The Evolution of the Project

The project has not evolved all that much. I started off with a really strong idea of what I wanted to do and have pretty much followed through on that. Truthfully looking through my half a million blog posts will probably give one a better idea of this project's evolution than a single post, but I will do my best to summarize.

The Evolution of the Concept:
Originally I had planned on doing simply a modernized version of the original. I was going to simply rewrite the stories in modern English and juxtapose them with illustrative photos. I then had ideas about fragmented poetry in English and German. Which led me to the idea of using no body copy, simply titles. Eventually, once I started using myself as a model in the photos I decided to personalize the book even more and write myself into the stories.

The Evolution of the Visuals:
The color scheme went through quite a few changes. From black and white, to black, white and red. Then to various shades of blue. Then I went with Sepia. Finally, I added some color to compliment the sepia.

The photos never went through any physical evolution (except color-wise). The minute I started to work on them they came together really nicely. Originally though I had some other ideas for how to do them. I had considered making photos extremely cropped and abstract. I had thought of showing only hands in all my photos. I had also considered using other people as models. As I mentioned before, I am really happy with the direction I ended up taking.

The layout is still undergoing change. I have played around with many different types of layouts and am not positive of the final design. I have made one decision though. Originally I had wanted to have all text pages laid out the same way. I have since decided to treat each page differently according to length of text, whether they are a verso or recto page, and what photo they are juxtaposed with. What will not change is fonts.


Check out the evolution:

A Character Sketch of the Book

My book is a modern day version of Heinrich Hoffman's 1845 hit book "Der Stuwwelpeter." The book is basically a series of gruesome cautionary tales for children. I along with generations of children with Germany ancestry grew up hearing these tales, and while I never believed them, they were definitely an interesting part of my childhood.Rather than simply take the book and update the design for 2009 I decided to put a personal spin on the stories as well, hence the title Der Struwwelherrmann. Unlike the original I decided to use photography to illustrate the stories. Rather than find myself models, the photos are a series of self portraits (don't know what I would do without a tripod). To compliment the photos I rewrote the stories as if they had come true in my real life and in my dreams. It is all very weird and twisted, but it gives an new perspective on an old story. It will be interesting to see if people who are familiar with the original interpret it differently than people who are not.

The book is organized very similarly to the original. Each story can act as a stand alone section of the book. Unlike the original book I have included an introduction and conclusion. These set the stage for my personal twist on the story. The intro and conclusion also give one the option to read through the book as a single cohesive narrative rather than just as a bunch of short stories.

Visually the book is an eclectic mix of old and new. It is a small square book which I plan as binding as a hardcover book with glossy dust jacket. I used colors eyedropped from the cover and sepia as my color scheme. The colors add a childish feeling while the sepia adds an old fashioned feel to the very modern photographs. The type also blends old and new. Everything written in German will be in Weiss-Fraktur a blackletter font very similar to the on featured on the cover of the original book, while the English will be in Futura, the font that is used for the text inside the book. Each text page will have a slightly different layout. This is for two reasons. The first being to compensate for vary text lengths. The second reason is to add visual interest. Most pages are just fully bled photos and so I would like to take advantage of the pages that are not. Below are two sample spreads. The first is an example of a spread with text while the second is a spread without.

A Thought

My book is pretty much a series of photographs of myself. This means those who see the book and know me will interpret it very differently than those who see it and don't. So I am wondering if I should put and about the author in the back with a photo of myself, or something that explains the project, or should I let the project operate on two levels?

Interstitial

I am reading a book now called 'Three Bags Full.' It is a quirky sheep detective story- I read weird stuff, whatever. Anyway, The reason I am posting this is because I really like how the book is designed. Besides just being an all around pleasing design, the bottom corner of the book has a little flip-book-like animation of a sheep running and jumping. It is very cute. It may have been why I bought the book in the first place- but who remembers at this point?

I just felt like writing that.

The work continues...

Introductory Picture


I am still considering a picture prior to this one of me finding the book in a cardboard box somewhere. We shall see.

The End

Back to Work Legislation

With the government finally doing what we elected them to do it is time to jump start this project before I head back to class. With that I present to you another chapter in my epic tale:

Die Geschichte vom Zappel-Philipp
I can’t sit still. Never could. At the dinner table my mother told me if I don’t stop fidgeting I would fall and pull the whole table down with me. She hasn’t told me that in years…




The two pictures were taken with different cameras. Over "break" I upgraded from a Nikon Coolpix to a Nikon D90. I am still in the learning stage of the D90, and my old camera is dead, so hopefully the transition will be ok.

Struwwelpeter in the News

Here is an article I read in today's Jerusalem Report:
Everyone and his Struwwelpeter