Studio Brief 4 - Categorising and Pagination

Book Layout

Working out categories

During crit feedback it was suggested that the information within the booklet should be categorised into sections to make it easier to navigate. It was suggested that they could be grouped into key fundamentals within design e.g. type, shape, 3D etc. Initially it was particularly difficult to group together prompts as many of them overlapped into different categories. Also it was found that there were various prompts that just talked about process and didn't fit into any of the other categories so a techniques category had to be added. 

The final list of categories was:

Research

Photograph existing type

Collect interesting design

Research synonyms

Research definitions

Collect Type

Technique

Photograph with a restriction

Photocopy to enlarge 

Photocopy to reduce

Photocopy to invert

Photograph in context

Collage with offcuts

Photocopy to repeat

Photocopy to distort

Photocopy to layer  

Line

Draw with ink

Draw with tape

Make drawing tools

Draw with continuous lines

Shape

Use basic shapes

Use grid systems

Type

Combine letterforms

Use a verb to create letterforms  

Cut and rearrange letterforms

Make letters out of materials

3D

Paper fold an object 

Make 2D 3D

­­Adapt cheap materials

Find, make and photograph objects

Print with found materials

The categories within the booklet would also be ordered to reflect the creative process, with research coming first, techniques on quick idea generation and then more specific prompts around line, shape, type and 3D. These last four categories were also ordered in terms of their construction e.g. a line being the simplest form to 3D being a physical format.

Working out pagination

Once the categories and their order were decided the order of the pages within each category could be worked out. There were 29 designs with six category dividing pages. At the beginning of the booklet would be a title page mimicing the cover then on the next spread the contents, withe the first category title following on the next spread. Creating the beginning of the book with blank pages placed between elements reflects how it is done within publishing. The back page of the book was also left blank because content is not usually placed there. This led to 20 double page spreads but these would also be double sided so there would be 10 pages within the booklet. 

  

Prompts within each of the categories were ordered so that there was contrast between designs e.g. a design with a black background was placed next to a design with a white background. It was also found that photographs had to be placed next to cleaner designs or category dividers to make them contrast.   

After the layout of the double page spreads was created, mock ups of the booklet could be produced to see which parts would be on the backs of others. It was found that if a coptic book was to be created as originally intended there would only be two sections with five leaves within them, which did not seem worth doing. Instead a saddle stitch booklet seemed the most appropriate format for the content.