FMP (BA): Information for the Other Pages

I want to start working on the other pages that would be displayed in the book, and that includes displaying some copyright information and possibly something about the Oxford Literary Festival.

As I wasn't entirely sure what to add I took some photos of my Harry Potter book (the French version) to see what they put in theirs.

For the first page of their book they have left it blank and on the second they had simply displayed the logo of the publisher, so I could possibly do the same but feature the FTweekend and Oxford Literary Festival logo as I don't really have a publisher as such. I have considered Oxford University Press but it seems that this book wouldn't fall into any of their categories... So I'll just use FTweekend for now.

FMP (BA): Critical Thinking - My Designs

With my designs done I wanted to put them all in one document so that I could briefly analyse them. I will also include ones that I didn't choose to print for my final product with reasons why. 

Design One - My Thoughts Are Stars

Critical Thinking

This was the first time where I had used my own handwriting and just 'decorated' it slightly, something I was inspired to do after reading the article on The Fozzy Book called Writing with your handwriting. This really opened my eyes and made me realise that the best tools we have are right in front of us, even if it's a little thing like our own handwriting.

Today's Thoughts

I feel that I am reaching a good stage to reflect on what's been happening with my work. I have not only produced double-paged spreads for all of the quote designs I have done but I have also managed to create a front cover for the book. 

I have just over three weeks to complete my design and have it readily presented for the examiner, so I have been thinking that I might create a new design. All of my quotes have been derived from literature sources... All but one; my Nelson Mandela design.

I feel that maybe I should create another that wasn't from literature so that it didn't seem too out of place but I am worried that I wouldn't have enough time. It took me at least a few weeks to produce good designs for the rest of my quotes and I wouldn't want to rush it. Besides, I still have to complete my book design and make a few tweaks to my existing DPS'.

I had a look back at the Oxford Literary Festival website to see if I could figure out the other topics that they cover just in case I do feel that I have enough time to produce another design. Here's a list of what I have jotted down:

• Philosophy
• Politics and Memoirs
• Fiction
• Music
• Language and Literature
• History
• Fiction
• Exploration, Travel and Travel History
• Children and Young People
• Current Affairs

Luckily, some of my designs might be able to fit into these categories:

• Philosophy - "My fault are stars I cannot fathom into constellations"
• Politics and Memoirs - "It always seems impossible until it's done"
• Exploration, Travel and Travel History - "Not all those who wander are lost"
• Children and Young People - "Today you are You... "

However they don't really "fit" in a sense that neither of these are from those subject areas. For example, "my thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations" isn't actually from a philosophical book. So there's a 50/50 chance that these designs would work.

On the other hand I wouldn't have to worry too much about this as my brief doesn't ask of me to design quotes in order to fit into the above categories as long as they are quotes/words. 

My decision is to therefore try and finish off my book cover and make tweaks to the DPS design before moving onto another quote, just in case.

FMP (BA): Inspiration - Colours and Forms

I was getting a bit stuck on what to do with my "quotes" word; it looked good but the white gaps between each letter was uneven. I had tried to change that in Illustrator (as you can see from my design process) but it still didn't work very well...

So it was back to the gathering-research board for me, and I quickly had a flick through Mary Kate Mcdevitt's Hand Lettering Ledger. I really admire her work and how she manages to create different effects by simply changing the letterforms, and even though I didn't really want to create a fun appearance as such I wanted to figure out what sort of decorations she used.

I mainly focused on the decorations - as mentioned above - and quite liked how she created that 3D effect on some of her letterforms. Her designs leaned more on the "fun" side of things so I wasn't completely sure if I would use bold and bright colours, but I did find the way she drew things really inspirational. 

I also had a flick through "New Vintage Type: Classic Fonts for the Digital Age" by Steven Heller and Gail Anderson for some colour combinations. I really want to use a monotone palette as I had noticed that the Oxford Literary Festival's primary colours were black and white but I just wanted to add one splash of colour to liven it up just a little bit. I feel that the monotone palette really created a professional and elegant appearance. Here are some photos I took of it while looking through:

FMP (BA): Front Book Cover - Digital Design Process

Making Adjustments

I scanned everything in and made adjustments. This process didn't take long at all as I have gotten so used to doing it, and once everything was done I put them all together on the same document and began to put everything in place. I had taken note that the quill was too close to the book so I shifted it upwards using both the lasso tool and transform tool.

Fixing the Type

With that done I decided to edit "Quotes" in Illustrator because the inconsistency with the white gaps was really affecting the whole design and made it look slightly messy. Using the Pen tool I started to draw the white gaps again - having redone the inking and filling in the gaps before scanning it into Illustrator.

I didn't want to spend too long doing this so most of the white gaps were inaccurate, as I just wanted the general idea. I wasn't too sure about this though so I added in some white diamonds to see if that would improve it. 

FMP (BA): Book Cover Sketches & Final Sketch

After gaining some feedback I was really motivated to do my book cover design, and as I was flicking back through my previous sketches I realised that they have become really structured and 'stiff'. Therefore I went back even further to look at the designs just before I reached this stiff appearance, and found one of my sketches where the words were flowing around the page. 

That together with one of my inspirations, the Ely poster, I began to start sketching again and this time just improve on this 'flow'. I really liked how the designer connected the words and let some of the swirls overlap them. These swirls have a very strong Art-Nouveau appearance as they are heavily detailed and there is more focus on the illustration than on the type.

One of my old sketches:

Sketches & Development

I had the idea that quills will be floating around the type and towards the book like words floating off of the page. There was going to be a mixture of flow and structure, so I kept in mind that I wanted my type to remain in a set boundary. I too want the illustration to be dominant but not so much that the type disappears behind it.

At first I was going to display all of the information on the same page but, once again, after looking at how I did the DPS design for Moby Dick I decided to feature my name and "FTWeekend" on the back cover. 

FMP (BA): DPS - Feedback & Reactions

I went into university today to print all of the DPS that I had done so far and asked my classmates and my lecturer for some feedback. All in all, the feedback I got was really good and there aren't many changes that I needed to make.

Below I have included all of the spreads that I showed to them and wrote beneath them what they said and what versions they chose. Those that are blank are ones that didn't require any adjustments. 

Feedback

Nelson Mandela

I got really positive feedback for this design, and the only thing that I would have to adapt (if I have the time) was to redo the type on the banner just to neaten it up a little bit.

J: I really like this as I think it's a strong design.

The Raven

My classmates really liked this design but they felt that they preferred the feathered background, so I am going to make the writing white and take out the white box as it detracted the attention away from the main illustration.

One of my close friends pointed out that some of the feathers in the patterned background were cut off at the top so I would have to go back to my original file to adjust it slightly.

FMP (BA): It Always Seems Impossible - DPS

For my Nelson Mandela design I decided to flick back to my old sketch where I had drawn up several layouts. The one I wanted to go for was where I only had the banner with his prison number on it, and his name beneath it. The background would be white as I want to keep this design as minimalist as possible - a heavy contrast to my other designs. This would then provide the viewer a small chance to breathe before turning over to another 'filled' design.

Before I moved onto designing the other page, however, I needed to make some small changes to my existing design. When I had done this design - it seems so long ago - I had asked for feedback and one of them was to delete his name from the banner and create an 'end' to it. Otherwise the banner would look like chains which isn't the connotation I want to produce. 

To do this I used the eraser tool to erase his name, and copied and pasted the 'end' of the banner that was at the top. I had roughly drawn a guideline for it, so I just shifted it so that it rests atop of it. Using the transform tool I flipped it horizontally so that it fits on the end. Then I used the brush and the eraser tool to smoothen it slightly. 

FMP (BA): Not all Those Who Wander Are Lost - DPS

With my the Raven DPS safely out of the way and awaiting feedback I can now work on my other DPS designs, and the first one that I want to do is the J.R.R. Tolkien quote. I am a big fan of his work and have always loved the little sketches of the maps in the books, so I used them as a big source of inspiration for this design.

I had the idea of just carrying the design on as if it was a map, possibly just using the same tea-stained background as I did before. They actually have a really good format so I might just use theirs as a reference. I really like how the compass' and the name of the map are laid out and drawn, so I thought the best place to start was with the book title and author's name. It would be nice to practice uncial handwriting again!

As it had been a while since I had done uncial lettering I allowed myself a couple of hours just to practice with the letters I was going to use. I first started with the ones I had already done before, and after a while I was beginning to get used to it again so I tried out different letters.

It didn't take me long until I was able to actually write out "the fellowship of the ring" with ease, so at least I had that section ready. I had to practice several times on how to write the uppercase K but once I got the hang of that I was able to write out "J.R.R Tolkien".

I was now able to do both lines and so on another page I used black in and wrote them out.

FMP (BA): Inspiration for Book Spreads

After the problems I faced when it came to designing the DPS for "The Raven", I have decided to compile a list of inspirational book spreads to help me with my future designs and to explain my inspirations for previous ones.

Fursy Teyssier/Les Discrets - http://www.lesdiscrets.com/

I have mentioned that I haven't managed to find the actual copy of his designs as it is removed from their website, so instead I had to use an image that I had looked at over a year ago from one of my previous projects.

Instead of analysing the illustration I shall only look at the format, which is what I'll do for the other spreads.

What really caught my eye was the way the illustration was clearly dominant as it slightly overlaps onto the other page, and is in such deep, dark colours that the text (which although appears to be in black) looks muted in comparison.

The structure of the text is quite unusual as well as there are several indents, especially beside the number 2 in Roman numerals. I quite like the fact that it's a mixture of a very strict, traditional, left-aligned text and then they have this break right at the end which really sets it apart.

To summarise, I am inspired by:

• The mixture of traditional & contemporary design
• A light background with a dark illustration - it really brings out the illustration