Chuah Kwai Pin / 0348376
Publishing Design / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Task 3(A): Book
LECTURES
All lectures have been completed in Task 1: Exercises
INSTRUCTIONS
After looking through my visual references, I went onto InDesign and picked the grid system that I thought is most suitable for my book. I then laid out my first chapter's text just to see how it would look. Of course, my first trial was not the best and it looked all over the place.
As I was working with the visuals, I found it difficult to incorporate
it with the text as I had crop them out to leave space for text. As for
the pull quotes, I tried to make them as fun and exciting as my
visuals.
I went on to complete the layout for the whole book with my 3 chapters and all 16 visuals. Overall, I feel that it is very loud and the pull quotes are somehow drowning out the text. Although visually, the pull quotes suit the overall vibe of the visuals, but when put into a book, it felt too much. After showing our lecturer, I was told that I should keep my text and pull quotes minimal to give contrast against the busy visuals. I was also advised to give more breathing space for my visuals so that they are not overshadowed by the text.
Based on the example shown, I attempted it on my first chapter to see
how it would look as a whole. Compared to my first layout, I believe
that this is a lot neater, and my visuals are also communicating a lot
better as well. For the contents page as well, I kept it simple and
aligned it with my chapter titles.
I kept the pull quotes in three lines and made them different lengths so that there is some variety and movement in it. I also chose colours that were more strongly portrayed in my visuals to go with the pull quotes. Once we were done with the book layout, we also had to create the inner and outer covers of our book.
When we went to the printing shop, we looked through a booklet of paper
samples and chose our paper type. For my inner pages, I chose Maple White
(120gsm) and for the cover also Maple White (170gsm). For our first test
print, I wanted to print it out in B&W, but unfortunately (or
fortunately) the staff accidentally printed my book in colour. Thankfully,
he gave the book to me at the price of a B&W Print. Overall, I was
really satisfied with the quality.
For this task that focuses a lot on layout and typesetting, I went online to search for some tips hoping that it would help to ease my process of doing the layouts.
TASKS
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| Fig. 1.1 Visual References, Week 5 (29/92023) |
For this task, we were advised to look for some layout references that
would suit our visual style. Since we have pull quotes and subtext in
our book, the references also gave me inspirations on how I wanted to do
my pull quotes and how I can make it interesting with my visuals.
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| Fig. 1.2 First Layout Trial- Text only, Week 5 (29/92023) |
After looking through my visual references, I went onto InDesign and picked the grid system that I thought is most suitable for my book. I then laid out my first chapter's text just to see how it would look. Of course, my first trial was not the best and it looked all over the place.
We printed it out as B&W Thumbnails and showed our lecturer for him
to check and comment. One main point that he told us was to flow our
text from top to bottom of margin instead of creating islands. With that
in mind, I went ahead and redid my layout, and began putting in my
visuals.
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Fig. 1.3 Second Layout Trial- Text and Visual, Week 6 (6/10/2023) |
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| Fig. 1.4 Completing Second Layout- Text and Visual, Week 6 (6/10/2023) |
I went on to complete the layout for the whole book with my 3 chapters and all 16 visuals. Overall, I feel that it is very loud and the pull quotes are somehow drowning out the text. Although visually, the pull quotes suit the overall vibe of the visuals, but when put into a book, it felt too much. After showing our lecturer, I was told that I should keep my text and pull quotes minimal to give contrast against the busy visuals. I was also advised to give more breathing space for my visuals so that they are not overshadowed by the text.
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| Fig. 1.5 New Layout Trial, Week 6 (6/10/2023) |
With the feedback, I was also shown an example by my lecturer of how
the book layout should look like. From this, I could see that the
visuals have a lot more space to breathe, and the text is neat and
subtle. As for the pull quote, it is very straightforward and simple,
which contrasts the visuals.
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| Fig. 1.6 New Layout Trial- Beginning to Chapter 1, Week 7 (10/10/2023) |
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| Fig. 1.6 New Layout Trial- All Chapters (1), Week 7 (10/10/2023) |
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| Fig. 1.7 New Layout Trial- All Chapters (2), Week 7 (10/10/2023) |
After completing the layout, I felt that the pull quote wasn't really
standing out and it had room for improvement. So, I went back to my
InDesign and reworked on my pull quotes.
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| Fig. 1.8 Pull Quote- Chapter 1, Week 7 (10/10/2023) |
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| Fig. 1.9 Pull Quote- Chapter 2, Week 7 (10/10/2023) |
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| Fig. 1.10 Pull Quote- Chapter 3, Week 7 (10/10/2023) |
I kept the pull quotes in three lines and made them different lengths so that there is some variety and movement in it. I also chose colours that were more strongly portrayed in my visuals to go with the pull quotes. Once we were done with the book layout, we also had to create the inner and outer covers of our book.
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| Fig. 1.11 Front and Back Covers, Week 7 (10/10/2023) |
Once I have inserted the covers, the book is complete! We were then
told to print out a version in B&W to see the overall look and feel
of it.
FINAL OUTCOMES
Final Book Print
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| Fig. 2.1 Front and Back Cover- Mockup |
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| Fig. 2.2 Inner cover and Half Title- Mockup |
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| Fig. 2.3 Pages 7 and 8- Mockup |
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| Fig. 2.4 Pages 25 and 26- Mockup |
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| Fig. 2.5 Pages 29 and 30- Mockup |
Fig. 2.6 Final Book Flip Through- Mp4
Final Book Thumbnails
Fig. 2.7 Follow The Lines Thumbnails - PDF
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Fig. 2.8 Follow The Lines Thumbnails - JPEG
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Final Book Spreads
FEEDBACK
REFLECTION
FURTHER READING
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| 2.8 Follow The Lines Spreads- JPEG |
Fig. 2.10 Follow The Lines - PDF
FEEDBACK
Week 5
The layout is not interesting enough. Title font can be changed to something less serious, consider sans serif font. Font size at 10pt is fine. Pull-quote font can be different from title font. Make sure that "Content" is aligned with title, using same font and font size.
Week 6
The layout needs to rework. Currently the visuals are not singing as they are being cropped out too much. The pull-quotes are also too playful. Go with a more serious layout that contrasts the visuals so that it does not look too busy overall.
Week 7
Be careful of the rivers in the columns, can select the sentences and hyphenate where necessary. Kern the sentences either 3 time back or front so that the sentences fit properly. Add the publisher name on the cover. The subtext can be a different colour, either cyan, magenta, yellow or black.
REFLECTION
Experience
Throughout the past few weeks working on this task, I have learned a lot about book layout and how to work with text and visuals. Although the process wasn't the smoothest, I believe that the challenges faced and the amount of re-layout I had to do was worth the experience. When I printed the book, I was really happy and satisfied with it, and it gave me a sense of achievement.
Observation
I observe that it is important for a book layout to not be complicated so that it can preserve its legibility. When I first did my layout with my visuals, I tried to make my layout as lively and playful as my visuals, but later on realised that it doesn't work well together. I was advised to give contrast between the text and visuals, and when I redid my layout, I notice that it was looking a lot more like a book.
Findings
While doing the layout, I find it important to proofread our work when transferring our text from the document into InDesign. As I keep redoing my layout, I notice that I have missed out a few sentences, or my sentences were left unfinished while I was busy editing. To give a proper check through, I went back to my document and compared it with the text in my InDesign to make sure I didn't miss out anything.
FURTHER READING
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| Fig. 3.1 7 book layout design and typesetting tips - 99designs https://99designs.com/blog/tips/book-layout-design-typesetting-tips/ |
For this task that focuses a lot on layout and typesetting, I went online to search for some tips hoping that it would help to ease my process of doing the layouts.
The first few steps such as Trim Size and Margins are what we have been doing in our Task 1: Exercises. Besides that, the article also mentions about the common mistakes made in book layout which is not leaving enough white space. For this, I can relate because I always find it hard to judge when it is too much or too little.
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