I am thinking of using the template that I have started designing, for the learning agreement presentation. Since the book is going to be presented as work in progress, then maybe this smaller document is a good chance to try it out. Here are some basic page layouts.
Another layout plan of the A4 format for the book. This time with worked out distances, grids and text sizes. Still developing..
An almost complete list of illustrations for the book. There are a couple subjects still missing and the format of them is obviously going to change in terms of printing methods, sizes and shapes.
Possible variations of layouts on an A4 page. The grid is a simple grid that is formed of a 5mm edge around the page and a central grid line vertically on each page. The two horizontal lines are calculated from the golden section which manages to create a sense of calmness and legibility.
Some book spreads from the three books mentioned below. Studies of grids pictures relating to text, different font sizes, hand-drawn sketches, architectural plans, photographs.
Trying to find intresting books for inspiration, what better choice can someone have but looking at these three great publications. Truth is I have never been able to read them all but I think this is part of them too. They are great sources of inspiration, books that you can easily open randomly and read jumping around sections and chapters. The information can be read in various ways, linearly or randomly, refering from page to page and to different subjects / section. There are hidden stories to be discovered, clues to understand and look for more. Parallel stories or short narratives that develop in secret ways (and grids).
I am particularly enthousiastic about the ways that they manage to hold all this information (they are 1330+, 440+, 530+ pages each). Obviously I won't even try to get up to these sizes (I don't even have so much work!) but I would be interested on designing the book in such a way that can be read in different ways.
One of the most important maps of the year, this is the book layout and chapter map. A basic version where the seven red chapters are the main ones (see link) and the light blue are the additional chapters/ sections. A basic outline of what should be included in each subject, is also noted as well as some basic questions for the articles that are needed to be written. This map should be extended and developed in the future, to include all upcoming subjects and sections of the publication.
These are the six basic chapters of the book in a chronological order as appeared and worked throughout 2006-2007. The sequence of events/ projects is an obvious development of thought and research. One thing results on the other and so the final is a conclusion of all the previous and so on.
The results of such an approach on experimentations and design process are fantastic. The freedom, the advantage of making mistakes and learning from them or just a process of thinking in a linear but adaptable narrative.
These sections should form the basic spine of the book but can (and should) be interapted with other elements / chapters. Research, writing, reading, random thoughts or just observations are the background stories of this process but nevertheless a vital part of it.
I am still in the process of finishing the table while writing this. I try to understand and realise the basic concept behind the design of the book.
The whole year was an attempt to study different design disciplines and discover the interconnecting threats that they all have (should or shouldn't) with graphic design. Looking back at the process, from House X to the Underpass and the Table, I was trying to read the hidden information that was hidden behind and bring it forward.
It is part of my study to find intresting games of revealing information, communicating it by dis-communicating it, making it obvious but still discoverable. The Table managed to tell a story, House X celebrated itself and the Underpass will probably one day learn its own story from its users.
The book is trying to record all these processes and demonstrate the results of the experimentations that took place this whole year. How should it be laid out? In what form it should present all this information? How can it capture all the things that happened, the ideas that they were born and developed?
A book can be a lot of different things. It can be a monograph of a designer, a fashion-style catalogue of some work, a writing about the work, a fanzine, a series of individual pages. It can be all that and nothing together with hidden meanings, grids, layout, format.
Or it can be all revealed too. It can show itself how it was produced, what each page means, what are the relations between the images and the text, the images with the page, their position and grid methods. It can show and explain the process of its own creation, its story.
The book should be no different to anything else.
This book can be another attempt to reveal all the information hidden behind its glossy presentations of pictures and nicely formated text.
Just the beginning of some ideas about the book. This is just a contents page (with a bit of extra fun) as they appear on this blog. The book should follow the same structure as this blog (or maybe not?). It would be a good idea to follow a chronological order in the book but at the same time, a more complex development could possibly represent better the way of working and researching throughout the year.
It is true that all events followed a linear progress and one would become the result of its previous and the generator of the following but it would be good to represent all the small side projects, ideas, experiments and research that was done simultaneously.
This is just the basic ideas and the first mapping attempts in order to realise the volume of work between September 2006 and July 2007. This should all change soon..
