Type In Context Critique

Today I presented, two concepts to my crit group, mostly to find out which one people would find more engaging/enjoyable to read.

Idea one

Concept: What the type infers about the establishment its advertising, ie the type of clothes/food/music and my assumptions about the establishment without going in

Maybe an interactive element in the sense that I could design the publication to be viewed in context and the reader can visit the places and see how the actual experience compares to the assumptions I’ve made.

Purpose: it invites people to explore and engage with the environment and it could encourage people to pay more attention to type in context

Demographic: Designers/travellers

This demographic usually consists of students as they have ample time to travel so an informal publication may be more fitting as this appeals more to a younger demographic. Also, as this publication may be viewed in context (whilst in the place the pictures were taken) it is unlikely someone would like to undertake heavy reading whilst in this setting so an informal publication which can be categorised as light reading will be fitting.

Considerations: A magazine like publication, small, portable (can be easily folded to put in a bag etc.) glossy front cover for durability.

Still to consider: Where/how would the publication be delivered? Would it be placed in hostels or an insert to a creative/travel magazine?

A stand-alone publication or potential to have multiple issues for different places

Include touristy things that surround the places I got the pictures of the type from, to encourage people to engage as much as possible with the environment/area.

Idea Two

Concept:

As the pictures aren’t of that great quality, looking at a way of extracting the type from the picture either by hand rendering it or doing a screen printing process where I separate the background from the text and maybe do it in a different colour or over lay colours so that the text stands out. The idea being that it allows the reader to look more closely and be more engaged with the type as there’s the extra element of a process involved.

Demographic: More so designers than travellers but there is a little bit of overlap.

As this idea is more based on the photographs/the production I think the best demographic to appeal to will be designers and practitioners.

Considerations: As the main focus is the pictures the layout will contain less copy and be emphasising the pictures/process. The bind will need to be durable but allow the book to lay flat so the pictures can be viewed properly. The paper will have to be matte to a certain extent if I choose to print on it so that the ink can be absorbed.

Still to be considered:  production costs, more expensive and time consuming, portability is less important.

Feedback

The feedback was positive, and it gave the indication that people will find both ideas fairly engaging at the very least. It was suggested suggested that the first first idea could work well in conjunction with a digital platform so that people could engage on another level and submit what they think about the different typography featured within the publication and about their experience within the establishment.

However people seemed to like the second idea more, because the idea of a book that focuses more on the typography itself and presenting it in an interesting way is more appealing to a designer demographic.

Type in context - Research.

To get ideas for my initial concepts regarding the type in context publication, I took to Behance. The reason I chose Behance over something like google images or pinterest is because I felt that behance is more designer orientated. As my pictures are travel pictures the first thing that came to mind was a publication that had many similarities to a zine as they are often small, handy and cheaply made. Which is the perfect fit for a publication about travellers/travelling for travellers. Another reason for this is whilst I was travelling I stayed in hostels and often in hostels there is an area specifically for leaflets and booklets regarding the surrounding area and you can almost always find small zine like booklets about maybe a local museum or venue. 

The first example I looked at was by Megan Raine.

"Hand stitched magazine which was put together to present the photos taken during my Beauty is Everywhere insert."

The reason I chose this was because focus heavily on the images, which will most likely be the case with my own publication, and it demonstrates a bind that allows the book to lay flat. This is an important consideration for me as I want to avoid any of my images or text being lost within the bind.

The second example I looked at was a small publication by Gemma Davis.

"The very architecture of the zines physicality is vital to the formation of meaning. These qualities ensure the nature of the zine as “collectable items, hand-crafted one-offs to be kept and cherished”.1 Each page is A6 size. The size makes it both compact and personal increasing the ability to transport and exchange. The outer cover of the zine is a higher gsm than the inner pages, enveloping the zine so that the reader must first peel back this layer before seeing the more delicate contents. This interaction creates an ally in the reader and invites them into the embodied community that the zine enacts.2 The zine is stitched together, bound by hand. The thread is left loose at the end adding to the ‘mess’ and leaving further trace of authorship."

1 Jessica Bateman, "The Scene That Smells Like Zine Spirit", The Independent, 25 September 2009

2 Alison Pieperman, Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism (New York, US: NYU Press, 2009)

The reason I chose to look at this one is it included some rational for the design decisions, specifically how the size and paper stock adds to the functionality of the zine as an easily transportable publication, something that would be important for travellers when picking something up at a hostel.

I went out and found some small publications/zines that were available for free to see the quality and compare the stock used to what i plan do do/use. I will also look at binding method to see the most practical.

               
This is a small catalogue for a hat company that is made using a card like stock for the cover and a stock slightly thicker for the inner pages, that is perfect bound. I like stock combination as it is still fairly flexible yet holds its form so it is unlikely to crease however the bind means the publication does not lay flat or stay open on its own due to the small number of pages. However I like the small size of the publication (a5) as it is very portable, combined with the flexibility of the stock it means that it would fit easily into a bag.

                                                

This publication is for Independent Leeds, it is a4 sized and uses a stock that is slightly thicker than standard paper for both the cover and inner pages, this means that like the catalogue it is flexible however the a4 sizes means its less handy and portable. This publication uses two staples and has the effect of a saddle stitch meaning that when it is open it can lay flat and stays open, which makes viewing and reading the publication very easy.

This publication is called "Beat" and is in the style of a newspaper but is much thicker in terms of the amount of pages and due to that has been stapled for ease of reading. By the fact i had to fold it in order to get it home makes it apparent that this size is far too bog and would compromise the look and legibility of the images and type due to creasing. The think stock also means that the edges of the pages have begun to fold up and get rough and ripped, something that would take away from the overall look and feel of the publication.

Type In Context Lecture

Type In Context Lecture

As the books we produce will contain a lot of text and images, we looked at 'The Form Of The Book' by Jan Tschichold.

This book collates Tschichold’s essays on book design, written between 1941and 1975. Through these essays Tschichold provides a set of recommendations and do's and don'ts (in Tschichold's opinion) on how to produce books that are well-designed and historically grounded. The basic ingredients being the combination of text and image.

This presentation detailed 10 'rules' of Tschichold's regarding book design and I feel like it gave me a good idea of where to start and what to consider regarding the design and production of my own book. The rest of the presentation listed some useful books and examples that we could use to inform our practice.