High-end magazine layouts

Been looking at high-end magazine layouts, bit concerned as my clients images are and editorails are not like this...

Dividing pages

We have divided the pages up as follows to make sure we each have an equal amount. I have also made a master page and given each of the group the appropriate imagery, body copy and master page.

My pages to do...
Welcome message & course overview
Ben
Franco
Matthew
Sustainable design philosophy
Exhibitions, awards & visiting professionals
Opening quote

30.04.12

Final publication

This has been sent to Sally for approval!

Open publication - Free publishing - More design

29.04.12

in&out

in&out is the name of the magazine. Dedicated to demonstrating lookalike in&out of character. There is not other competition unlike other words we were considering like spitting image.

Digital mock-up

I wanted to see what the layout of my japanese red and green digital and screenprinted book will look like when complete so I printed out a quick digital version. The text is a bit small and grainy I will have to up the quality in the digital print facilities as i'm not happy with it on this publication. I need to find out the correct red to print as I have lost my notes!

Also need to still work on a front cover.

IMAGES.

28.04.12

Layout for approval

Sent this to Sally for approval...

Open publication - Free publishing - More design

Retoucher and Editor

Benji has found a great retoucher in Hungary who is editoing his images to an airbrush quality. The images he has done so far are really high quality and makes me feel more positive about this project as I feel I can make the layout more high-end now I can see the finished imagery. Also there is an editor from Gossip Drip writing up Benjis interwviews and she should be sending them through this weekend. She really likes the layout and has asked to keep in touch with me. Great international networking on this brief which is a massive plus!

I sat down with Benji and we both discussed the images which he is most happy with and I think would work on a layout. We made notes on the images and sent them over to George, the retoucher, to make our changes. 

Lookalike layouts

Looking at high end fashion and culture mnagazines with Benji to find the right balance of look. He wants it to be glossy and we are both really keen on having 2 dps for each lookalike with one being a intro to the article... We have also discussed how information on the photographer, model, makeup artist, stylist, retoucher can be shown.

27.04.12

Mædate layout

Sally initially wanted the layout to look like a traditional editorial magazine, however with the content she has and striking imagery I though something more basic would be better. Therefore I created this layout and sent it through to her.

Her response was great and I am continuing with this layout, this will also suit the simple website she wants.

26.04.12

25.04.12

24.04.12

To do...

Brief #1 Yearbook - major
Get all images and placement info from students - 24.04.12
Get remaining content on exhibitions and competitions from Steve - 24.04.12
Make mockup of yearbook at right scale - 26.04.12
Have another meeting with Steve, Ben and Franco - 30.04.12

Brief #2 Aura - major
Order paper 30.04.12
Print digital layer
Print screen printing layer
Design packaging to send to contributors
Bind
Post

Brief #3 Mædate - major
Meet with Sally to discuss magazine and website - 24.04.12
Recieve all content - 25.04.12
Design magazine and website - 27.04.12
Make bags at larger scale
Make more editions of all deliverables

Brief #4 Film Festival - mini
Completed mini brief

Brief #5 Aviva - major
Design more deliverables - 11.05.12
Get feedback on deliverables - 11.05.12
Source imagery to use in design - 11.05.12
Print final copies of deliverables

Brief #6 Design Context - major
Source all content

Talk to Roger about binding

Final specifications including page plan

Design

Print

Brief #7 UTOE - mini
Completed mini brief (will be developed upon after submission)

Brief #8 EOYS - mini
Mock-up up more pitch ideas as we were thinking but ran out of time

Brief #9 Lookilike - major
Meet with Benji and finalise layout, page plan and magazine specifications - 27.04.12
Talk with printers about glossy magazine - 30.04.12
Recieve all content - 30.04.12
Design magazine
Expand

23.04.12

Layouts with content

Today me and Sophie have been organising the content and chasing up both student and Steve for copy and images. We started adding the content to the chosen layout and it seems to be coming together nicely...

20.04.12

Interim evaluation

'A print based investigation into publications within the culture sector with a focus on display and ornamental font development.'

My design direction has changed slightly from this initial statement based around the development of the FMP briefs undertaken. However, I am pleased with how my briefs are coming along and have stronger concepts and innovative processes to communicate each message accordingly, which was lacking from previous briefs.

Briefs were selected on a basis of primary deliverables which would be suitable to reflect my Statement of Intent, and also on a secondary level for expansion, allowing me to create websites and other deliverables favoured by professionals to display a large range of skills. It has been important for me to tackle live briefs and some which are 'serious' in order to demonstrate a commercial application of my skills.

Initially, I believed these briefs to be the most challenging, and least rewarding, due to inevitable compromise. However, the opposite is apparent. The challenge for these briefs, such as Brief #1 Yearbook, Brief #3 Mædate and Brief #5 Aviva, has been to communicate an existing product and to gather the relevant infomration. I have taken a 'safer' route on the design compared to my other FMP briefs, but this is more suitable for these client led briefs. The design direction of Brief #5 Aviva, is still a concept I am unsure of and question. Everyone has a different opinion of pensions, Si Scott was completely against them when I asked and my peers haven't thought about it. My primary research has guided the message, from making 18-25 sign up for a pension, to simply giving them access to digestable information, and letting them decide. By using a contemporary yet classic approach to the design teamed with old black and white photographs, the aesthetics of the project should communicate 'grandpa and grandma' rather than 'smelly oap' and catch the attention of my target audience.

Experimenting with processes has been vital for Brief #3 Mædate. Using a process new to me, both me and the client worked together to achieve a laser cut effect we were both happy with and would work across deliverables. It has been helpful to work closely with the client as we have similar ideas of where the brief could go and we spot issues before they happen. It is been good to work with a live client with their own deadlines and time manage to a professional hourly level.  iCal has become a useful tool where I input every task undertaken. A clear and realistic picture can be maintained of how much there is to do and how much time there is available. For scheduling meetings it has been brilliant and shows me the progress I am making.

This time management is a positive and a negative as I know how little time I have left to complete briefs, resulting in Brief #9 Lookilike being a tight schedule and I have had to inform the client of this. This does look unprofessional as the client does not want the magazine to be rushed, however I have informed him that so long as all deadlines are met for content and meetings then adequate time is available. This is one brief where it is not as innovative a design as I would hope to demonstrate in my portfolio, but it does fit the brief and I won the pitch based on these designs.

Brief #1 is the least investigated brief and not many avenues have been explored. This is the toughest brief to interpret as the clients do not seem to know what they want. It has been tough on the yearbook team to accurately design something suitable which fulfils the brief. We have focused on delivering the client with a yearbook they are happy with, not necessarily one which we are happy with in terms of innovate design direction.

One brief which I believe is the most innovative and reflects my Statement of Intent fullest is Brief #2 Aura, based on my dissertation. This brief has had the most changes from initial ideas to production and could still change. At the start of this brief, the deliverables were to be books of theorists most influencial in my practice and a edited version of my dissertation. This became a letterpressed design, which more recently became a issue in terms of time and also printing ability. The deliverables have since progressed further to 7x copies of the same book, to be sent out to contributors of my dissertation as a thank you. These books will be very complicated. Overprinted red and green digital and screen printed text and imagery. They will also be intricately hand bound using japanese bind and printed on hand made japanese paper. Every aspect of the production of these deliverables suits the content and I am so pleased with where my research and experimenting has got me.

As another thank you to those who have contributed to my design growth, PDF and photographs of Brief #6 Design Context, will also be sent out to those included and to studios I have managed to get interviews with. This brief is still yet to be pushed further but I am aiming to demonstrate my interest in publications and format in this brief.

Overall, my blog includes everything that I do from time management and meeting, to initial ideas and final mockups. I have blogged a huge deal this year and it has helped me see where I have come from on each brief.

Quato

Ooor... should I use quarto for the aura book as it is believed to be the first book size printed by Guenberg or would this be well suited to my Design Context... possibly design context.

Quarto (abbreviated 4to or 4°) is a book or pamphlet produced from full 'blanksheets', each of which is printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded two times to produce four leaves (that is, eight book pages). Each printed page now presents as one-fourth size of the full blanksheet.

The earliest known European printed book is a quarto, the Sibyllenbuch, believed to have been printed by Gutenberg in 1452–53, before theGutenberg Bible, surviving only as a fragment. Quarto is also used as a general description of size of books that are about 12 inches tall, and as such does not necessarily indicate the actual printing format of the books, which may even be unknown as is the case for many modern books. These terms are discussed in greater detail in Book sizes.

Japanese B-series variant

As I am now going down the Japanese route for the actual format of the book, I have found some Japanese paper sizes...

More emails sent...

As not many designers have replied to my questions, I have chased them up and also sent some more out to ones who didn't reply to my very first email. I really hope that I get some more responses as it will be a unique bit of content.

Japanese binding - imagery

Mino Washi paper making

Flip

History of Japanese books

Source: http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~dawe5/bookbinding_pages/BB_history2.html

After the 14th century all the above bookforms were virtually supplanted by pouch bindings (fukuro toji), a style so typical of Japanese books that it is sometimes thought of as the only Japanese bookform.

It will be observed that almost without exception the pages of Japanese books are of double thickness. This is because the fluid ink used for calligraphy and wood-block printing would bleed through the absorbent hand-made papers, and because the earlier frottage wood-block printing process damaged the reverse side of the paper.

The development of the book in Japan was closely linked to printing, which was virtually a monopoly of the Buddhists. Before 1600 most books were of a religious nature – woodblock-printed Buddhist mantras are thought to be the earliest printed documents (see figure 3).

During the Edo period, (see Appendix I: Chronology of the book in Japan) however, literacy increased, the papermaking industry flourished and works of literature, which previously would have had to be transcribed by hand, could now be printed. These factors jointly led to an explosion in the number of books available on many topics; works of philosophy, science, picture books and novels were suddenly available in quantity.

The Meiji period, however, saw the beginnings of the introduction of Western technology, including collapsible letterpress printing which required very different conditions from the traditional Japanese printing methods. Where wood-block printing required a soft, absorbent, hand-made paper which, because of its absorbency, could be printed on one side only, letterpress printing required a sized, harder-surfaced paper, which meant in turn that the paper could be printed on both sides. The pouch book was soon supplanted by the Western-style multi-section casebound book.

Sewn styles

Source: http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~dawe5/bookbinding_pages/BB_sewn2.html

Yotsume toji
Pouch books are so called because their pages, folded at the fore edge and sewn at the back edge, form pouches, but their Japanese name translates simply as 'four hole'. Most Japanese pouch books are four hole (Chinese style) or five hole (Korean style) bindings, each nation traditionally holding even or odd numbers respectively to be especially propitious.

The two styles existed side by side in Japan during the Edo period, and were commonly used for cheap novels and romances. The first style to be examined is the basic four-hole pouch book; several variations of the stitching procedure will be examined in subsequent sections, but the basic construction of the book is the same for all the variants.


Four hole pouch book




Since its comprises quite a large group of books, and it is more complex than the previous books discussed, the structure of the yotsume toji will be described in some detail.

Structure
The sheets of paper to be bound are folded in half text side out, and knocked-up at the fore edge.



The nakatoji (inner binding) is then applied – this is a technique unique to Japanese binding which is used to hold the book together while subsequent operations take place, and will support the book if the binding proper should fail. Western papers, because of their rigidity and hardness, are not ideally suited to this purpose; wherever possible, softer Japanese papers, with their great strength, should be used.

The inner binding is effected by punching or drilling two pairs of holes at such a distance from the back edge that they will not interfere with the binding proper; a 'string' of twisted paper is then passed through each pair of holes, tied in a square knot then hammered firmly with a mallet. This non-adhesive binding is surprisingly secure, and will keep the pages safely aligned during the later stages of binding.




Inner binding of knotted paper 'string'



A variant of the inner binding is known as the monk's binding. In this method only two inner binding holes are punched; a much shorter paper 'string' is passed through each hole, unravelled each side and hammered flat with a mallet.

The monk's binding is much less conspicuous than the usual inner binding; however, it is a little less secure so sometimes a smear of glue is applied to the flattened 'string'.


Monk's binding, shown from both sides




When the pages are secured by the inner binding, the corner-pieces (kadogire) are applied. Each corner-piece consists of a scrap of paper or paper-backed cloth glued around the spine and across the top and bottom of the book in the area which will not open due to the sewing.

While it is attractive and lends authority to a book, the corner piece appears to be a mainly decorative device. Rather than contributing to the structure of the book it can render it more liable to damage by preventing the circulation of air between the pages and, if vegetable-based glues have been used, encourages attack by insects. It does, however, serve to prevent the back corners of the book becoming dog-eared.



Kadogire


The next stage is the attachment of the covers. These are of paper and are initially fixed lightly to the book by two sparing dabs of glue on the outer pages; the edges are then scored and folded down to the same size as the book. It is important that the back edge fold is sufficiently narrow so as not to interfere with the stitching, and that the folds are made in the correct order: back edge first, followed by the head and foot edges, and the fore edge last of all. Failure to follow this folding order may cause problems when the excess paper at the corners is trimmed away with scissors. The fore edge flaps are glued and attached to the outer pages at the front and back of the book.

Finally, the book can be punched and sewn. The sewing is a simple process, and the order of sewing can be clearly seen by reference to the diagram. The thread enters the book not directly through one of the sewing holes but from the back of the book, between the pages at the spine; it then exits through the sewing hole (usually the second from bottom) and passes round the back of the book, through the sewing hole again and on to the next hole. When the thread finally arrives back at the starting hole it is tied off to itself then passed back through the hole exiting, as it entered, between the pages at the spine. The threads are then trimmed and the ends glued between the pages through which they pass, thus concealing and securing them. Although the thread is firmly anchored to itself at the exit point, at the entry point it is only lightly glued to the book.

A more secure solution is the Westernised one I was shown when I first bound a pouch book: the sewing is treated basically in the same way as a pamphlet binding, the two ends of the thread being knotted together as they leave the book. If the trimmed ends are then passed back through the sewing hole and out between the pages at the spine, this method is virtually indistinguishable from the traditional, less secure method. Or, if desired, the threads may be left long and treated as a decorative element.

This modified fastening of the sewing thread was used with the following of the books shown: four-hole with Chinese-style cover; four-hole with pouch cover; four-hole with single-thickness pages; a variant of this method was used for the tortoiseshell binding, since the threads could not be arranged to start and end conveniently for the basic modified method described above.



The final step in a traditional binding is to glue the titlestrip (daisen) in place. The titlestrip is usually 30-33mm wide (depending on the size of the book) and at least two-thirds the height of the book. It is usually attached about 3mm from the head- and fore-edges, although for some styles (eg Yamato toji) the traditional position is 3mm from the head but centrally between the spine and fore-edge. Since the sample books accompanying this dissertation are blank, the only indication of front or back is the titlestrip. All the sample books have been bound to suit Western readers: the front of the book is such that in reading the pages would be turned from right to left, rather than in the Japanese manner. However, it is possible to simulate the Japanese 'reversed' style of layout, even including the vertical-running text, without compromising legibility.

Tosa Washi

Source: http://www.paperconnection.com/whatistosawashi.html

Handmade Japanese paper is deeply rooted in the Japanese way of life and has been very important In its cultural development. Though with changing times demand for it has increased, it is still indispensable for the Japanese.

Tosa Province on Shikoku Island, now Kochi Prefecture, is called "Tosa, the kingdom of paper". Kochi Prefecture is still Japan's main producing center of both material plants and handmade paper. Several towns such as Tosa and Ino are well-known for their traditional local paper industries. "Tosa Washi" which means all handmade paper of Kochi Prefecture is soft but strong, durable as well as beautiful. There is warmth in it because it is handmade. Recently there has been a revival in handmade paper, where Tosa Washi, especially famous for its large variety of high quality paper, plays an important role.

Paper has been made in Kochi for over 1,000 years. The papers "Hoshogami" and "Sugiwaragami" were dedicated to the Emperor Daigo and used for recording court rites and official events during the 10th century. "Tsurayuki Kino", the author of the Tosa Nikki (Tosa Diary) who was sent to Tosa as an official in 930, promoted paper making which in turn helped to promote the cultural development of the province.

At the end of the 16th century "Tosa Nanairogami", a set of seven sheets of paper in different colors, was made by Sabrozaemon Aki and his colleagues. With the support of the "daimyos" (feudal lords) it developed during the Edo period (1603-1867) into one of the main products of Tosa. Genta Yoshii (1826-1908) invented "Tengujou-shi". The thinnest paper in the world, and "Mitsumata Kairyoban-shi" (improved half-sized paper). He also contributed to the improvement of tools for paper making. It is he who is credited with laying the foundation for the modern paper industry.

Some years ago the Japanese government passed a law to promote, protect, and develop the traditional arts and crafts. Under this law Tosa Washi was designated as a traditional Japanese craft in 1976, and "Tengujou-shi" and "Tosa Seicho-shi" were designated as cultural assets. At the same time some tool-makers for paper making were selected to preserve the craft.

There are still over 300 people engaged in making hand made paper in Kochi. Securing the successors is a serious problem in traditional crafts. Unfortunately there are not many young people in Kochi who have been trained to succeed their elders in the tradition of Tosa Washi. PaperConnection International exists to promote this treasured tradition.

Japanese

Found some of Rogers books with descriptions... I want to find out more about this process and see if I could use a more interesting outside bind.

Stab Bound Journal using 20 double-sided sheets of Sekishu Shi paper for the block and Chiyogami for the covers. Traditionally pouch bound incorporating an inner binding of 'Paper Stitches' and blue corner pieces, before the cover is applied. Stitched with blue linen thread and capped off with a title strip of Tosashi White Wove.

Imagery?

Had an idea of using an image to introduce each chapter in the book. I wanted close up imagery of both manual and digital printing techniques which will be made to make the book.