OUGD404 - Study Task 6 - What is a Book?

What is a book?
12 / 11 / 15

- What can a book be? Analyse interpretations of a book.
- Determine and analyse the purpose, production and success of a range of publications.
- Present, photograph and analyse physical examples of publications, including stock, binding method, layout, typography, colour etc.

The purpose of a book is to deliver information in some way or another. This information can be fact, fiction or purely for design purposes with no real philosophical meaning. With this in mind, the density of pages, the nature of the publication, or even the quantity of information per side does not make one book more than another. The production of the book is equally as important as the content, (especially if ascetic is a number one aim), meaning that thickness of stock/ paper quality/ paper textures/ binding/ layout and scaling all need to be considered in harmony for the creation of an effective 'book'. 

The word Stock is often used whilst referring to the different types of paper in their finished cut sizes that are used within publications. A4, A5 or B5 are most common for standard books, but we do not not need to stick to these smaller scales. If the purpose is right then stock can be cut as large as A0 and as small as you can get it. Generally paper is measured in GSM (grams per square meter) and explains how many 'grams' (weight) is in a single sheet of paper measuring 1m x 1m. 


The way you bind a books has just as much of an impact on the final product as the choice of stock it is printed on, meaning it is imperative to not only choose an aesthetically pleasing method, but the most appropriate for ease of reading and so the pages do not fall apart.



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The Layout / Style / Colours of my publication will obviously be very considered and experimented with during this project. I wanted to find as many examples as I could that appealed to me and may inspire my personal designed publication. I narrowed myself down by firstly looking at work done by my two favourite design houses: Hey Studio in Barcelona and Face Studio in Mexico. Both boast modern, simplistic styles but still have very different characteristics in their design. I first looked at the design of the bi-monthly programme of events for the Barcelona Contemporary Art Centre by Hey, and found the the concept came out of seeing the museum as a receptacle for contemporary ideas. The square on the cover is the CCCB building seen from above. The aim was to create a design that can last for 5 years without losing its appeal. Hey have a very clean, minimal approach to design using very bright and vivid colours within geometrics. Do I carry forward experimentation with these vivid colour schemes or tone it down to the more pastel styled schemes.
Here are some examples of similar styled publication spreads which I am attracted to and would take inspiration from...

Face on the other hand, also have works which experiment with these styled colourful geometrics. But an editorial magazine which they have been involved with for three limited edition issues provide a very different, strict, minimal approach to design. The P magazine #1, 2 and 3 all involve very minimal portrait images focusing it on the layout/white space/typography leaving a very sophisticated, professional editorial magazine. So this highlights how minimal editorial design still has many further characteristics to play with which influence the overall style massively.