Studio Practice: Compiling Research & Outcomes

Secondary research into the book market - stock / aesthetic / form / characteristics

Visiting Professional: Ben Holmes - Village

How you design has the ability to perceive how people view that book.

Background of Village book store:

started in the corn exchange
5th birthday
small shop where people could come and engage from around the world
bring stuff from outside the city into the city - great artist and publishers - New York / Tokyo
provide a space where people can get exposure for what they're doing on a playing field - compete with london etc - expand the creative community in leeds and keep young creatives from moving further afield
non-profit gallery space to be used
collaboration with the artists exhibiting - opportunity to showcase and for people to get exposure with their art

zines - 70s punk movement - people in local scene to get news out musical and political etc - over years evolved into a good way for artists and photographers to showcase their work in an interesting and unconventional means

evolved beyond small and staple publication - independently published
why self-publish? - internet age where so easy to get your work seen by lots of people, where they're also seeing lots of other work at the same time - a zine slows people down, a lot more personal and specific - seeing/ touching/ smelling - entirely focused on that persons creative output - creative something permanent

Melbourne design studio - made - produce an annual publication to showcase what they do as designers but also to do something they're interested in
folch studios - Barcelona
whack magazine - New York

communicating their ideology to people
bi-annual magazine featuring a range of artists/ designers/ photographers - brief interviews - standard - great opportunity to collaborate

What they look for:

the concept - more than images and text - should have a purpose - under-arching idea
format - potential to communicate a lot about the book
Fire in Cairo - Matthew - design and layout says a lot about the book - arab spring revolution - zooming in the situation - increasing your clarity - goes from 50% of page to full bleed image - mirrors this idea
how the book is printed - screen printed / purpose - decay through repetition -
'this is the same ocean' zine plays around with print techniques, manipulating image and content - printed different ways as it goes through
Surface phenomena - entire book is photographs of same spot in the Australian oceans, everyday for 18 months - has matte tactile paper running through and every now and then some gloss paper that makes the colour pop off - juxtaposition creates a rippling effect / some pages are portrait and some are landscape - idea of hypnosis as you look at the ocean and lose sense of convention
the details - spot varnishing / foiling / little finishes & touches - has to suit what you're trying to say
'some windy trees'

Fire in Cairo

Surface phenomena

Concluding information:

get involved in the self publishing community - off-print in London
First zine they published - Christopher Nunn - Ukrainian Street Dogs - photos of stray dogs at night - every copy of the book came with a cigarette card - little low cost touches can enhance the book as a product
tripod city - 3 photographers from London - different styles come together to tell a story from different perspectives - photos taken from Ghana -challenging peoples preconceptions of what Ghana is as a country - communicate the vibrancy - bruce usher - gold dust - made own typeface

Tripod City

Back cover Tripod City own typeface created for the book

Primary research into the book market - stock / aesthetic / form / characteristics

White Cube Gallery: Bermondsey, London

Going to the book shop of an acknowledged art institute allows for a perception of a wide range of credible informative and artistic content. The wide selection the book shop holds covers many different stocks and layout design solutions that work to form the final publications. The variations in size and content depends on the purpose of the book. More photography based publications had either glossy thick paper or a more textured fine stock (depending on wether it was apart of a large full book or small specialised one). Layout varied from double spreads to small sections of the page, to more randomised placing, yet keeping a constant clean composition.

Getting a physical feel of the books, and looking at the varying binds allows the designer to understand the process and purpose of the book. Is it meant to be long-lasting / sustainable, or more delicate and visual.

The way the book looks on a shelf is also important. What is its USP (unique selling point)? How does it look in a stack? Important to think of the context the book will be in, and what can attract the customer. How can it inform people off the bat that this is a book on music - this is already capturing a collective of people who recognise and are interesting in music and thus this book could be of interest to them - attracting them to the product due to the design decisions of the spine / considerations of the book in context.