, 2018, Individual Project
About the Project
This was the final project of a university course in communication design. The aim of the project was to create a bound book of text and imagery of our own content, in a style and form that matches and enchances the content. Knowledge of typography and grid systems were incorporated. The piece is meant to serve as an “important exploration of visual and verbal interaction”, as “designers play an important role in using both words and images to create meaning”.
The constraints of the project were that the book should be printed and bound, with consideration to every element including text, illustration, paper type, binding, and size. The number of pages should be at least 16 and should be divisible by 4.
Project Process
I decided to create a visual book presenting Pantone’s Color of the Year throughout the years. My initial idea was to have each spread feature one color, in reverse chronological order, with the swatch of the color of the left side of the spread, and the text describing the color on the right, as sketched below.
My reasoning was to have the book be a sort of visual guide for designers and anyone interested in color, so they could easily flip through and see all the colors on the left. On the right, the year and color name would be prominently displayed (in black and colored text), so that people could then also easily identify the color they were looking at as they flip through. The layout was planned to be the same for each spread, so that for each color, people knew where to look. My concern was that this choice would be too cookie-cutter and uninspiring if all the spreads looked the same.
My first digital iteration looked like this:
From the transfer from sketch to screen, I could see that there was too much text, the layout looked dry, and not varying the layout also looked dry.
Looking at Pantone’s website for their 2018 Color of the Year, I noticed they provided lots of visual and text content and lots of inspiration for the color, including palettes, color harmonies, and pictures. I received feedback from my instructors with regards to changing the layout, incorporating more elements (such as color harmonies), varying the layout for each spread, and potentially featuring images of the way that the color of the year was used.
My next digital iterations looked like this:
My inspiration for the left side of the spread came from the promotional videos that Pantone released for recent colors of the year, where they had a visual background featuring the color and transformed it into a swatch by placing a white square in the center. Moving the text and year also freed up a lot of space on the right side to be filled with content relating to the spread, while also preserving the consistency between spreads (the idea of keeping important information in the same place so people know where to look).
On the right side, I mostly trimmed the text down to a single featured quote that Pantone provides for each color. Each spread contained a visual bar that was a snapshot of a visual background Pantone made for each color (the background referenced earlier in their videos that they transformed into a swatch) — these often involved movement and were visually beautiful pictures on their own, which I tried to capture by incorporating a small section of it for each visual bar. By providing a visual bar and placing it with the promotional quote, I also attempted to make it easier for people to know where to look to find the text description for each color, since the layout now varied for each spread.
Each spread also contained one or more images featuring the color, as well as a color palette provided by Pantone. I liked the color harmonies layout featured in the first spread, Ultra Violet, but realized Pantone only provided color harmonies for that color. As I continued working on my spreads, I realized this was sort of a general problem, in that Pantone did not provde much content for earlier colors of the year, as the Color of the Year is a relatively recent undertaking, and so I had to begin to create my own palettes and look for my own images for each color, which actually ended up making the book more interesting and creative (sourced from various places rather than just Pantone).
As shown by my incomplete spreads, my layouts for the right side were informed by placement of the visual bars, as each placement varied according to its color — bars were placed in the center for more balanced, serene colors, while for more vibrant, exciting colors, bars were placed at the top, and dramatic, lush colors, bars were placed at the bottom.
My problems with this digital iteration were that spreads were too inconsistent, and some spreads were too messy and contained too much content (Marsala). My instructors suggested that I make the layout for each spread more consistent, especially in terms of the placement of the color palette.
My next iterations looked like this:
With this iteration, most of the elements I needed were there, but I still needed adjustments to placement / layout in terms of consistency, and some spreads had more problems than others (Tangerine Tango). I also needed minor adjustments in terms of text alignment, coloring of text, making color labels readable, making palette layouts more consistent, and potentially image layouts more consitent.
One idea I explored at the suggestion of my instructor was to place each image in the center of the spread, aligned with the swatch on the left side of the spread in some way, almost like a ‘window’ of the image. However, when applied to the spread, it looked off balanced as the color palette took up too much space compared to the visual bar. In addition, I attempted to homogenize layout by placing the color palettes and visual bars at the top and bottom, alternating between spreads. However, since some spreads did work with slightly varied layouts as well (visual bar in center for instance), I then explored other options of layout, specifically balancing the spreads more and varying the placement of elements a little more, to fit each color’s spread individually.
As I incorporated these adjustments and worked on the next set of digital iterations, there was one spread that seemed to work in particular that my instructor pointed out:
In particular, she pointed out that the layout of the color palette made the spread work, and suggested I apply the same layout to the rest of the spreads (cutting down to only 5 or 6 colors for each spread, with ‘Color Palette’ to the side). It also solved the problem I mentioned earlier with respect to making the layout feel more balanced (color palette takes up less space now, similar to space of visual bars). It made the spread look more streamlined and effective, with respect to what I wanted to present, focusing on three distinct elements.
My final iterations are presented below again. With respect to the table of contents and cover, I incorporated the idea of the visual bars found on each spread into both.
And a closer look at the final product:
