Publishing Design Task 1 / Exercises

August 29, 2022

Publishing Design Task 1 / Exercises

30.08.2022 - 11.10.2022 (Week 1 - Week 7)

Chung Jia Xuan / 0346630
Publishing Design / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media
Exercises

LECTURES

In our first class, Mr Vinod briefed us on our MIB, he explained about each task we will be doing throughout the semester. We were also told to prepare some materials for our next class:

The earliest civilization would be the Mesopotamian Civilization. The first writing system was developed from a counting technology and it was started in 7000bc when clay stones were used to record trades and agriculture.

The Egyptian civilization is the oldest known civilization and is no longer living. The scribes were the only people in the Egypt civilization who read and write Hieroglyphics in the 2560-2550 BCE. A special type of paper called Papyrus was used to write with the purpose to concern with traumas and surgery.

The Indus River Valley Civilization were all written in Cuneiform which have the earliest systems of writing where they kept records of the government, trades, and religious matters. They was written on a soft clay tablet with a sharp pointed tool.

Bamboo books which were written in vertical columns were tied together to create a single page back in the 1500 BCE. The concept of pages was born from that time and has evolved into the pages we have now.

Parchments were created from animal hides in Turkey. The material was too heavy therefore this innovation was created and then later spread to the Europe. Parchment books were made by the Europeans around 50 AD. The use of paper would make its journey from China to Europe after travelling to other civilizations such as the Persia-Arab empire and Turkey. In Europe, paper became widely used when wood pulp was first introduced as a new material for making books.

Figure 1.1Egyptian writing on papyrus paper,
(source: https://www.grunge.com/713852/how-did-ancient-egyptians-make-papyrus/)

Before we create a book, we were told to only start after receiving all contents of the book.

Barcode of a book can ONLY be printed with a white background with 5mm white space around the barcode.

The book title and the author are the important part of a book, publisher should not be the same font size with the author

There is an ISBN serial number idetified with EVERY book

• A4 (16 sheets) / A3 (8 sheets) Paper *

• Large rubber band / thread with needle

• Adhesive Tape (masking, sellotape, scotch)

• Steel Ruler (16" if you have)

• Cutter

• Pencil

* For the A4/A3 paper, recycle paper is also fine. Ideally if you are able to get your hands on A3 in your home it would be better.

Lecture 1 - Formats

During our lecture, we were first introduced to the evolution of publications of books. There are five different civilizations around the world: Iran-Iraq: Mesopotamian Civilization, Egypt: Ancient Egyptian Civilization, India-Pakistan-Afghanistan: Indus Valley Civilization, China: Han Dynasty Civilization, Europe (Turkey & beyond): European Civilization.

Mr Vinod said that we will be using Adobe InDesign to design a book. There are also a few important points that Mr Vinod told us to note them down:

Figure 1.2 Evolution of books,
(source: https://buzbooks.com/the-history-and-evolution-of-the-book-cover/)

The two main factor which determine a format of a book is the reader of the book and the content of the book.

Lecture 2: The History of Printing

2nd century to 8th century

In the year 175, China's emperor orders that the six most important classics of Confucianism be carved into stone. Confucian scholars just put sheets of paper on the engraved slabs and rubbed them with charcoal or graphite to make a text with white letters on a black background.

AD 750-768

A simple sheet of paper with a sutra printed on it in Korea in the year 750 AD is the world's first known printed document. This is closely followed in Japan, where the empress ordered a large edition of a Buddhist Nara lucky charm or prayer in the year 768.

AD 868

The earliest known printed book is from the Tang dynasty. It is a scroll that is 16 feet long and 1 foot high. It's made of paper sheets stuck together at the edges. The text is from the Diamond Sutra, and the first page of the scroll has the first ever printed picture, which is of a Buddha seated on a throne and surrounded by holy people.

From the 1100s on

Before printing, you need letters or type that can be moved around and put in the right order for a certain text. It was tried in China, but the Chinese script has too many characters, making type-casting and type-setting too hard. Also, the characters were made of clay, which made them break easily.

Late in the 1400s

The Koreans were able to set up a foundry where they could make bronze movable type, but they also used Chinese characters. The Koreans then made their own alphabet, called hangul, and figured out how to make movable type.

AD c.1400

The method of printing from wood blocks came to Europe more than 600 years after it was first used in the East. In the East, pictures are made by putting a piece of paper on a carved and inked block and rubbing the back of the paper to transfer the ink. Pilgrims can buy holy images at the main market. Playing cards were also a part of early trade in the west. In Germany in the 1500s, improvements in technology helped the printing business grow.

AD 1439 - 1457

Gutenberg was the first person in Europe to make a printing press, but other people took his idea and made it famous. Gutenberg wasn't known about until someone looked into it.

Lecture 3: Typography Redux

Typography is the art of arranging and putting together text. It is also a way to express yourself and get your message across.

Most typefaces contain a variety of characters:

Small Caps
Numerals
Fractions
Ligatures
Punctuations
Signs in Mathematics
Symbols
Non Aligning Figures

When making a book, legibility is very important. It is important to choose a typeface that is open and has good proportions. A good font has a wider range of weights (light, book, bold, etc). Underline should be moved down so it doesn't touch the letters and make it harder to read.For subheads or the first line of a paragraph, use small capitals. All-caps text should be used for short titles or subheads. All caps shouldn't be used for long sentences or to draw attention to something.

Special-Purpose Style: There are many different ways to format footnotes in software. (For example, superscript, subscript, strike-through, etc.)

The width of a column of type is usually between 50 and 65 characters.The amount of space between lines of type is called "leading." The answer depends on the font. Don't leave widows and orphans (Text or lines left along). Most of the time, hyphens are used to separate words or numbers. An en-dash means "to," and an em-dash connects two sentences.

Lecture 4: The Grid

During week 4, we learned about the grid, which is one part of the typographical systems.

A. Raster Systeme

In the lecture, we learn about El Lissitsky, Jan Tschichold, Paul Renner, and many other people. We also learn how to use what we know in different ways. People share, pass on, improve, and rework what they learn from their experiments. By using the Grid system, a designer shows that he thinks about his work in a constructive way, which is a cultural value and a reflection of his mentality.

Margin Area

Students often don't pay attention to this space, but it is very important because it can make or break a design. So the margin area is important to any design because the space around text beams or fields affects how beautiful the layout looks.

Every cell in a column or row is called a "text field," and text usually floats into the spaces between each text field or column. The whole vertical part is called a column, and the part in the middle is called a gutter. They are sometimes called "column intervals."A hang line is the line that goes through all three columns.

What The Grid is for?

Typographers, Graphic Designers, Photographers, and Exhibition Designers use the grid to figure out how to make things look good in two or three dimensions. By putting the surface and spaces in the shape of a grid, the designer makes it easier for himself to put his texts, photos, and diagrams in a way that makes sense and works well. This gives the impression of tight planning, understanding, and clarity, as well as a sense of orderliness in design. When titles, subtitles, texts, pictures, and captions are clear and arranged in a logical way, it is easier and faster to read and understand the information. The information will also be easier to remember. What's important is that we can arrange the different sections and contents in a way that makes sense, which is easy to do with the grid system.

Modular

The grid is more flexible than the modular system because it is based on nature. But when it's used in a book, there must be a limit to how many different ways it can be used so that the look and flow of the book stays consistent. A good amount of change keeps the reader from getting bored. The most important thing to remember about book design is that when we make a book and try to give the reader a certain amount of information, the better the reader will understand and enjoy the book if we make it easy and logical for them to get that information.

Readability and Legibility

As designers, it's our job to think about the people who will use and interact with our work. By doing this, we automatically meet the client's needs, whether he knows it or not. But that's a different story for another time. The Grid helps us give users a smooth experience. A well-done design stays out of the way and lets the work on the pages speak for itself, doing so in a clear, logical, elegant, or beautiful way. When a reader turns a page and is pleasantly surprised by what he or she sees, it makes them more interested, helps them remember, and helps them understand.

In the end, The Grid is like the structure you can't see behind a beautiful building. It's there, though. The more we use the system, the less scary it gets, the more we get used to it, and the more different things we can do with it. When we find the right way to use the system, we'll know how to use it to make a design.

Lecture 5 - Elements

In this week's lecture, we learned about the element. There are three known elements in a book.

A. Book

All books have these three main parts:

1) Type

2) Colour

3) Image

B. Variation

When using the three publication elements in a grid system, it's important to avoid a predictable layout. To do this, we would need to find a balance while keeping some things the same, like typeface, colour, hang line, and so on. We have to try to make the layout different, but also keep it the same throughout the whole book.

C. Variation with Consistency

Depending on how many pages are in the book, the order or the different formulas that work in a modular way within the grid system you've set up can create healthy variation.

Color is an important part of book design. It can be a focal point or a neutral shape that helps to create variation when there is a lot of text.

The grid is used in a modular way, with the elements placed in a way that makes sense and looks good as a whole.

It is not uncommon to switch grid systems. In fact, it is part of the process to fit the information and make a layout that fits the predetermined direction.

Pages in your book must be in groups of four (as showcased in the exercised we have gone through)

A perfect-bound book would have 16 signatures, which are the different pages that make up the book. Because book pages are printed on large sheets that are all the same size, a book that is about A4 size would have 8 pages on one side and another 8 pages on the other side. Then, as a signature, these pages are folded in half.

When you start to see the different formulas that can be used within the grid system, the pieces of your book will fall into place.

This process helps the designer come up with a basic visual direction that shows how the book is meant to make the reader feel.

Most of the book needs to have a good mix of text and pictures. Visuals are a big part of how the book is put together.

Make the layout different, but keep it the same throughout the book. This will keep the reader interested every time they turn a page. It keeps someone interested and involved in the book.

INSTRUCTIONS

EXERCISES

Exercise 1 - Text Formatting

For the text formatting exercise, we were to generate any content for our book. It should be at least 3000 words and have a minimum of 3 chapters on any subject. The text content must be divided into 3 chapters minimum. It must also contains 2 subtexts and 1 pull quote per chapter. The text obtained from any source should be credited. Below is the text formatting for my content:

Figure 1.3 Text formatting, week 2(06.09.2022)

Exercise 2 - Book Mock-up Making and Content Generation

For this exercise, we were told to fold our A3 paper or combine two pieces of A4 paper to come up with 3 different sizes of book mock-up. The sized should be smaller than A4 but larger than A5. Then, we were to follow the steps guided in the recorded lecture to begin our book mock-up exercise.

Figure 1.4 book mock-up exercise, week 2(06.09.2022)

The 3 different sizes that I prefer for my book are:

1. 160x220mm

2. 175x235mm

3. 190x215mm

Figure 1.5 book sizes exploration, week 2(06.09.2022)

The final choice of my book size would be 190x215mm. Then, I cut out all 8 pieces of A3 paper based on this book size.

Figure 1.6 final cut-out sheet, week 2(06.09.2022)

Figure 1.7 final book mock-up, week 2(06.09.2022)

Exercise 3 - Van de Graff Grids

For the next exercise, we have to draw a Van de Graff Grids based on the recorded tutorial. After we're done drawing it out, we were to digitize it.

Figure 2.5 hand-drawn Van de Graff grids, week 2(06.09.2022)

Figure 2.6 Digitised Van de Graff grids in PDF, week 2(06.09.2022)

Then, we were told to import any text into the Van de Graff Grid and adjust the size to fit into the margins and grids. We were to also make sure the word count in one line is around 55 words.

Figure 2.7 Van de Graff grids with texts, week 2(06.09.2022)

Figure 2.8 Van de Graff grids with texts in PDF, week 2(06.09.2022)

Figure 2.9 Van de Graff grids with texts in PDF (without the graph), week 2(06.09.2022)

Exercise 4 - Signature Folding System & Grids

For this exercise, we will learn about the signature folding system. We were to make a 'mini book' to learn how the folding system works.

Figure 1.9 signature fold(unfolded), week 2(06.09.2022)

Figure 2.0 signature fold(first page, closed book), week 2(06.09.2022)

Figure 2.1 middle page of book(opened book), week 2(06.09.2022)

Figure 2.2 signature fold(last page, closed book), week 2(06.09.2022)

Figure 2.3 signature fold(book with stapler binding), week 2(06.09.2022)

Figure 2.4 signature fold(book pages), week 2(06.09.2022)

We were to generate any content for our book, it should at least 3000 words and have a minimum of 3 chapters. It must also have subtexts pull quote per chapter. Below is the draft for my 3000 words.

Exercise 5 - Determining Grids

In week 3, Mr Vinod asked us to find a magazine or book layout and start dissecting the columns and grids of the layouts.

Grid system in InDesign:

Figure 2.7 grid system in InDesign, week 3(13.09.2022)

Then, we were required to create 3 layouts using our contents from the text formatting.

Figure 2.8 Grid layout 1

Figure 2.9 Grid layout 2

Figure 3.0 Grid layout 3

Exercise 6 - Form & Movement Exercise

For this exercise, we were to create grid transitions using simple shapes through 16 pages.

Black and White

Figure 3.1 Form and movement attempt 1

Figure 3.2 Form and movement attempt 2

The previous attempts both look bulky and I feel like I added too many forms into the spreads. After getting feedbacks, I tried making it lighter and now it seems more dynamic.

Figure 3.3 Final Form and movement in B&W

Final Form and movement (B&W) in PDF

Color

After finalizing the B&W version, we moved on to add colors to it.

Figure 3.4 Final Form and movement in Color

Final Form and movement (Color) in PDF

Color + Image

Figure 3.5 Final Form and movement (colour + image)

Final Form and movement (Color & Image) in PDF

Text

Figure 3.6 Final Form and movement (with text)

Final Form and movement (With text) in PDF

FEEDBACK

Week 4

General Feedback - Do not include too many forms in the spread - Too many forms might make the spread look imbalance Week 3 General Feedback - Come up with 3 different grid systems with the text from our 3000 words story Specific Feedback - Choice of visual reference is ok, have to show 5-6 visuals next week. Week 2 General Feedback - We have to create 16 visuals for our story of any media. Specific feedback - Don't forget to add subtext and pull quote.

REFLECTIONS

Based on my experiences, observations and findings respectively.

I've read a lot of books and seen some with really interesting design of book cover and layout but was never aware of how they were made and published. Throughout this task, I have learned the fundamentals of book publication, such as how they were fold, why do they fold that way, how the pages work and what is the importance of grids, guides and margins. I really gained a lot of knowledges that I have never learned before from all the exercises in Task 1.

I have observed how my classmates arrange the spreads to be printed manually. The pages can be folded into a book when the spreads are arranged accordingly in Adobe InDesign. I found out that this method actually saves a lot of effort and time to 'make' a book.

Throughout these exercises, I've found that I'm now more familiar with the features in Adobe InDesign and I've learned a new way of exporting the spreads which is to exports them in thumbnails. By doing this we can view the overall spreads in an easier way and have a look of how the entire book layout and design will be.

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Chung Jia Xuan (0346630)