Rationale

My topic was independent bookshops in Wellington Central City. I tried to convey the feeling of being in each bookstore through the perspective and scale, with tall shelves and a small figure, as well as colour to show the atmosphere. I used lines to show the way people move about the bookstore (up ladders; wandering around; lots of people) and patterns on the books and things in the air around the figure to show what type of books the store specializes in (mythology; sci-fi and fantasy; NZ books). 

I used the texture of old book pages, made the cover like a book cover, used book-like fonts and layouts to give the whole brochure a bookshop feeling. The pages get lighter and newer looking near the end to show those stores have more newer books.
I found that doing lots of sketches and exploration of illustrative ideas in different styles rather than just going with one of my first ideas works well and means I can combine many of those ideas to get a better result.I think in future I will apply this to the rest of it (fonts, text layout) as well.

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Physical workbook only.

Week 6.1

For independent I tried to make the baseline of all my titles align. I could quite get them to without making the white space on the location spreads look strange. But by moving all the text on those pages up one line, and the cover and 'discover wellington' down one, there is only one line difference between the first two and rest of the pages' headers, which is less noticeable than it was initially.

I also looked at making my map key more obviously attached to my map - nothing really seemed to work and look good, so I just put a title (key) by it. I also removed the library point (which I had because it's a relevant place) because I decided it was distracting. Otherwise, I'm finished.

Week 5.2

Today we had a lecture on printing things, and then had one to ones. For independent I edited various things and made a version with larger header text and smaller header text. I think I like the bigger one more because it suits the older secondhand feel, the smaller feels more modern? I my header on the first spread it on a different baseline than the others, and I don't know whether I should change that or not - I'm not sure if I can fit it if i can make them all the same. I made my icons into a small shelf of books rather than just an asterisk. I also did quite a bit of type detailing, fixing dashes and rags. My map key also might need to be made a little more connected to the map? At the moment it is the same as my information on the location spreads. I will maybe add colour, or a white line to connect it to the map illustration.

Week 5.1

Today we looked at everyone's full pages and then talked individually to tutors. Over the holidays I made a map and cover page, added a few more elements to my illustrations and refined various small aspects of the text and layout. Some of these things I wasn't sure about and wanted a second opinion on, and talking about them today was helpful. One of the main things I need to do is make all my header text the same size - it was smaller on the title and first page. I'm not sure if I will make it all the smaller or bigger size (or maybe half way), but I will do that for independent, as well as continuing to refine small parts of the rest.

Week 4.2

On Thursday we went over type detailing. I changed some small details (text from justified to left aligned, changed around spacing between lines, kerning etc) to make my text more readable and unobtrusive. I also thought about adding some more details to my illustrations to make it even more obvious of the content of the books (eg more obvious fantasy/sci-fi, mythology aspects). I will do this as well as creating a cover and the map page over the break.

Week 4.1

Today was the interim presentation, and we looked at everyone else's work so far. We then paired up and went over the worksheet about what works and doesn't in our spreads. For the most part, mine are working well with flow, hierarchy, FADPs and successfully communicating what the brochure is about. We then talked about things I could do to make it better - mostly small things like refining the type, maybe spacing it out a little or adjusting the placement of it so it's as readable and visually appealing as possible. For Independent I will continue to do this. I researched the way text is set out in books, as well as starting to look at book maps (like fantasy ones).

Week 3.2

For independent study I made three illustrations which I might use for my finals, as well as mocking up some possible spreads in InDesign. In class we looked over these to see what works and what might need to be changed or refined. I need to make the tiers of information in my illustrations more obvious, and I brainstormed some ways I might do that (colours, shop logo, more obvious emotive lines). I also need to think about my fonts more, and maybe add some extra illustrative elements to the other pages.