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Design a concertina booklet

Introduction to Typography 1 VDIS10020: Assessment Task 1Tutor Cal Swann

� The main purpose of this task is to explore the layout of typography from its simplest form – as one size of type and its relative position in a white area – to quite complex elements, in a series of pages.

Also, in order to emphasise the traditional nature of print, you should design this as a concertina booklet of six pages. The Chinese tradition of a concertina fold, exploiting the quality of materials in paper and board, is used to escape the confines of a screen.

Typographic forms are deceptively complex shapes. This project aims to increase your awareness and appreciation of the minute but significant differences that make up the range of typefaces and sizes that are at your disposal.

The tactile quality of printed material, the feel of paper and a three dimensional object that is intended to be held in your hands, is all part of this experience.

Make up a small ‘Chinese’ handbook, overall size 210 x 150 mm (A5). Sew or glue into a cover 6 pages on a concertina fold as the sample overleaf. You will use this to stick your A5 pages on, constructed via InDesign and if possible, printed on the same stock as your mock up.

It is up to you to select paper/materials, but you should bear in mind the contrast of the pages with perhaps a heavier weight stock for the cover. You might also think about what can go through your printer but don’t let that stop you feeling some good paper...

The visual forms must only consist of typographic elements, that is, letter shapes or parts of letter shapes. Choose a favourite quotation that you can use on every page –

(except the last).

� This is an example I’ve made as a mock up. I cut 2 sets of three A5 pages out of nice cartridge paper and stuck them together down one spine with sellotape on the back to make the 6 inside pages folded in concertina fashion.

Then I took a heavyweight ochre cover paper and made a slightly larger fold to encase the white pages. I tucked in a short flap front and back too, just for the feel of it.

Go to a good art materials supplier and choose a few nice papers to play with. Get away from the computer screen for a while and feel the three-dimensional thing.

� Page 1: Set the quotation in one size of type only, taking care of how you use the white space of the page. You can use a symmetrical or asymmetrical layout, whichever you like.

Page 2: Use the same quotation with two sizes of type. Contrast the sizes to achieve a dynamic layout within the A5 area.

Page 3: This time employ a contrast of style of font as the main attraction to your design.

Page 4: Find a block of copy as several lines of text* and make a collage characterising the texture of that text with your ‘heading’ of the quotation (or just parts of it). It doesn’t matter what the text is, this exercise is just manipulating typographic elements, the sense is not important, the visual balance is what we are exploring.

*Placeholder text (the Latin stuff available on InDesign for fill-in) will do.

Page 5: Exploit the varying elements you have used so far, any combination – but add colour as the main focus of attention.

Page 6: Use your own name to make a visual/verbal pun by finding word/s or phrases – anything goes but you can use typographic material only.

The exercise is entirely visual. There is no meaning to any of the collage pages except the last page, which is a contrast to the others in that it must convey a message of some sort about yourself.

Have fun!

Submission can be by a photograph of your mock up, together with a PDF of your six A5 page designs, date TBA.