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e City In FluxVolume 3 - Final

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e City In FluxFirst IdeaMy initial idea was to always produce a book of sorts. The first idea I had for this book was to communicate the state of information overflow within the people in a city. The details of this concept I have explained in volume two, my development work. To show this idea I took a series of photographs of people naturally wandering the city on their day to day business, I was then going to overlay a range of typography in various styles and forms to represent the information invisibly present in the image.. I got to the point where all my selected images were cropped and edited to greyscale when I then presented my progress to my study group.

The response was quite critical and I was told my images were not strong enough to guide the visual language in the way I wanted. This I can understand when I looked

back on my images, the way I took them was also from a long distance and it removed all the personality and perspective from the image. I was advised to stick to my strengths of typography and layout with ‘working design’ rather than ‘visual design’ which is design composed of images and elements to show surface visual qualities, like a painting.

So taking in this feedback I saw where I had gone off track and I agreed with it completely. So it was back to the drawing board. I thought it was best to recap on all my previous notes, research and developing ideas to pool together another stronger concept. What I was advised by my tutor was that my research was one big insight to a city, and that was a strong point of mine which would be a strong foundation for a final product

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e City In FluxSecond IdeaAfter some thinking I came to another idea. The idea was to create a small book composed of photography, typography samples and ephemera, the book would serve as an insight into the city. But more specifically it will demonstrate how I see a city, rather than representing the city as a whole. I will try a few methods of binding, staple booklet binding, perfect binding and a few homemade binding methods. I may also create a dust cover for my book out of some ephemera samples that will be cut down to size. The book will be part of a package alongside a

folded poster and some postcards which will come in a translucent envelope.

To start I looked at some similar style booklets for inspiration on layout and typography and also to get an idea on the margin size I need so to ensure my content does not creep into the fold, I also used them as a reference to see how thick my booklet may be when printed on quality stock. From this information I sketched some very basic thumbnails and made noted on possible column grids and margin sizes that will suit the style and physicality of each bind.

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e City In FluxFirst Layout Alterations Further AlterationsAfter having a think about how I will approach my layout I started putting down the first images and type. I settled on a page size after cutting and comparing some sheets of paper so I could see the dimensions physically, I eventually settled on 14x20cm. I set up a three column grid on each page so that was six columns per spread. I placed all the images on each page and added the type at the bottom marking the date and location of the image. I varied the layout of images

Once I had the first layout set I then worked on the few niggles and issues I saw when I looked back on the layout with no guides or grids. I rearranged images and corrected spellings, I also changed the date to ‘2nd December 2014’ to a numerical date, for example

After taking some feedback from tutors and having a look at a few spreads on print rather than screen I worked on small details. I added some colour to my typography to create a hierarchy within the type samples and the labels on the images. I also added the book title and page number to the side of the pages. I tried having them

to three simple spread layouts, this would keep the spreads interesting to flick through and also retain the integrity of the grid system throughout the book. I then begun setting the type samples and marking the point size of each sample. I kept to one typeface per spread to give a good range of variations per typeface. And I finally added the ephemera samples which were scanned at 900dpi so I could enlarge them and not loose quality, these were labelled the same way as the images.

‘02.12.14,’ this way it looked more like data than text and so corresponds with how I see the data of a city and how I notice the numbers and code that lies underneath. After that I then worked on a cover, taking from inspiration of the booklets I collected.

on the bottom and on the side to see which was best and the side looked better as it balanced the layout as when it was at the bottom, when combined with the labels at the bottom it dragged your eye down away from the main content, and it also cluttered it up. So I kept it to the sides of the pages

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e City In FluxProofingNow I had a first layout I was happy with I decided to do a first proof to check the physicalities of it as a booklet. I set up my pages in multiplications of four so the printer can properly set my pages and I printed it in black and white to save money as it was just to check the layout and physical size etc. The first two prints went horribly wrong, some of the pages were upside down and the spreads were set wrong so one half of the spread was on the other side of the booklet and one half of the spreads crept way over the middle of the page. After

some alterations the third print was sucsessful and set the spreads properly, however I still had margin creep. But now I think of it now it was because we did not set the page to centre to the printer stapled what it thought was an A4 to A5 however it was slightly smaller. But I did not do another print as it became apparent the booklet printed with the lightest newsprint stock was too thick and it always opened in the middle due to the staple and it also had creep on the edges. So after that I decided to scrap the booklet binding idea.

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e City In FluxFurther Layout ChangesAfter looking at my proofs and taking the chance to see the whole layout printed I noticed my labels looked a bit naive and clumsy. So I looked back at my samples and their layouts and noticed their labels and notes looked tighter and more subtle, whereas mine were wide spaced and large and so

drew the attention away from he images rather than simply being a footnote to them. So I took notes on the elements I liked in the samples and had a session of trial and error with my own layout. I would simply make a change, print a comparison to the old version and work out a system I am happy with.

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e City In FluxTrial and Error ProofsHere I looked at how I could tighten up the type and make it look subtler.

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e City In FluxTrial and Error ProofsTo see how small I could have my type before it became unreadable I printed out a sheet of type at various sizes to use as a reference. I printed it in the typeface I was using, Calibri, so I knew what the size looked like for the exact typeface I was using as some typefaces are more legible in smaller sizes than others

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e City In FluxTrial and Error ProofsHere I tightened up the typography and made the point size smaller from 10pt to 8pt, I also reduced the leading.

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e City In FluxTrial and Error ProofsI decided the hierarchy between the directions to the image on the page and its information is not clear enough. So taking from inspiration from the booklet sample I have I moved the line down and made it much thinner to 0.25pt and also made it shorter to one and a half columns. This made the label much neater, easier to follow and subtler as the line was less abrupt.

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e City In FluxTrial and Error ProofsI compared the difference between greyscale and full colour for my images because I thought some of the colour in the images might clash with the blue text, however the greyscale looked bland and the full colour did not clash to I kept it was it was. I also Realised that there was a lot of white space inbetween the label and the image, a little too much as it made the label look like it was floating in the middle of the page rather than slotting in with the layout. So I decided to add some more

structure and elements to the pages by adding more information. This would be in the form of keywords at the bottom of the page. I moved the labels up and found that the variation between the three column images, the one or two column labels and the three column key words created a nice varied structure but did not look like it was moving away as it got smaller further down. This variation created a strong structure between the elements, not a top heavy setup.

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e City In FluxTrial and Error ProofsAfter my experimentation I settled on this as my final layout, I have changed all the spreads in the book and it is ready now for a final proof read to check for errors I have missed.

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e City In FluxCover Design

Binding and Margins

I then designed my front and back cover and printed them out in colour and trimmed them to size so I could have a realistic reference to check that the layout and type size is perfect.

As I was now opting for perfect binding I had to ensure my spreads were suitable. Perfect binding causes a little bit of space at the edges of the page to be lost as they fold inwards towards the spine, this is no problem when you have wide margins as then the main content is still safe and visible. So to prepare for this I made sure that the page number and book title were on the outside of each page and I also re arranged my typography sample pages.

This was because the main example of type spanned across the two page spread, and so parts of it would be lost in the inside margin, so I separated it into two smaller sized examples which fit within the margins on each page. To ensure I had the right sized margin I checked with my booklet examples that had perfect binding and measured their margins, and mine were slightly bigger so I will have no problem with things being lost in the margins.

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e City In FluxFinished Print

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e City In FluxFinished PrintI set my book to print and after a week turnaround I picked it up and paid a reasonable amount of £27 for the book. I had a choice between a gloss, satin and matt finish and I decided on matt. I chose matt as all the other samples I have looked at previously were matt and I loved them, it felt raw and stripped back which suited the layout well. The stock was good quality matt too and the colours came out wonderfully whereas on the satin sample it had a yellow tint.

My final concept for this book was to showcase my City. The City I saw. I compiled examples of type, colour and the weird and wonderful things in a City

in which I find interesting. That included the physical things I saw, and also what I knew lied underneath the skin of a City such as the example of HTML code and a computer’s motherboard. I am more than pleased with the final outcome.

If I were to improve my final book it would be to double the content and make the size of the book smaller, it would give it a pocket guide look and feel, and I would be able to include more examples of what lies underneath a City and some more examples of ephemera, those are the two things I liked the most from the book but they were the smallest part of it.

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e City In FluxFinished Print

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e City In FluxFinished Print

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e City In FluxFinished Print

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e City In FluxFinished Print

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e City In FluxFinished Print