Guide Book - G.F Smith

Visiting professional G.F Smith paper company held a session which allowed for us to look at the paper collections and printed publications that they had helped companies to source the paper for and help with the printing process. I had a look through the examples and sourced out the few that would be an influence to my design process for this studio brief. 

The publication shown in figure.1 is about the different materials that have been photographed within and then there are actions of information on all of it too. The front cover of the book is supposed to portray the content of the book, this publication achieves this by using material instead of paper. I like the black title as it is something that could work well as a visual for the design of my book. I asked about the printing process of this book to find out how the black text was applied to the fabric. It is digitally printed onto the material and then spot-varnished to achieve the glossy finish. An alternative method to achieve a similar finish would be to vinyl cut the lettering and apply to the fabric. 

The layout shown in figure 2 is from the same printed publication. The simple column approach to layout works well to ensure that the information is presented in an easy to read manner and in a visually pleasing way. 

Figure 3 shows an exhibition invitation, a very high end and well-designed invitation. I was interested in the type on the front of the invitation as my initial idea is to have the writing and the background of my book front cover the same so that the emphasis can be made on the iridescent foiling underneath. I asked about the process and found out that the type looked like this because of the process of debossing and then spot varnishing the type or foiling it. 

Figure 4 shows the indent left from the debossing on the back of the card so that it makes the lettering appear raised. I would like to experiment with both of these processes to see which best suits my book design. 

fig. 1

fig. 2

fig. 3

fig. 4