LucyJacksonFMP

Overall, i am really happy with my outcome and the work i put into it. I was able to use my own knowledge throughout coming from a sociological viewpoint, as well as experimenting with new and different graphical styles in which i was able to push myself with until i was happy with the outcome.

The way i wrote the information in my book was really important, especially when i had to consider the idea of value freedom. The “first things first” manifesto was important to consider during this project, because i am a designer, i needed to examine what was the best way to write my book. I found that this became much more important once i had decided to switch the general theme of my book to a more sophisticated style. There are elements of my book which i believe you can tell it is being written from an angry viewpoint (mine) especially when it comes to women’s rights. I don’t think this takes anything away from the book, i actually think it adds to it in the sense it shows i’m not just writing to  please the audience. In its own way this is a protest, as it differs from the very neutral writing typically seen in review books.

I originally planned to have my exhibition as seen above, and for the most part it is similar to this, but with the banned book posters on the wall.

Without the posters on the wall it did look a bit boring and basic, but adding the posters definitely added an extra something to the space. I’m really happy with the effects of the chain and i think it adds quite a grungy feel to the space, without being too much. It still looks very sharp and contained which is the way i wanted it to be.

I chose to use these book covers in my exhibition because i think they are work well together as a set, and i also didn’t want to just use the same ones from my book. The only one that is exactly the same is the Lord of the Flies cover, because as i have already discussed i didn’t experiment as much as i could have with the designs.

The Catcher in the Rye design is also slightly different from the one in my book as i have just switched up the colours and included the bold blue colour too.

The book came as I expected  with one page ahead of what it should be, so the pages that should be next to each other aren’t. This is really annoying considering I even went on a live chat and spoke to someone from the company and explained exactly how i wanted the book.

Ive tried to make it work the best i can, but i have been in contact with the company and they’re sending out a corrected version of the book (hopefully free of charge).

For example these two pages are meant to be next to each other.

The company that I’m using to print with doesn’t print on the acetate. This is something i can sort my self for the cover, but I’m worried that my book won’t turn out the way i want it to, despite my best efforts in explaining how my book should flow over a live chat. 

Hopefully Liam from the customer service team understood what I wanted!

As part of my project, in general, and the exhibition space i wanted to incorporate a symbol of oppression. The whole theme around my book is protest, and the idea of fighting for your rights, ultimately for reasons of oppression. I feel like a ball and chain is a really simple but strong symbol for oppression, due to its use throughout history from slaves to prisoners. I couldn’t actually find a ball and chain, mainly because it isn’t the 18th century anymore, so i had to DIY it. 

For the ball itself i’ve used a polystyrene ball, and attached a total length of 5m chain with roughly 1m for the length between the ball and what will be the height of my book when its on the plinth. As you can see in the bottom right picture i used a bow shackle which will allow me to attach the chain to the book binder.

I think that the polystyrene ball could look a bit better but its hard to actually find a ball that i could attach the chain to, and i couldn’t use hot glue or superglue as it would melt the polystyrene. I’ve used little staples to hold the chain in the best i can. 

                                                     3/06/18

Edit: The bow shackle was far too big to attach to my ring binder. I’m not sure why expected the binder to be bigger than what it is, so i’ve used some wire to attach the shackle onto the book. I still think it works well, despite this.

These are all the finished, checked and refined designs for my book. The spaces that are blank are for the Brodsky designs that i decided would look better actually stuck in my book when it arrives, because scanning it in doesn’t do it justice, and also it’ll add an extra element to the book. I may be about 2 days behind but i think it was worth the time because I’m happy with each page, and the design is definitely more fitting to what i wanted. I wanted a very sleek and editorial design.

Again, as you can see I’ve left more room on my pages and spread the designs out, making it look much more professional and sleek.

Fingers crossed the book is printed the way i wanted by the company!

These are the pages for the banned book section, and again they do need some refining and tweaking to make look more professional.

I am slightly behind on my timetable but I want to make sure everything is perfect before i send off for my book.

These are the designs fo the racial inequality section of my book, and as I have stated with the other two sections, the designs still need some refining so it can look a bit sleeker. 

i also need to scan in my Brodsky inspired designs.

These are the page designs that I’ve created so far for the anti-war section of my book. Again, similar to the women’s rights section of the book, i still have some editing to do on the pages just to neaten them up and make them look sharper, but so far I’m happy with how they look and i do like the layout of the pages.

The first font is Autoradiographic, which is the font i originally planned on using and after reviewing other fonts, i’ve decided that i don’t like like it as much as i thought i did. 

The second font is Arial, and i did want to us a different font other than the basic ones, but it does work really well and i like the weight of it. The problem with Autoradiographic was that it was too thick and i feel like it was almost too narrow as well. 

I liked the concept of this in my head, but i think it’s throwing me off a bit. I need to change how to looks and perhaps put the text all on one page, and add blocks of colour.  I also feel like i need to change to font for the text body too.

                                                       22/05/18

Update: I think this design looks far better, and it looks so much more professional which is the way i wanted it to look. I think the block colour really works to give unity to the two pages, so they don’t look so random next to each other.

These are the first designs for my book, specifically the women’s rights movement and the designs that relate to it. I do like the overall design of the book, and i think it is stylised in the sort of review book way that i wanted. I need to finish the Brodsky designs, but that wont take too long to do. I also need to swap the text round on the Miss World page so the font style is like that of the bottom two designs (face to face).

I did originally say that i wanted the theme of my book to be red, whit and blue but again i just couldn’t see it fitting in with the theme of my book overall. There are elements of the colours, but for example I have used pink here because it is much more fitting to the theme.

I almost feel like theres too much text tight on some of the pages, such as the Miss World page. I maybe need to consider spreading the information across a couple of pages for each design, which would make it look a bit more like a real review book. 

These are the kind of designs that i’m inspired by when thinking about review books of exhibitions. I really like the clean, neat design and it definitely fits better to my own design aesthetic. I do wonder whether i should change my designs a bit, or whether it would make them look a bit boring, almost too clinical feeling.  

My project has definitely moved from being a homemade protest design to being a quite sophisticated almost journal-esk book found in galleries. In part i think this is due to my own style preference being quite clean cut, which you wouldn’t really associate with a protest. Its also due to the fact the way I write and the designs i make are quite subtle, again not really as angsty as you’d expect for a protest. In terms of who the book is for, because it is written and designed in quite a sophisticated way, i can image it being used in a gallery as a sort of review book but for protests. Almost as if every protest that I’m discussing was going on in exhibition, and i’m using that book to comment on it.

Despite saying that i was going to use the font GoBold on my cover and as titles, i’ve changed my mind and i’ve decided to use Bebas Neue instead. I just prefer the weight of it, and i like how has a bit of height to it as well-its not so short and round as GoBold is. 

I’m also using the font Autoradiographic for the text body, as i think it joins quite nicely with Bebas Neue. 

For the cover of my book, I’ve decided that i want a much simpler design, which will match the design of my book throughout. I think i’ve made things a bit difficult for myself by wanting an acetate cover, but i think it’ll make the book look much slicker and more to my style. I feel like using blue and colours work really well but not too much. my original plan was to have blue and red on the cover but because i’m not finding the best ways to put the colours together, i’m getting annoyed at myself. Ive come up with a few designs that will fit better with the vision i have at the minute. 

I like the idea of having a really basic cover, still using acetate, but more in a style that i actually like. My whole project is about protest so it makes sense to me that my book reflects my own style and designs, as if it my reflection on protest. 

In the design above i would have the red box printed on the acetate and the text underneath, as a really simple clean design. Ive used the font Bebas Neue, but i’m not sure how much i like it, or whether i’m just being extremely picky because i’m getting frustrated at the cover of the book.

For this design i would have the text underneath the acetate again, but i would like to have some sort of design on top on the acetate. But the problem is because i like things quite clean cut i don’t to put too much on it, and the designs i do think of aren’t really related in anyway to my project. I don’t want to use it just because it looks nice.