Type Samples

Third post today! Things are finally moving. Question for everyone and anyone out there in blogger land. Which of these six fonts do you like the best? Also keep in mind the style of photography which you can see on the previous post... Also, keep in mind the type and photos will not be one the same page so they won't be competing to much (if you look even further back you will see some extremely rough sample spreads to get an idea of how the layout will be). The photos will also be slightly more abstracted and cropped and possibly higher contrast as well. If you have the name of a great Blackletter I haven't tried (I used what I had) please pass it on.

SEPIA!

Here is a sample of some of my edited photos. I decided to go with sepia in the end rather than black and white or blue. This is primarily because I just love how the photos look in sepia- it adds this amazing creepiness. As sepia tends to age the look of things it is an interesting contrast to the modern subject matter and layout.

Progress- or so I think...

My house smells like smoke, my camera is on the verge of death, my face is covered with ashes, my hair is a mess, my hands may be frost bitten, there is a destroyed table cloth in the trash and my tripod is fully expanded. Finally, I am getting somewhere!

I decided I want to be both the photographer and model for all my images. Admittedly it does make the job a lot harder in some ways, but easier in others. Plus I enjoy working like that. I did manage to get photographs done for a large part of the stories. I will upload and start editing them later today. I would like to have a nice selection done for class on Friday. Now it's probably a good idea to wash these ashes off my face!

Checking In

While I finally got my experimental book together I am uber behind in my term project. I think I have some sort of fear of just getting started. I know once I start doing the photography things will come together I just have to do it!

Problem Solved

I have solved my monotone and duotone problem. Rather than use photoshops mono or duotone setting, if I desaturate and the adjust the hue and intensity of the image I can get really crisp single color images.

Experimentation

I decided to experiment with color a bit rather than just go with black, white and red which was my initial instinct. I also experimented a bit with the title page. One of my big concerns, is that it is hard to get really crisp looking mono and duotone images. For some reason the colors of the spreads look really bright on the blog, while in fact they are a bit darker and subdued. The color palate though not identical, was inspired by the Nightwish website.



I am also playing around with the idea of a rectangle format vs the square. Maybe use the dimensions and binding techniques of the original book.

Manuscript 2.0

Here is the basic break down by page of my book as it stands now:

1. 1/2 title
2.
3. full title
4. table of contents
5. table of contents
6. The Story of Slovenly Peter- title
7. The Story of Slovenly Peter- peter sitting alone in corner
8. The Story of Cruel Frederick- title
9. The Story of Cruel Frederick- animal cruelty
10. The Story of Cruel Frederick- bite marks
11. The Story of Pauline and the Matches- title
12. The Story of Pauline and the Matches- lighting match
13. The Story of Pauline and the Matches- burning
14. The Story of Pauline and the Matches- ashes
15. The Story of the Inky Boys- title
16. The Story of the Inky Boys- mocking black kid
17. The Story of the Inky Boys- ink spills
18. The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb- title
19. The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb- sucking thumb
20. The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb- tailor with scissors
21. The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb- bleeding thumb
22. The Story of Augustus who not have any Soup- title
23. The Story of Augustus who not have any Soup- day 1
24. The Story of Augustus who not have any Soup- day 2
25. The Story of Augustus who not have any Soup- grave
26. The Story of Fidgety Philip- title
27. The Story of Fidgety Philip- fidgeting at table
28. The Story of Fidgety Philip- table collapsed
29. The Story of Johnny Look-in-the-Air- title
30. The Story of Johnny Look-in-the-Air- walking with head in the clouds
31. The Story of Johnny Look-in-the-Air- hand sticking out of river
32. The Story of Flying Robert- title
33. The Story of Flying Robert- walking with umbrella
34. The Story of Flying Robert- being blown away
35.
36. imprint (containing basic info on the original author and other info)

I am toying with the option of creating one last story that relates to life as a design student- but I not sure whether I really want to do that. I may not use all the stories from above.

I have decided I want to print the book either a semi-gloss or glossy, but I definitely want it to have a sheen. The book will be square and fairly small. I want to print it on paper that is fairly heavy as I want it to feel as solid as possible and it is pretty short. I still have to decided about the cover and binding.

I do not think the photography will be as abstract as I originally anticipated but it will definitely still leave something to the imagination. I want the style of photography to be fairly consistent as I want it to tell the story. It is going to be black and white.

I think I have decided that the stories will not be narrated and that the photography and titles will carry the stories on their own. The table of contents will have the title of the story in English, while the title page will be in German. I plan to use Blackletter on the title pages and cover, but I think the table of contents, imprint, and half title will be in a sans serif. I may use color sparingly on the pages that contain text.

I am not sure if all pages should contain folios- maybe just title pages. The pages with the photography may just be fully bled photographs... I am just not sure if it will be dynamic enough if most pages are just photographs...

2 sample spreads I did (very quickly) just to get some ideas on screen. I really need to try some more creative stuff with the type.




(the white line going across the bottom of the two spreads should not be there- all images are fully bled)

Text

I have been playing around with the wording for my text.

I know I want to keep all titles in the original German. Right now I am trying to use both English and German in the text. One idea is to rewrite the poems in more modern language and switch off between English and German. For example:
Der Struwwelpeter
Long hair and longer nails.
Gesicht schwarz wie die Nacht.
All alone.
Niemand will zu spielen mit Peter.
Another idea would be to have no linear narrative but rather just words in the two languages that are descriptive enough to tell the story without sentence structure.

Photography

Over the weekend I started to play around with photography a bit. Snapping some pictures; doing some photoshopping. Here is one picture I did for the story about the child who drowns. I still think it looks too photoshopped and I am not sure if I like the black and white contrast the way it is. Either way the process has given me some more ideas for directions. I had this idea to make the pages look like old newspaper clippings. As if these horror stories about what happened to the kids was written in the paper. I also thought of possibly binding the book with nuts and bolts to give it this cold feel. We will see.


I also took a lovely trip to Indigo- I love book shopping!

Initial Blue Print for Book

Der Struwwelepeter 2.0, your childhood nightmares revisited
The Book:
Der Struwwelepeter taught generations of children how to behave. It’s nightmarish tales scared but also entertained many children since its creation in 1845. My version is meant for the people who grew up on these stories. At this point I am not sure whether my version is meant to bring back old fears or infuse humor into them. Either way it is going to be a grown up, slightly abstract and fragmented and photographic version of the original.

To do:
• “Write” stories- I want to take the stories and break them up into fragmented bits of English and German. In the original form they are poems, in my book I want them to have a more post-modern feel.
• Take photographs. (Possibly need to find models- human and animal)
• Layout content.
• Put book together.
• Make decisions (see below).

Decisions:
Feeling
• Bringing back old fears
• Bringing humor to old fears
Photography
• All black and white or small elements of color
• Considering that all images are hands with different props and positions
• Purely photographic or the possibility of other graphic imagery
• Level of abstraction
Type
• Sans serif, black letter or combo
• Ex: Struwwelepeter vs Struwwelepeter
Language
• Primarily English or German or equal
Size and Shape
Printing
• Glossy or matte
Binding
• Professionally bound?
• technique

original imagery

Inspirational Imagery

Change of Pace

Up until now this blog has been primarily about motion graphics. Now it isn't that I don't still love motion graphics- even if I have decided an MFA in film is not longer in the running- but I need a book blog for book design. Rather than create a whole new blog, I am repurposing this one. After all how many design blogs does one girl need?