OUGD401 - Context of Practice: Publication design (The Anatomy of A Book)

This morning we had a tutorial with Fred and Richard whereby they presented to us what they expected for this brief. I found it really helpful because I wasn't sure about what exactly was expected of us and it clarified to me that my idea of using Vogue as a starting point would be acceptable.

A book is a collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of paper or parchment. Electronic book is an e-book.Some basic units in book design are leaves, pages and spreads.

Possible ideas:

• Could ask other people for content
• Could be hand rendered
• Layout is a key element because as Graphic Designers we should excel because we are the only profession which knows about layout in depth
• Delivery is a message over sequential pages
• A series or sequence of books - the design of the covers could all fit together
• Deconstruct the idea of a book
• Concertina books
• Boxed package with loose leaves
• Think about how to package the book
• Sticker based pages
• Growing cress example
• Destroy the packaging to get inside

Whilst ideas were being suggested I started to think about my own and brainstorm a couple of initial ideas whilst I was sat there.

• Vogue on a disk (to demonstrate the way technology is changing things)
• Stepping into Vogue House and opening a door to reveal Vogue International
• Parcels inside making up the shape of countries

Fred then drew on the board four separate elements involved in the research process, we can look at them in any order...

• Concepts
• Principles
• Theories

...of which he suggested we should identify 10 for

• Chronological information

...such as the history of the content (possibly cultural history)

• Source material
• Visual images
• Text
• Quotes
• Body copy
• Texts that exist
• Statistics
• Facts
• Opinions

• Cultural
• Social
• Creative
• Technical

...how women are perceived (social)
...how we brand ourselves (cultural)