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.

Week 3.1

Today we went over grids and putting our images together with text. I did thumbnails of possible spreads, and looked at my illustrations to see which ones would work in the overall spreads. I like some of the elements but I need to do more - I have a lot of thumbnails of ideas which I haven't made yet. I also need to make sure they all have at least three layers of information. For independent study I am going to create some of those, and mock up some spreads on InDesign.

Week 2.2

Today in class we did an exercise writing down the emotive qualities and feelings of different patterns, as well as finding design examples in books of different design elements that show different feelings. I sorted out the extra photos and material I collected so I can make better compositions, because the ones I've made so far don't really have enough tiers of information and I don't really think they're getting the point across. I think I will start making more illustrative compositions because that's more what I'm interested in and better at.

Week 2.1

On Monday we sorted our collected material into each place, and figured out what else we might need to get based on people guessing our places. People guessed I was doing bookstores/secondhand books which is correct. Other people said quiet places to read which is more or less accurate too? Though I don't know if I'll be focusing on the quiet part since not all the bookstores are very quiet . I will probably go and get some more better quality/detailed photos. We then did a lot of drawing exercises with different media and started to make collages. I didn't quite finish mine and in the critique others didn't pick up on what it was supposed to be about so I added some more obvious parts like an actual book/old page/text rather than just rectangles to represent book spines. I am continuing to make more collages and collect more material for Thursday.

Week 1

This week we were introduced to the assignment. I brainstormed ideas of what I might want to do, and eventually decided on bookstores - since I spend a lot of time reading and always go into bookstores when I pass them - but haven't yet decided on my exact specifications yet. I went into town to all of the bookstores that I am going to choose between (mostly secondhand ones) to research the different traits of each.

 I took photos, drew and wrote down other things I noticed about them. I also compared them to figure out the interesting/individual things about each one so I can create a good concept that's more than just 'bookstores in wellington'.