Design Practice: OUGD505- Studio Brief 1- Contextual Publication

I have narrowed my research down and I have decided to focus on house music.

To get an idea of what to include in the publication I made a mind map of the most significant things I found from my research. I have decided to have four main sections in the book:

-Origins

-Influences

-Pioneers

-Genres

I want the publication to reflect the research by taking inspiration from the Chicago roots of house music and the retro style of deign.

Colour Swatches

I have chosen to use these colours because they were used a lot in retro vinyl labels and they work well together.

C=34 M=11 Y=29 K=0

C=0 M=78 Y=39 K=0

Typefaces

Archivo Black:

will be used for the headings

Century Gothic:
will be used for the body copy

Digital Development

Grid:

8x8

I have decided to use an 8 column grid to give me more options when laying out the content. I want the layout to be pretty structured to reflect the 4x4 rhythms of the music.

The dimensions for the book are 180mm x 180mm.

On the opening page I have used a well know lyric from an early house track as an introduction to the book as the lyrics are fitting.

For the body copy I used 10.5pt size with 14 space leading aligned right. This fits nicely in the grid and allows me use two columns if needed. I have made 4/4 the width of the column to draw main focus on the page.

I have made a simple illustration to communicate the 4/4 rhythms of the music.

I placed the illustration on the opposite page mirroring the position within the grid for a balanced layout.

For consistency I am going have the main heading in red and black and the subheading in green. The colours and orientation creates hierarchy when reading.

I felt the page was to minimal so I added a loop symbol with a low opacity to give the layout some depth.

P3

I have decided to focus this page on The Warehouse and Frankie Knuckles as they were both huge influences to house music.

I changed the layout of the quote and smaller body copy to work better with the image. I think it reads better this way because it leads the eye from top to bottom.

For the genres section I am going to keep it typographic to communicate the styles of music associated with the genre.

I experimented with different pt sizes and weights to try and visually communicate the differences in sounds.

I placed the body copy on the opposite page keeping to the grid.

I wanted the genres to stand out so I tried adding block colour behind it for contrast. As there are so many different genres i though an image of stacked records would work behind the type. I added a green tint to the image to compliment the red Chicago type.

I wanted to include Marshall Jefferson and the song 'move your body' in the influences section because it was the first song to introduce piano into house tracks and his song was one I liked from my research.

I wanted to use the original vinyl label on this page for the main focus.

The lyrics were iconic in the song so I have used them alongside the image, the colours are used to break up the most important words.

For the image to be the focal point I made it bleed across both pages leaving space for the body copy and lyrics.

For the final section of the Influences section I have included the record label Trax because they were one of the biggest at the time.

I wanted to highlight the type on the image so I duplicated the image.

I had to use a two column grid for the copy on this page but the column widths are the same as the previous pages for consistency.

P7

For the pioneers section I am going have a list of Influential DJs and producers from the Chicago period.

I wanted the type to be in a circle so I created a grid in illustrator to help align each name. I originally was going to use this around the loop symbol from an earlier page but it had to be too small to fit on the page and lost impact so I decided to just have the type spanning across both pages.

The way it reads makes you move the book clockwise mimicking the movement of a vinyl so I have used and image to support this.

I had to edit the image in photoshop to lower the brightness and add some noise to make it look old.

Last Page

I have used a quote from my research that sums up house music to end the book.

I have used an image of a close up of a vinyl to add some texture to communicate the idea of it being a feeling.

Final Publication

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Mock-Up

Before I printed the final piece I printed in black and white to make sure everything was ok.

There were a few mistakes on some pages and i needed to higher the opacity of a photo so Im glad I printed it.

Above is the final book printed on antique white stock. I chose to use this stock because I think it compliments they red and green colours throughout the book and it adds to the retro theme. Once Ive made the covers I will need to bind the pages.

Packaging

For the packaging I am going to design a 7inch Vinyl sleeve that the publication will slip into.

Packaging Nets

I tried a few different nets but I am going to use the one above for my packaging because it will allow the vinyl label on the front cover of the publication to show through.

I made a quick mock up of the net just to make sure it worked. It did.

Final Packaging

I have used the same illustration as one of the pages for the sleeve design. I think it look good withe black vinyl label showing through. I will print the packaging once I have finished the publication because I need to see how big the width of the spine will be.

Vinyl Stickers

Stickers to go on the front and back of the vinyl covers.

I used the laser cutter to cut out the front and back cover.

To attach the vinyls to the pages I have stuck them to black card. I have left a 5mm spine on the card so the book will open flat and I will be able to bind the pages to the spine by sticking it.

I re-printed the book to amend the mistakes that were pointed out in the last crit. Once I had cut it out I had to pierce wholes in the spine to bind.