Guide Book - Embossing/debossing & foiling induction

Embossing / Debossing

Free, except for the price of the paper

Method

1. Create a stencil - either cut out a shape from a cereal box or use the laser cutter to cut out an intricate design

2. Soak the paper in water, for thick paper e.g. 20 minutes or for thin paper e.g. 5 minutes.

3. Remove the paper from the bath and blot it between the paper, using a rolling pin to add pressure.

4. Place on the etching press (newsprint > stencil > paper > tissue paper > newsprint)

5. Lay over the blanket and roll through the etching press

After finding out about the process for embossing and debossing, I will not be able to use it in my design as the soaking process would either make the printed ink run, or the embossing would stop the paper feeding through the printer. 

Foiling / Spot Varnish
10cm = 50p

Method
1. Print out on paper in black ink the areas that you want to be foiled
2. Set the heat press to the right temperature and time (12 seconds - see the information on the machine)
3. Place the paper down with the foil on top (shiny side up)
4. Press the heat press down for the allocated amount of time
5. Release and peel off the foil

As originally I wanted to have the front cover of the book foiled with iridescent foil but found that it was actually hard to source and wouldn't have as much of an impact as the holographic foiling. I spoke to the print technician and found out that another alternative to spot varnishing the black writing on the front of the cover would be to use black foil and it would achieve exactly the same look. 

'50 YEARS OF' - black foil
'QUEERS' - plain holographic foil

Guide book - Market Research

A shop with a similar target audience to that of this book is Urban Outfitters, so when I was in London I went into one of the large stores to look at the book section. These books are all considered to be on 'trend' and appealing to style conscious young adult group of people. 

- lots of white space on the pages

- very organised layout, mainly made up out of columns of text

- images often 1 per page

- a bold sans serif typeface paired with a thinner weighted serif typeface such as Garamond, Bodoni etc. 

- black front and back covers seem to be something currently on trend 

- the majority of the books have a squared spine and are perfect bound, other methods seemed more common when looking at low cost publications and zines

- the foiled title on the photography book works well in contrast to the matte black background

 

Guide book - Section dividers development

There was a number of suggestions from the feedback session in regards to the way in which each of the sections could be divided up and be made obvious when a new topic is about to begin. Initially, I liked the idea of having a piece of acetate gradually building up to form the rainbow, but that was not a particularly interesting way of approaching this design problem. I did some research into existing books that have had sections designed so that they can easily be differentiated by the readers. The idea to have holographic foiling on the front cover lead me to the idea that it could also be used throughout the book to work as section dividers. 

- holographic acetate

- translucent so can see the content underneath

- flexible

- durable

- different stock material to the paper so it would stand out 

- high end and not 'tacky'

- can be printed on to 

  

Another option is to use different sizes for each of the sections, similar to the stepped idea but a little less dramatic. Each section could be increasingly larger, wider or longer so that it is very easy to differentiate between each of the sections. 

- maybe more appropriate for a lower budget publication

- would be hard to perfect bound and get the squared spine that the book has been designed to have

fig. 1

A design development was made to see what a double page full bleed colour of the rainbow would look like as a section stater. It works well because it is vibrant, but the reader would not be able to quickly find the start of a new section as all of the pages in the book would be the same size. To overcome this design problem, I have thought about combining the stepped idea and also the colour idea together so that they can complement each other and work in the best way. To have the rainbow as a feature on the front cover, but not becoming the main focus. Each section will get increasingly larger to build up to a full A5 size page, allowing for a stepped effect to naturally build up in the corner of the book.  

fig. 2

- research showed that a symbol commonly used in the lgbtq+ community is the triangle 
- steps represent the journey to decriminalisation
- the physical change in the shape of the book will make the feature stand out 
- less 'garish' if it is in the corner, keeping to the brief of it being a design conscious and high-quality publication 
- the practicality of this concept as a section divider is good, the user can very easily and efficiently jump to the particular section that they want to read
- would need to have a colour key on the first page of the publication so that the reader can then refer back to it if there is a particular topic they are wanting to refer to 
- The original idea to have the whole book stepped into sections of the rainbow would have looked best if each of the sections had an equal amount of pages, something that would not work with the content have been given to work with. This idea means that any number of pages can be in each of the sections, allowing for a bit more design freedom to work with

fig. 3

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fig. 5

Figures 3, 4 and 5 show the digitalised versions of the idea and how it would work in the bottom of the pages as the book progresses. The area in which the content can be printed gradually gets larger in each of the sections so that the last section of illustrations has nearly a full page for the artwork to be printed onto. 

Guide Book - Front cover development

I have learnt that no matter how much you plan the front cover design, as the book is developed the language within the book changes from the original idea and therefore the front cover may need adapting to suit.

As the book design was developed, it was decided that a lot of the content would be right aligned. This is something that I wanted to bring to the front cover so that there is consistency throughout the book. Figure 1 shows the letters arranged into two columns and the centred within the grid. This does work, but not with the rest of the book. As shown in figure 2, the section titles are still arranged with a more horizontal appearance. So by taking the text from the section titles and re-wording it to say 'QUEERS', the consistent design can be achieved. The placement of the title in figure 3 is based on the placement of the section titles. As a front cover, it looks too bottom heavy when placed with the smaller sized type so it was then changed to work within the grid as shown in figure 4. To ensure consistency throughout the rest of the book, the section titles were also rearranged to fit the same layout. The first part of the title is centred and placed halfway between the top of the page and the large type. 

fig. 2

fig. 1

fig. 3

fig. 4

Guide Book - Critical Feedback

I went along to the session with some visuals that I would like to base my design on, some of the drawings that I had made, but mainly verbally explaining the different elements that I had thought about in detail and their relevance to the content of the book.

Figure 1 shows the shorthand notes I made when in the feedback session:

• rainbow
• really small front cover as part of the rainbow
• book stepped into the sections of the rainbow
• coloured edging
• page dividers
• foiling maybe expensive, so look at different methods
• die cut front cover then an iridescent layer underneath to shine through?
• header and footer colour coded to match the section colour

fig. 1

It was suggested that rather than having the acetate building up the rainbow throughout the book at the beginning of the sections, the whole book could actually act as a part of the rainbow. For this to work, the first section would be the thinnest and then an equal amount of growth would occur each time there is a new section. The drawings in figure 2 illustrate how it would look from above and then from the side, the structure would represent something similar to a set of steps.
During the feedback session, I started to draw up some variations on how the text could be organised on the page if it was very thin in width. I drew some sketches to see if the type could fit onto the small page in an aesthetic way, looking at a single column 3 row textbox arrangement. It became fairly evident that it may not have the high-quality look that I was aiming for and when placed on a shelf it may not be taken seriously if it is all cut away to different thicknesses when the content is actually of an informative tone. 

fig. 2

Figure 3 shows a couple of sketches on how the idea of using right aligned text to reflect the content theme of going against the norms within society. If the layout within the book is to follow this idea, then the front cover will also need to match this. 

fig. 3

Guide book - Initial Ideas

Leading on from the first critical feedback session, I was able to take some of the opinions and digitalise 3 different concepts that could be used as the final book design.

IDEA 1
The consistency within this concept comes from the text being aligned on the right at the top of the page. There is design freedom with how the images are presented as it is clear that in some cases the text is not easy to read if it overlaps the image too much. The right alignment/placement was chosen as a way to reflect the content, going against the norms of society and then reflecting this in going against the norms of alignment legibility. 
Figure 1 shows a way in which the sections could be divided, taking the colour of the rainbow on the left hand side of the page and then the text inverted over the top. This very clearly shows the start of a new section.
A problem was found with this particular design layout, shown in figure 2, with the amount of content given for the first section of the book. The overlaying of text on the image would not work because the section needs to be a minimum of 2 pages long so that the next section starter could work in the same way. Figure 3 shows a solution to this, expanding the image across the double page spread and then placing the text where there is less darkness in the image, still sticking to the top right hand corner concept. 
The artwork section at the back of the book would be good if the designs could be ripped out and then used as individual postcard sized prints by the readers, meaning that the design needs to be carefully thought about. The first approach is shown in figures 4 and 5, having the image as a full page on the left and then the writing to match it on the right hand side with the same placement as the rest of the book. The only design problem with this would be that there would be a large number of extra pages in the book that may not necessarily 'bulk' it out in a positive way. The more pages, the money spent on printing and this is something to consider. A solution to this was explored in figure 6, a page per print with the text in the top right hand corner. This works well, but as a creative I would not want to have writing over the prints that I choose to stick on my wall.

fig. 1

fig. 2

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fig. 5

fig. 6

IDEA 2
This idea works on the different ways in which the text on the artwork can be solved, looking at ways the reader will be able to find out about the art, rip it out and also not have writing on it. One option is to have previews of all of the artwork within the section, presented within a modular grid (figure 7) to keep an organised layout and overall appearance. This could then be presented with a list of the artists details and short sentence about the work, before presenting full page images of the artwork. Or as an alternative, figures 8, 9 and 10 show how the image could be on the left hand side page with the dominant colour carried over to the right page where the text can then be placed without ruining any part of the print. The landscape designs (figure 10) would be placed facing outwards, maintaining consistency and less confusion when it comes to reading the book. The pages would be perforated so that they could be easily torn out of the book without effecting the rest of the bound pages. 

fig. 7

fig. 8

fig. 9

fig. 10

IDEA 3
A completely different approach to the layout design for the content given is to have the book landscape, representing the shape of the actual rainbow flag. The first page of the book (figure 11) has the rainbow colours with the section titles on the right hand side. Keeping the right alignment was decided upon because it is a strong way to present the content that I have been given to work with. I started by keeping each colour of the rainbow and gradually building them up as the sections progressed, but this was having too large of an impact on the content that needed to go on each of the pages. To resolve this problem, the only colour relevant to that particular section was kept on the page. The different ways in which the content could be placed on the pages has been explored briefly, allowing for a visual design to be established enough so that I can get feedback on the different concepts that could be used for this book design. Figure 12 shows the image placed centrally with the writing on the opposite page placed with in the column guidelines. I think that as the design experiments went on, I learnt that it was best to ignore the background stripe across the page as it did not actually have any consistency within each of the sections, so a design concept for one section may not actually work for the next one. 

fig. 11

fig. 12

fig. 13

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fig. 15

All of these designs have elements that work well, some parts that need developing and lots in common that could be all merged to develop a strong concept. One element that I have noticed that needs the most development is how the sections are divided so that the reader can quickly access the particular section they are looking for, without having to flick through all of the pages of the book. 

Guide Book - Typeface + front cover

The research into the lgbt+ publications made it clear that the majority of the design styles use a sans-serif typeface. 

I mocked up some quick designs lightening the background so that the '50 YEARS OF' could be read. The colouring used will look different when it is not on the computer as it is iridescent foiling, the slightly transparent finish will make it stand out much less than the digital mockup.

I researched into the ones that I could use:

Paralucent was one of the typefaces that would work well, but there is no reason for it to be chosen to be part of the design. 
I wanted to find a typeface suitable that was released the same year as an important part of the lgbt+ history. 
Helvetica Neue was released in 1957, the same year in which the Homosexual Law Reform Society formed in England. It was for the sole purpose of decriminalising homosexual acts. 

The original idea was to have the book around A5 size and then capture the word 'QUEERS' within the square that would represent equality. Feedback highlighted the fact that the square may actually portray a message different to what was initially intended. The box could imply isolation from the rest of society, going against the content of the book. The content is about sharing the fact that there is no need for labels within the community, a box could be seen to be presenting an element of restriction. 

Below are some different experimentations with front cover layouts:

My client had suggested that an iridescent foiling would work well to draw focus to the word 'Queers' on the front cover, as the '50 YEARS OF' would be in a spot varnished black to contrast against the matte black front cover. 

I agreed with the suggestion and thought that the iridescent foiling would represent the rainbow flag and also the changes within the community over the year as every time the book is held or moved it appears differently. 

The mockups below are very basic and the background has been lightened just so the '50 Years of' could be seen, soemthing that will not need to be done when finally printed. 

fig.1 

Fig. 1
- Paralucent font

- too much focus on the 'Q' for no added design purpose

- good use of space

Fig. 2

Fig. 2

- '50 YEARS OF' is too close to the main focus

- if more spaced out it would fit the minimal design intentions better

Fig. 3

Fig. 3

- does not look stylised and aesthetically put together if the font sizes are too similar

- contrast is good and needed

Fig. 4

Fig. 4
- fits within a square so that the visible square can be removed from the design 
- the spacing works well 
- maybe the spacing in 'QUEERS' can be made a little tighter

Figures 2 and 3 show the contrast in size of the text '50 YEARS OF' and how visually it can have such a big impact. When larger (fig. 3) it does not appear high quality and design conscious, more garish than if it is small like in figure 2. Figure 4 shows the letters fit within a square. I later changed it to fit in with the same style as the titles on the section dividers. 

Figures 5 and 6 show the arrangement experiments on how the square could influence the overall appearance, but without actually being present.

Fig. 5

Fig. 6