Have just put together the first draft of the stuff book. Lots to work on yet though. Format has lost something, I think, and is now a little too big. Think I may need to drop the obsessive Fibonacci based grid in order to give myself more flexibility. The different threads of texts running through the book are also perhaps too separate - there is no productive use of montage in terms of juxtaposing things to make people think or create some kind of 'charge' - at present they exist on separate spreads and use a change from portrait to landscape layout to show very obvious difference.
In order to solve this I think I need to define the voices much more clearly in terms of the typography, before I even think about the layout, so they can interact within the spreads. Maybe I should look at Mermoz's original article On Typographic Reference for some inspiration...
1 comment:
Hi Alison
I think the feel of the spreads are looking interesting – good use of space. The text flows well. There is structure but it doesn't constrain expression.
I remember designing a little booklet a while back and really struggling with it. I was trying to force a 'clever' idea onto the content and format. It wasn't working, but I wouldn't give up. I struggled for months not resolving it. Eventually I went back to a simpler idea and dropped my 'clever' idea. It all slotted into place after that. I think this idea of forcing something and struggling is true of other disciplines. I heard a guitarist recently comment that you don't play the guitar you let it play you. Martial artists will also talk about relaxing and not forcing things too much. I do relate to that aspect of the design process of letting the idea come through and not forcing it. The hundreds of layouts that fall by the way side are about peeling back those layers to 'discover the idea rather than inventing it'.
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