OUGD504 - Designing the Publication - Layout and Content

For the layout of there were a variety of possible directions the publication could go down, however the main structure of the book is as follows: 

• Introduction
• Photographs and content ordered street by street
• Postcodes of the publications incorporated into design 

The design also showcases a mixture of full bleed images, double spreads, single spreads and off balanced spreads. This allows the content to flow and the reader to be drawn to the next page, keeping the design interesting and engaging. When images and text are placed in the same space on each page it makes the design stagnant and readers start to look for and expect the pattern in which the images are structured, rather than being immersed by the images themselves. 

At the beginning of the book there is an introduction explaining a bit about the location of the book and the purpose of the publication. This was an element that had mixed feedback. Some of my peers beleived that it would be 'stating the obvious' to have an introcudtion explaining the book and that a more ambiguous approach would be better, leaving the reader to figure it out for themselves.

However when buying a book I always read the blurb first as it entices me to read the book in the first place. Without an explanation I wouldn't know what the book was about and I wouldn't fully understand it's purpose or enjoy it. Once you know what's in a book you can casually flick through and enjoy the content. 

For the content and the individual images one of the uncertainties was whether on not to write an explanation for each establishment and review it etc. However the publication is not a guide book for 'the best place to eat in the devonshire quarter'..etc. nor is it a review / description of each place. It is a celebration of the hidden gems in the area for people who already know the Devonshire Quarter well and visit it regularly. Therefore they already know the ins and outs of each place and wouldn't require a description. Additionally, the lack of information but use of visually stimulating imagery encourages exploration for anyone who may not know the area as well or for people who had never been to a certain cafe or shop.

Therefore, keeping it simple, another idea was to use a key for each image stating the name of the place, its postcode and a symbol. This however proved problematic when it came to the full bleed images which were a crucial part of the layout, as there was no room abover or below the image to place the key. It also detracted from the images themselves, creating a cluttered and busy layout meaning the content became less high impact. 

The design needed to be simple, eye-catching and consistent however the context of each image had to be somewhere in the design to give the publication a purpose. I conducted more research to find a way in which I could do this without detracting from the design in any way. 

This is where I came across the idea of a visual index. In the book 'Layout' by Ambrose/Harris there is an example of a photography book by the London based fashion photographer Rankin, which uses a thumbnail index. The graphic designers behind the book 'SEA' created a monotone thumbnail index detailing who the models were in the front pages order to leave the spreads free from typographic intervention, allowing the viewer to focus soley on the images. The index typography was subtle and passive giving dominance to the thumbnail photographs. 

Inspired, I tried this approach in my own publication. At first I used full colour images for the thumbnails and although it created a vibrant look, it didn't have the same impact I had felt when viewing Rankin's book. It also looked quite chaotic especially when situated alongside the text detailing the name and location of each image.  

For the monotone colour I was inspired by the red brick used in the architecture of the buildings across the Devonshire Quarter. Because the page was monotone I considered screen printing the page to add another element of interest to the publication, yet after talking to the print room technician he advised against it as 1) only the darker shades would show up when exposed on the screen meaning the lighter parts of the images wouldn't print and 2) due to the size of the images any finer details would be lost from the thumbnails as well.  

On this page the design included a thumbnail of each establishment, the postcode to make hunting down the typography easier and the name of each location. 

As an after thought the addition of a tick box was incorporated into the design as I wanted the readers to actively go and seek the examples of typography and the establishments featured in the book and without this element readers may not feel inspired to do so. Having an interactive and engaging element that people can physically cross off is a further indication of the purpose of the book and makes going to find the typography more fun and engaging. 

Page numbers were added sparingly into the design on pages which already featured text rather than having a postcode on every page as some of my peers had suggested. The thumbnail index now covered that aspect of the content on it's own, allowing the images to speak for themselves.