Design Development

Receiving feedback highlighted if all production decisions were justified and also established where possible room was for refinement and improvements. Feedback highlighted a good amount of research justified my decisions but there was room for further improvements and possible solutions to production issues or hinderances.

Perfect binding highlighted some issues so a more appropriate method would be a concertina glued format or pamphlet stitching using staples. As any handmade stitch bound method contradicts the digital aesthetic or theme of the publication. It was also highlighted attention to detail is essential, this provoked thought into personalising small details. 

I looked into purchasing black staples, but they were expensive for only needing a few. So instead I made black staples myself using black acrylic and regular staples. This worked out alright for a cheap alternative. Black staples will look well against the black cover on the final publication. Whilst this also shows more careful consideration to a simpler approach to binding. 

Pamphlet stitch binding with staples & belly band

This mock up shows a more appropriate method of binding fitting of the concept. This method also resolves the restrictions and limitations of perfect binding the publication. The pages can now open flat and be flicked through quickly to reveal the animated aesthetic created through scaling the type from large to small. 

The stock used for this mock up will not be used in the final outcome. The stock was purely used to test the feedback relating to white stock creating higher contrast and fitting better with how the reader will see and read a publication the morning after. The white stock has greater consideration in relation to the reader and concept.

Challenging the legibility through stock and colour proved this theory. However, a black cover or belly band creates the high contrast aesthetic the publication aims to achieve. High contrast between the cover and content evokes more of a response and therefore again relates better to the concept. 

Hardback concertina format 

To challenge layout and the format of the book. I experimented with an alternative glue bound concertina format. Whilst this publication also experiments with different stock. The hardback cover is made from grey-board and black buckram. 

The title is debossed from laser cut wooden letterforms of the Helvetica typeface. The hard cover gave a nice finish but I found the debossing did not appear as dominant on the buckram. Thicker paper stock and card worked better. 

The concertina layout was interesting but less appropriate for the reader to flick through. This is not how a concertina is read so the saddle stitch method using staples was much more fitting of the context. Considerations also reflected how the reader engages with the book and how it is read. However this mock up also reveals how well the black cover works in contrast to the white stock used for the content.