13/11/2024- 05/12/2024 (Week 8-Week 11)
Lizzie Tanaka (0362065)
Publishing
Design | BDCM | Taylor's University
Task 3A: Book Printed
LECTURES
LECTURE 3_TYPOGRAPHY REDUX
Typography
- Most important area in graphic design for designers to master, setting
ourselves to good standards.
- The art of arranging and composing
text
- Medium of expression and communication
Characters in a typeface
- Small caps
- Numerals
|- Fractions
- Ligatures
-
Punctuations
- Mathematical signs
- Symbols
- Non-aligning
figures
Legibility
- Choose typefaces that are open and well proportioned
- Breaking this
rules requires a designer to be knowledgeable of this rules first.
-
Example of typefaces: Caslon, Times New Roman, Helvetica, Futura
Computers have a lot of new features to typeset but people who aren't aware of
typographic rules break them. Legible type require certain considerations:
- Underlines: Default programs commonly put their underline to
touch the characters which negatively affects readability. The underline
should not touch any character. Two types of underlining: focusing on each
word and focusing on the sentence as a whole.
- Small caps and all caps: Small caps are recommended for
subheads in the first line of paragraphs. All caps should be used for short
headlines/subheads (never use all caps for paragraphs/emphasis).
- Special purpose style: Formatting styles are available in
softwares to make footnotes, references and mathematical formulas.
- Text scaling: Few softwares allow pseudo-condensed or
pseudo-extended font by squeezing or stretching the font, distorting the
font.
- Outline and Shadows: This is a style that is commonly abused.
Outline should not exceed 1pt and shadows should not be too far from the main
text.
Harmonious texts require a good relationship between type size, line lengths
and leading. A column of text should contain about 50 to 65 characters. No set
rules for size of leading, but do consider:
- Font: Some fonts require more leading to avoid the ascenders
and descenders touching
- Line length: Longer lines require
more leading
- Type size: Larger text size requires more
leading (body copies). Headlines may be set with less leading.
Overly long or short lines tire the audience to read. Larger type sizes need
their kerning to be adjusted. Kerning creates a more pleasing look. Most
word processor softwares do not allow kerning but some letters need manual
adjustments.
Tracking is similar to kerning but is done on a selected of
characters, words, spaces to make the text fit a required space without
reducing its size.
Italics: Should be used with care. Body copies and large amount
of texts with italics can ruin reading. Best used to create emphasis within
text.
Capitals consumes more space and impedes reading.
Alignment:
- Flush left, ragged right: Even letters and word spacing. The line
finishing at different points, it is easier to locate new lines making it the
most legible alignments.
- Flush right, ragged left: Suitable for
small amount of text, not recommended for large body copies.
- Center alignments:
Formal appearance, good when used minimally. No large amount of texts should
be used in center alignments.
- Justified text: Can be very
readable if there are no rivers within the words.
Paragraph Spacing
Automatic space between each paragraphs. Placed above/below paragraphs.
Paragraph Indents
Should be utilized with justified texts. Using indentation and paragraph
spacing can be a bit too much. Indent should be the same size of the type
size.
Special Formatting
- Hyphens: Divide words or numbers and also to break words from
one line to another. Headlines and subheads should not be hyphenated.
- Line breaks:
Lines need to be broken for readability. Most programs have line breaks
without altering formatting.
- Drop Caps: Start new
chapters and sections of reports. Shouldn't exceed three lines. Without auto
settings, it should be avoided.
- Desktop Quotes
- Side Bar: Accompanies body copy, highlighting alternate
narratives/facts.
LECTURE 4_THE GRID
Raster System
- Grid divides a space into smaller fields in the same or different sizes to
produce a more constructive work.
Purpose of Grid
- Using grid as ordering systems to solve visual issues. Arranging surface and
spaces accordingly to a grid allows a designer to place texts, photographs,
and diagrams more coherently.
- Creates a sense of clarity, suggesting
orderliness when designing.
Modular System
- Grid is modular at default but not to be a constraint. It still allows
flexibility but a limit must be set to ensure coherence in its outlook and
navigation.
- A grid lets the information be arranged to be easy to read
and understand
LECTURE 5_ELEMENTS
Publication consists of 3 major elements held together by formats and
grids.
- Type
- Color
- Image
Variation
Designers should make variations within the layout while ensuring consistency
by keeping certain areas fixed such as the hang line, typeface, color, image
styles, and more. Combination of elements and its arrangement can vary.
INSTRUCTIONS
In task 3(A), we are to submit our final printed book.
Process
After I had the content finalized, I started doing the layout in Adobe
InDesign. The process was not as difficult as I had thought it would be but
determining the layout of the text required more time. I had changed the title
of my book from 'Indonesia and its Lifelong Lessons' to 'Reflections from
Nusantara.' I thought that I'd like my title to be less literal.
My book would start with a blank page and a title of the book and then
continue to the author section and the book title again and finally the book
details and the table of contents. It would continue to the
foreword/introduction and move to the actual content of the book starting from
chapter 1 to chapter 3 and the afterword/closing.
Fig 1.1 Indesign process (1)
My main struggle was placing the bubble texts in a way that it looks
creative and less boring but also keep the flow of reading accurate. This
was the first draft and the first attempt of the layout.
Fig 1.2 Indesign process (2)
I started exploring on more creative layouts as seen in Figure 0.0 on the 4th
spread with the text placed above the full-page pictures.
Fig 1.3 Indesign process (3)
I introduced the same layout to the third and fourth spreads in Figure 0.0 as
well because I thought it would break the flatness of the text on white
page.
I showed my draft to Mr Hijjaz on week 9 and he commented that it was overall
okay but I would need to complete the pages before the afterword and finish
the cover soon. He specifically commented to increase the kerning and the
leading of the text as it seemed to cramped to each other. My text pt size was
11 with a leading of 13. I ended up increasing it to 16 to give it more
breathing room.
On the second draft, I experimented more on the layout and tried to be more
creative. There are a few final changes I made.
On chapter one pages, I put some text on the full page picture and did some
tiny changes on the second spread to make it a bit more balanced.
Fig 1.4 Chapter 1 changes
For chapter 2, I tried a bit of a more creative layout on Figure 0.0, first
spread. I thought it would make it a bit more fun with the text broken up
and utilizing different weights and size of the font. I separated the two
text bubbles into different pages instead of trying to combine it into one
page.
Fig 1.5 Chapter 2 changes (1)
I also moved some text to the full paged picture in Figure 0.0 (first
spread) and broke up the text. I decided to position the instant noodle
illustration in the center of two pages and put the text on each side. I
felt like this layout balanced the small amount of text well instead of
making it look empty on one page.
Fig 1.6 Chapter 2 changes (2)
I applied some text to the images on the rest of the book layout to make
it more interesting.
Fig 1.7 Chapter 3 changes
Fig 1.8 Afterword spread changes
For the book cover, I lost the first screenshot I took of the draft I showed
to Mr. Hijjaz, but it was along the lines of Figure 0.0 below. My initial
cover page was a simple text on left align with my name in the small
mountain. Mr Hijjaz told me it looked too simple and I could explore more
for the cover page. He advised me to see each word as a graphic instead of
just a text.
Fig 1.10 First draft of book cover
After a few tweaks, I decided to make the text a bit more integrated with
the mountains by hiding a bit of it behind the mountain. I used text warp
to make the title less boring and plain. Mr. Hijjaz had also advised me to
play with the different sizes of each word so I tried to highlight
'reflections' and 'nusantara.'
Fig 1.11 Final cover
For subtle decorations, I added a tiny black drop shadow and added a
roughen effect to my title.
Fig 1.12 Text effects
After the book cover was ready, I made sure to check the orphans and
widows as well as manually tweak each paragraph for good ragging.
Once the final layout is done, I sent it over to Mummy Design. I chose to use
the Artcard Matte in 300gsm for the cover since I'd like the cover to be a bit
thicker. For the content, I used the Artpaper in 157gsm since I thought the
thicker the pages, it would make the book more durable. Initially I had an
idea to use stitch binding but the cost was 2x more expensive and it took more
time for them so I chose to do a staple bind instead. The book costed me
71.70RM.
While re-checking the book, I realized I made a rookie mistake of using a
different font size. The text on the left page is at 11pt while the one at the
right is at 12pt. And the 12pt size continues to the rest of the book. At a
glance, it isn't really noticeable but when I started reading the book from
the beginning, the bigger font size was noticeable and it felt too big and 'on
your face' (?). I decided to print another book, spending another
71.70RM.
Fig 1.9 Font size mistake
Final Submission
Thumbnails of Layout
Fig 2.1 Thumbnail of layout
Fig 2.2 Thumbnail of layout
Fig 2.3 Thumbnail of layout
Book Printed
Fig 2.4 Book Cover
Fig 2.5 Book Cover (Back)
Fig 2.6 Book Page
Fig 2.7 Book Page
Fig 2.8 Book Page
Fig 2.9 Book Page
Fig 2.10 Book Page
Fig 2.11 Book Page
Fig 2.12 Flipthrough Video
Final Spreads
Fig 3.1
Fig 3.2
Fig 3.3
Fig 3.4
Fig 3.5
Fig 3.6
Fig 3.7
Fig 3.8
Fig 3.9
Fig 3.10
Fig 3.11
Fig 3.12
Fig 3.13
Fig 3.14
Fig 3.15
Fig 3.16
Fig 3.17
Fig 3.18
Fig 3.19
Fig 3.20
Fig 3.21
FEEDBACKS
Week 8 (ILW)
Week 9
- Overall layout is ok
- Do bleed for full page pictures
- Good choice of font
- Some pages feel a bit weird and empty. Try using minimal graphic elements to balance it
- Increase leading and kerning so it doesn't feel too crammed
Week 10
- Book cover can be improved. Play with the text as if it is separate graphics. The one i have now is a bit too plain. Back cover already good
- Try playing with the size of each word (book cover)
- Layout is already good, just finish up
Week 11
- Text size is okay
- Can actually increase the left and right margins
REFLECTIONS:
This past few weeks of doing the book, I have learned a
lot of knowledge regarding book designing and printing.
I'm quite satisfied with the end result, to see each of my
content printed in real life was a proud moment. The
layout part wasn't as hard as I had imagined but it did
require a detailed eye especially in the typography as I
had to ensure there was no orphans or widows while
maintaining good ragging with the left aligned
paragraphs.
Overall, I'm glad that I succeeded in this project and
learned a handful on book design and being involved in the
printing process will help me in my future
endeavors.
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