marketing design

Today's session comprises two of my favourite areas within publishing: marketing and design.

We were given two book covers from different titles at Palgrave Macmilan. We were then asked to create a flyer/AI sheet containing all of the specified information on Blackboard.

The exercise was carried out in test-like conditions, and we had one hour to complete it. I found the most difficult area of the task to be the re-reading of the branding guidelines to check for correct spacing and positioning of the logo, and to ensure that all of the conventions were followed.

We were also given a set of swatches on Adobe Illustrator that we were to design with, these were colours agreed by the brand and were not to be altered. Working within these guidelines - although inhibiting creativity - worked quite well for me, as often in design the sheer number of colour, font, and styling options can be overwhelming. To have some rules and guidelines in place which can be worked around allows for much more of a straightforward creative process.

I think the colouration works well, and I also like the use of blocks, with the strip down the middle. I also like how I positioned the text inside the hat. I wish I could have used a more interesting font, as Helvetica is one of my least favourite defaults,  but I was required to follow the branding specifications. If I were to alter the design in any way, I would reduce the font size or change the bold option.

Picks of the Month: illustration and marketing design

Jim Kay

Jim Kay is a really interesting illustrator based in New York. He has come to (inter)national attention because of his recent work on the Harry Potter series. While I am not the biggest Harry Potter fanatic (which is sacrilege to say on this course- I do like still like Harry though) the dark illustrations really appealed to me.

 

The art style is actually very similar to my final project, which interested me from the beginning. I love the whispy use of pencil and the range of light and shade in the above drawing. He also works in mixed media, and has produced numerous 3D models for different exhibitions.

 

 

 

Jim details his design process on his website, and it's really very inspiring how he takes queues from all around him, in museums and on the streets. I am really excited for his collaboration with Harry Potter, and I think he could offer something great to the books, with a little extra magic.

Jonathan Barnbook

is quite different, and works with a range of companies to effectively re-brand and refresh. His website is particularly creative, and showcases the interesting use of composition and taste in his ever-changing style.

 

Jonathan has worked on Damien Hirst exhibitions, and more interestingly alongside the British Heart foundation. The style is very graphic and contemporary - which I very much like - and I appreciate the wide difference in colour, tone and graphics between all of the designs.

 

 

 

 

Jonathan has significant ties to publishing, and produced a coffee-table style art book tribute to David Bowie, after his death earlier this year. He has also worked with French company Fiell Publishing to create some colourful and psychedelic designs, below:

 

 

 

 

 

image and text design

Image Manipulation

 

Today I've been manipulating images in Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator. This will be the primary method that I will use to formulate my endpapers for the JSS assignment, as only one Pantone or shade of CYMK is permitted. I am now going to break down what I worked on with each image:

Bear one (brown): I created a greyscale image in Photoshop and saved it. Then I changed the Image Mode to a bitmap, and saved it as a .bmp file. I then added the file to InDesign and edited the colour to a nude swatch that I created from Adobe Illustrator.

Shakespeare: To create this bitmap image, I saved it as a greyscale image at 1200dpi. I used the Image>mode feature again to save it as a bitmap.tiff image. From this, I placed the item into InDesign over a tan background. I then changed the B/W image to a one-tone red. I think these colours work quite well together.
 

Bear two (pink): I re-opened the photo of the bear in Photoshop and saved it as a bitmap.tiff image at 1200, I edited the bitmap type to Halftone Screen which gives the image a comic book effect. From there, I placed this file into Indesign and changed the colour swatch to a Pantone+ Solid Uncovered in a light pink.

There are multiple versions of bitmap manipulation, these include: halftone, threshold, pattern and gradient. Each one gives a slightly different effect.

Text manipulation

For the above text, I utilised Adobe Illustrator to create the text using vectors. This is a better alternative to editing text on Photoshop because quality is not lost. 

I ungrouped the letters so each could be edited and manipulated individually, I enjoyed working in this way because the letters stayed crisp and were of print-quality. I then copied this smart image into Photoshop. By using the enter key after doing this, I could edit the text in illustrator and the smart image would transfer over to the Photoshop file automatically. This will be invaluable to my final typesetting and cover design assignment!