OUGD404 - Design Principles - What Is A Book?

Today we had our first session with Simon for Design Principles. This module 'introduces essential fundamental practical/conceptual principles underpinning design and the visual generation/communication of ideas. This module will be delivered through weekly, taught workshop sessions and timetabled studio sessions that explore type, image, visual literacy, colour and visual research'

The first studio brief is as follows:

Produce a set of 10 Double page layouts that explore the form, function and construction of a book. Your ongoing visual investigation of content should demonstrate a growing understanding of the fundamental principles of type, grid, layout and format that will (and have) been introduced during studio sessions and workshops. Use these as a staring point to develop a set series or sequence of page layouts  that effectively communicates your chosen content. Your 10 layouts should include a contents page and introduction to the content. This brief will be supported by talks and workshops. As designers it is your job to help the reader read the words by positioning text and images in such a way as to be appropriate for the content but also navigable by the human eye. This is true for any layout whether it’s for a glossy fashion spread, reportage or an instruction booklet.  To be creative but effective with type it is essential that you have a clear grasp of the fundamental principles of type composition. It’s great to break the rules but learn them first, understand what you’re looking at and make informed design decisions.

As designers it is your job to help the reader read the words by positioning text and images in such a way as to be appropriate for the content but also navigable by the human eye. This is true for any layout whether it’s for a glossy fashion spread, reportage or an instruction booklet. To be creative but effective with type it is essential that you have a clear grasp of the fundamental principles of type composition. It’s great to break the rules but learn them first, understand what you’re looking at and make informed design decisions. In todays session, we looked at the question 'What is a book?'. On first inspection quite a straight forward question, but once you look closer you realise that this is intact a complex and broad question. I discovered in todays session that a book can be defined in many different ways, some unconventional and surprising. I have come to learn that a book isn't necessarily a physical object made from paper.

Here is a very basic and literal definition of a book:
'A written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers'. This is perhaps what a lot of people would say when asked 'What is a book?'. As an art student and a creative individual, I knew already that this definition isn't the answer to the question. A book can be whatever you want it to be, for example, this blog could be viewed as a type of 'book'. 

Another equally as  basic definition could be:
'a bound set of blank sheets for writing in'.

We got into small groups of eight and put our brains together. Simon gave us several questions to answer as a collective. We were advised to start off by brainstorming our most obvious answers and get slowly and gradually more ridiculous and absurd. The brainstorming was a great thing to do, it really opened my eyes to what a book has the potential to be. 

What is a book? A list of some words that we brainstormed

• Getting lost
• Freedom
• Dream
• Personal
• Printed
• Bound
• Legible
• Educational
• Informative
• Physicality
• Fiction/Non Fiction
• Open/Closed
• Communication
• Start/Finish
• Beginning - middle - end
• Content
• Information
• Collection
• Order
• Smell
• Texture
• Paper
• Smooth
• Glossy

• A book is ultimately a collection of visual stimuli/information
• A context to communicate a message, idea, fact, story, illusion etc
• A collection of paper 
• A collection of pages
• A physical object, something that exists
• Books can be digital entities, but they still exist
• Something that can move and be moved
•  A book is a 'foldable tree'

What is the purpose of a book?

• To exist
• To stimulate the readers imagination
• To last forever, preserved in physical form and in memory
• To convey and pass on information, opinions, views, visual stimuli
• To inform, entertain, inspire, engage, educate, scare, enforce, delude, lie etc
• To stir, aggravate and create controversy, persuade, convey research, reveal
• To sit on a shelf
• To hold doors open
• To look aesthetically pleasing
• To hold and display a collection of information

How is a collection organised within a 'book'?

• Tidy, messy, minimal, complex
• Binding, glueing, Stapling, Stitching, Folding, Treasury tags, Pamphlet stitching
• Numerically, Alphabetically, Hierarchy, Relevance, Importance, Gender, Stories, Narratives, Rhythm, Speed
• Logical, theoretical, Date, Order, Choice, Value, Personal, Collective, Multiples
• Layout, grids, paragraphs, columns, sentences, lines, segments, font size, weight, spacing, kerning, size, colour, shape, theme, style
• Chapters, indexing, contents pages, compilations, categorisations
• Audience, aesthetically pleasing, function
• Recount, recollection, memory, randomness
• No order, no content?

What is your favourite book, and why?

'The Plant Sitter' - by Gene Zion 1976

My Dad used to read this book to me a lot when I was a child. Not only did I love the story itself, but I really loved the illustrative nature of the book as a whole. I feel without the illustrations, the story wouldn't be as exciting or fantastical, they really add life and character to the book. 

Sometimes the illustrations would take up whole double spreads and that's what caught my eye a lot. There was also a running colour theme or around four colours which I feel adds consistency and ties the whole publication together. 

Looking back at the book, I can now appreciate the typographic choices made and the layouts used. The text didn't clog up the page, it was reserved to the bottoms or sides of the layouts, it was all about the imagery. The book could also be laid flat thanks to the binding methods used, this allowed the story and illustrations to flow even more consistently.