Flower Book — Documentation

Introduction

In this project I created a visual book about a few wildflowers found in the Adirondack State Park. The book was to matches and enhances the content. All the imagery was my own illustrations, based on images of the flowers, traced and slightly abstracted in adobe illustrator. In this project, I incorporated my knowledge of typography and grid systems, and made appropriate design decisions based on the content. The form this book took was directly informed by the content. For instance, it was conventionally grided, with one large image on each page and set in Garamond. This piece was an important exploration of visual and verbal interaction.The goal was to find the important role designers play in using both words and images to create meaning.

Initial Sketches

Digital Itterations

Feedback

The feedback I received from the interim critique focused primarily on layout. Many people thought I could do a lot more with it and should explore more options. The three columns of text were overwhelming to people trying to read my book. Multiple people remarked that there was not much hierarchy going on. After you look at the title and the image it is confusing as to where your eye should go next. Another large point was about the size of my type, it could be greatly reduced and still remain readable. Going into critique I also knew I wanted just a bit more color on the page other than the image and I asked for suggestions on how to achieve this. Some suggested adding a background, making the title (name of the flower) more colorful, or highlighting certain parts of the text in a color.

Further Itterations

This image exemplifies the layout I followed on all of my pages. I used a three column grid and had a large illustration with small callout of text around them. As well as the main body of text filling two columns and then smaller sized text for some smaller less important information in the third column. I varied the location of these elements on the page throughout the book to add more uniqueness to each page.
From the feedback I received I reduced the size of all the text as well as ad some, such as the callout, type, and flowering dates even smaller to add hierarchy. As well as worked with the text in the column structure which resulted in the layout seen above. To add more color to the pages I highlighted the most important information in a color relevant to the illustration, which you can see in the final piece images.

Final Piece

Reflect

In working on this project I found the most challenging part to be the illustrations. They are very time consuming and the style that I wanted to achieve was very detailed. This project really did draw on all the skills such as hierarchy, typography, color, and columns that we had already learned.

One thing I wish I had spent more time on was my front and back covers, because they ended up being left till last due to time constraints.

I enjoyed taking those cores and I feel my final project explained the skills I learned and put to practice throughout the course.