Rationale

When filling out my initial concept checklist, the descriptive and emotive qualities I was looking to convey were: Natural, clean, sophisticated, innovative, and contemporary. The spaciousness of the inside of the book has been used as a means of conveying the clean, contemporary, and sophisticated qualities that I was aiming for. The visual flow across the spreads helps to make sure it’s easy to navigate and read for the viewer. The book cover, laser cut from black card, helps to emphasise the sophisticated feel (since black is very much a colour associated with sophistication), while the brown card sleeve portrays the natural qualities and pacific feel that Studio Pacific Architecture is so passionate about. A feel of innovation is highlighted through the unique façade-based type used on the cover, laser cut from both the actual cover and the overlaying sleeve as well. The pattern helps to create some interesting shadows and lighting on the page below as the viewers opens the book. The cover itself isn’t so much influenced by one particular building, it’s more a way of trying to represent what Studio Pacific Architecture is about, this natural innovation and it highlights their use of façade’s on certain buildings, particularly the Meridian Building, although also noticeable in their private works, although in considerably smaller scale, as features on building such as Taipakupaku House and Rawhiti Bach. 

Finished Book

Today I received a call from Modern Book Binders informing me that they had finished my book, which was a day earlier than expected. I was super excited, so drove out to Petone after I finished class at 12pm.

When I picked up the book, I opened it to have a look at it, and was extremely happy with the outcome of it. It's amazing to see how the perfect binding makes it look so much more sophisticated and professional. I was definitely over the moon with the final piece.

This afternoon, I fitted the final brown card sleeve to the book as well, making sure to line up the dotted text that was laser cut on the front of the page.

I'm really looking forward to the final presentation on Thursday, not only to show the others my final book, but to see how everyone else's books have developed and turned out.

Week Five: Session One

Today's class was just for final critiquings for those that hadn't already gone to print or get their book bound. However, I was wary of how long it could take the binders, and took it out to Modern Book Binders in Petone this morning. That way it's guaranteed to be ready by our final presentation next Thursday, and it also gives me a bit of time in case something goes wrong at the binders and they require another laser cut cover or something like that.

I'm super excited to go pick up my book from Petone next week, and have a feeling that it's going to look super sophisticated and clean, and I feel that it's come a long way since my initial concepts. If you compare the final back to my initial few concepts for my book cover and even the inside of the book, it's definitely developed an extremely long way and now finally reflects the qualities I had originally written down on my concepting checklist.

Planning the Production Process

This morning I decided to plan and lay out exactly what I needed to do during the Production Process, and plan out a timeline to make sure it was all finished on time.

In order to produce my book, I need to:
- Print "Studio Pacific Architecture" in black ink onto black SRA3 Card
- Laser Cut the pattern onto the black SRA3 card
- Laser Cut a matching sleeve onto brown card
- Take the PDF of my book for printing
- Take my book to Modern Book Binders.
- Fold the sleeve to the book once picked up

I then called Modern Book Binders, and asked how long a single book would take to be perfect bound, and they suggested bringing it in at least 4-5 working days in advance, especially if there is going to be a whole heap of students bringing them in for binding, as they will do "first in first served", and there is the chance of some people missing out.

With this in mind, I would want to collect my book Wednesday at the latest. That way, I have time to fit the brown card sleeve to the book. They're not open on weekends, so I need to take it in Thursday to be make sure it's ready for hand-in. I then need to allow a full day for the printing of the booklet, as well as day for laser cutting and printing onto the black card.

My production timeline is below:

Sunday 15th May: Print black text onto black card
Monday 16th May: Laser cut the black card, as well as the brown card sleeve
Tuesday 17th May: Take PDF of book to Ink Digital for printing
Wednesday 18th May: Pick up printing from Ink Digital
Thursday 19th May: Take my cover and printed book our to Modern Book Binders
Wednesday 25th May: Pick up book and fit the brown card sleeve
Thursday 26th May: Final Presentation

Week Four: Session One

For today's class, we had our interim presentation of our book cover designs. At the beginning, we laid them all out on a bunch of tables, with some paper next to each concept for some feedback. I put down three concepts, which can be seen in my physical workbook, although the laser cut one with the dotted font was definitely my favourite.

I had also prepared some section/chapter openers in a similar style (using the dotted font) so that they could get a fair idea of how I was going to change the inside of my book in relation to the cover.

I was super stoked with how the laser cutting had turned out, and I got a lot of really good feedback on my concepts. The words on my feedback list were really reflecting the words I put on my concepting checklist back in term one, which was a huge positive. I was getting words such as "sophisticated", "clean", and "natural" as some of the feedback.

One suggestion that Fay had, was to go through and round all of the 'dotted' pieces, as a lot of them have random sharp pieces sticking out.

I feel like I'm close to my final book cover, and once I've rounded these dots, and altered the inside of the book, I'm going to begin my final production process.

Week Three: Session One

Over the past few days, I had been experimenting with a few different ideas. I had gone out and bought some card and other materials to have a play around with. The main one which I experimented with (and can be seen in my physical workbook) is the idea of embossing into the cover. I played around with embossing it into the page, or having it coming out of the page.

I also had a go at doing some Japanese binding with some black thread. It was good to get a test one done, as I realised that if I am to use this method, I will either need to use some thicker thread, or go through multiple times. I also noticed that it's quite difficult to make the thread real tight which could be an issue. If I choose this binding method, I will either need to have a few more test runs, or get it bound at Modern Book Binders or some other book binding store.

By next week, we have been asked to have one typographic cover and one material cover. I'm going to get onto the Laser Cutter and give that a go, so that I can begin playing with the idea of creating Facades as my book cover design. I'm also going to head into Big Picture and print out a typographic book cover with some clear ink, white on white.

Week Two: Session One

During today's class, we presented our developed Fuse cover designs. I presented a couple, which had potential, although a few of them weren't exactly conveying "architecture" as such.

For the rest of the class, we were looking at different methods of binding, and researching different materials etc that we could create our book from. There are a few methods which I want to try out, such as embossing, printing with clear ink, and also laser cutting.

By next week we have been asked to have a few concepts for the book cover, this time having them as material covers rather than just using a digital typeface.

Introduction to Assignment Two Brief

Today was the first class of what is technically the second term, despite not having the holidays in between the two terms this time. The class today consisted of introducing us to the brief, and telling us what was required, while also looking at a couple of examples in the presentation studio.

After the introduction, we were introduced to a whole set of Fuse typefaces, type which isn't necessarily legible, but would make for an interesting book cover, and could be used as a way of conveying architecture. We whipped up a whole bunch of different concepts.

For next week, we need to bring a couple of refined Fuse covers to show Jo, since she was absent during today's class. These can be seen in my physical workbook.

Hand-In

It was hand-in today, so I had to go pick up my printed brochure and then fold it up before hand-in. This morning, I whipped up the specification documents, showing font sizes etc on each of the main pages throughout the book.

I ended up heading into Ink around 2pm, as it was getting late and they hadn't called yet, and the book was printed which was good.

However, when folding my booklet, I realised that on the contents page some of the text had defaulted to Registration Black, and gone quite fuzzy, which I then wouldn't have had enough time to change and get it re-printed in time for hand-in. Also, for some reason the 'category' text on each of the opening section work pages (e.g MOTAT, Kumutoto etc.) had gone back to Avenir 45 Book, rather than Avenir 85 Heavy. I think it may have been attached to one of the wrong paragraph styles and changed while I made my final few changes before printing...

I handed it in around 3:30pm, and came home straight away to go through and re-bold the 'category' labels, and also change the contents page to 'Black' rather than 'Registration'. Even though I'm obviously guttered in the fuzziness of the contents page, and the fact that the type changed and reduced the hierarchy on the spread, I'm still happy knowing that next term we continue to work on these, so I'll be able to keep going and improve it even more, when we begin to give the book some personality. 

Week Six Class Reflection

Today was our final class before tomorrow's hand-in. I ended up seeing Fay again for my critique, and I had made quite a lot of little changes since last week. During the 1 on 1 session, we found some more things that could be improved, and I then spent the remainder of the class going through changing these, before heading down to the bureau to get my book printed.

There were a few headings that required a bit of kerning, I needed to change my page numbers back to black, and also change the dates on the Selected Works Award pages to orange. Plus a few other minor changes.

I took the file to Ink Digital for printing, and they said it will be ready tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll head on down after my studio class and grab it. I'm super excited to see how it turns out and hand it in, as I'm looking forward to the next stage of the project where we continue to work on the editorial but 'give it a bit more personality'.

Week Five Class Reflection

In today's class, I got to sit down 1 on 1 with Fay and present my book design, in which I had been working on a lot over the past week. I made sure I finished the whole book, by adding in the staff profiles etc too, as this way it meant I could get some feedback before next week's hand-in.

From the critique with Fay, she said she was impressed with the development, and we ended up going through the book and picking out heaps of little changes for me to make, more just crafting than anything. I'm super stoked that it's come a long way since week four's class, and now it is mainly just refining to do.

I feel like my book is now conveying those descriptive and emotive qualities I had initially written in my concepting checklist at the start of the term. With some more development, I feel like it'll get to where I want it to be. Designing the book cover next term will also help with solidifying this concept.

I'm looking forward to getting the crafting done and getting it professionally printed from a bureau in town. I'm excited to see how it turns out.

Week Four Class Reflection

In today's class, we again had a critique of each other's work. I had been working on this quite a bit over the last week, although the downside to my work was that I didn't realise that every spread had to have a similarly structured layout, so every building had a different layout, just a similar aesthetic.

When comparing the feedback I received with my initial concepting checklist, I realised that I wasn't at all conveying what I had set out to do. I was wanting quite a spacious, sophisticated book, although I wasn't conveying that at all yet.

Along with that, Fay gave me a lot of pointers on what to change and how to go about it. I'm going away to Australia for the holidays, although I'll make sure that once I get back I get a lot of development on my design, so that for week five's class it is really well refined, and then it will only be crafting left to do.

Week Three Class Reflection

Over the course of the past week, I've been working on coming up with initial concepts for 'The Rock' spread, the introduction spread, and also the awards spreads at the back end of the book. I have come up with multiple concepts in order to be as broad as possible, and then find aspects that work better than others, then begin to focus on one conceptual approach for the whole book. These can be seen in my physical workbook.

This class was mainly spent with everyone printing their homework, and then having it critiqued in front of the class so that we could go away and develop it for the remainder of the studio. I quite like having whole class critiques, as you also learn from hearing other peoples' work being critiqued, and find other aspects that work or don't work.

I had some very effective feedback from Fay and Jo, and I have more of an idea where I will head in terms of a consistent layout throughout. I spent the final hour of studio time working on and developing this as well.

Next week, we are having a class critique/interim presentation, where we have been given a list of things to have completed. We need to refine the chapters we have been working on, as well as come up with a lot more spreads. It's good that we are being instructed to do a lot of work before the class critique, as the earlier you get concepts whipped up and critiqued, the more time you have to develop and refine them before hand-in.

Week Two Class Reflection

At the beginning of class today, we had Tessa, an in-house designer from Studio Pacific Architecture, come in and have a bit of a Q&A session with our class.

The session was super helpful, as we were able to asks some questions and gain valuable insight into what the architecture company are like, and their underlying beliefs and ways of working. There were key aspects of their company, such as focusing on environmental sustainability and being creative, innovative, and collaborative with external sources as well. I took down heaps of notes during her slideshow presentation as well, which I've saved on Microsoft Word, so that I've got some key notes to reference when filling out my concept checklist, and coming up with a conceptual style.

Following the Q&A, we had a small presentation from Fay about using grids and setting them up on InDesign, using master pages, paragraph styles and so on, all the sorts of things that would make this project that much easier to manage. We then set up our own, and printed out some grid layouts at thumbnail size, so that we could beginning working on some layouts.

By next week, we are required to bring a few printed layouts that we have come up with, and we are meant to have chosen a font family to use as well, one that we feel fits and exemplifies Studio Pacific Architecture's ethos. The layouts we need to make are for 'The Rock' spreads, the 'Awards' spread, and also the 'Intro' spread. It's good that we are getting into the digital prototyping nice and early so that we have a lot of time to develop and refine these before the final hand-in.

Before I begin to whip these up on InDesign, I'm going to sketch out more layouts on my thumbnails grids, as it's a good way to roughly put heaps of layout ideas on a page, and see what works and what doesn't. Once I have some layouts that I think will work, I'll begin to create them in InDesign.

Analysis' of Existing Editorial Design

I've been doing a bit of research online looking at some existing editorial design, in order to see how they've used grid systems, font choices, imagery, and other FADP's such as scale, balance, and composition. Attached to this blog are a couple of images found online, and there are some good things I like about some of them, then other aspects which I don't admire as much. 

First up, is the above spread. A lot of architectural books tend to go for this style of one page covered with a photo, and then text on the left hand side. The reason for this, is to catch people's attention. As a user flicks through a book, the first thing they see is the picture on the right hand side, and if they like the look of it, or find it interesting, then they are more likely to go onto reading the article. Although the type is simple and placed within two large columns (on what appears to be a four column grid system), I really think it suits the feel of the page, and gives it a nice, crisp look. This feel is greatly enhanced by the main header type, which is a nice, thin sans-serif font. The dark blue of the font also matches to one of the blue shades in the image, creating a clever link between the two.The page feels very clean, crisp, and modern, and would definitely draw me in to read the text or at least skim through a few lines of the content. 

Again, much like my last write-up, the above double page spread uses one large photo taking up the write hand page, with text on the other. Accompanying the text this time are two further photos, and no heading, which would suggest this is the inside of one of the chapters or sections within the book. The composition is quite nice, and the two smaller images on the left match together nicely to meet the colour scheme set in the large image on the right, with the mixture of fresh green grass and blue skies.The text has again been placed into more of a traditional two column fixture, which helps keep the page nice and balanced, easy to read, and fits in with the intended style.

The composition of the above double page spread is somewhat different to the previous two. The images still take up the whole right hand page, while the text predominantly covers the left hand page. The book this time consists of square pages as well, rather than the typical rectangular or A4 sized paper that many are accustomed to. The squared pages allow a shift in approach to the compositon, and has allowed 9 different images to be placed on the right hand page. This one also features a pull out quote, which is the main focus of the left hand page, due to it's large scale. I quite like the layout of the images, although I'm not the biggest fan of the text page, and the font of the pull quote isn't my favourite either. I'm also unsure if this style really suits Studio Pacific Architecture either, as they seem to be a lot crisper and cleaner looking.

The above spread is another neat twist on a composition, consisting of three images, and some body copy. This one they have reversed the order of the pages, by having the images on the left hand page, with the text following it on the right hand page. I quite like the placement and scale of the images, although I feel like the type could be manipulated a lot better, with a lot more thought put into the composition and breaking up of the body copy. At the moment it just looks like one massive clump of text, with random rags. It' doesn't really seem to be designed at all.

The above spread goes back to the typical large photo on the right hand side, with predominantly text on the left. There's something quite interesting about how the large image doesn't quite fill the whole page, and instead leaves a blank white column by the centerfold. The three images stacked on top of one another has again been a popular theme throughout my research, which allows the text to be neatly compiled on one side of them. I quite like this layout, and the composition of the photographs themselves are very interesting, and would draw the viewer in while navigating through the book.

This spread, placed directly above, is actually one from a Studio Pacific Architecture book. I really like how they've gone for the large image on the right hand side, although uniquely stretched it beyond the centrefold and half way across the left hand page, until it meets the body copy. This is allows the smaller images to be tucked up alongside it in a small column, and not look out of place at all. The border around the edge of the large photo is quite nice, and definitely helps to create the crisp, clean, and modern look that Studio Pacific Architecture seem to exemplify.

After this research, I have definitely started to come up with some of my own possible layouts, and I will look to draw inspiration from some of these. On Thursday, we have a Q&A session with an employee from Studio Pacific Architecture, which will allow me to get further insight into their beliefs and ways of design. This will further help me conceptualize a style that I'd like to use for this book design.

Week One Class Reflection

Today we were introduced to our elective, Editorial Design, and our lecturers Fay and Jo introduced us to the brief, and informed us of what our first assignment will be. What we are designing is a book between 56 and 100 pages, for our client Studio Pacific Architecture. We have been given all of the information and content to go inside, both the text and the images to choose from. However, we are also allowed to source our own images, and go and take them if we choose to do so.

I'm really excited for this paper, especially since it's basically the progression from Type in first year, and the elective Information Design in second year.

Next week, we are having a Q&A session with an employee from Studio Pacific Architecture, so it will give us a better chance to really understand what the company is all about, so that we can begin coming up with conceptual styles, colour palettes, and a general aesthetic approach to our book.

By next week's class, I'm going to analyse a few existing designs that I find online as some research, so I can use these as some inspiration for my own conceptual approaches to this brief. I will also have a look through their website and do a bit of research so that I can get a better understanding of how they operate, their beliefs and overall vibe of the architectural company. I'm also looking forward to the Q&A session, as it will really help clarify what they are about by hearing from an employee first-hand.