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! 

Picks of the Month: book design geekery

Four Corners Books

Four Corners Books is a really interesting publishing company with a really unique and strong aesthetic. The titles are designed individually with reference to their content - which range from classical literature to non-fiction. Each title contrasts so effectively against the Scandinavian grey/white of the website background, which separates the company from most online booksellers.

The company is a really good example of how book design can carry through and influence the company aesthetic. The pricing is a little more expensive - at twenty pounds for a hardback - but this is understandable due to the collectable nature of the novels. Four Corners seems to occupy a space in-between coffee table books and classic fiction that not a lot of publishers have dared to explore.

Below is an example of Gustave Flaubert's 1856 Madame Bovary, adapted and designed through a simplistic, mixed-media aesthetic.

Smithsonian artists' books

The USA's Smithsonian museum have an excellent collection of artists' books. These range from traditional books with excellent illustration and design to actual works of out that do not function through readable text, but just use the physical form of a book to tell a story or to convey a message. I have pictured a few of interest below:

Eye Magazine

'Books without words' is a theme I'm really into today. Eye Magazine has a great selection of wordless books, ranging in theme but mainly centered around art and visual culture.

 

Outdoor Gallery by Yoav Litvin focusses on graffiti of note found in New York City, it features Banksy and Normal Rockwell and a few other unexpected characters. 

London Letters by Roger Perry features large, black and white images of politically motivating 1970's graffiti. Juxtoposed against one another, the layout is poignant and emotive in a way that stark images  alone can be.

cover design and font choice

Today I'm looking different cover genres and searching for an appropriate font to match.


1. 'A View of the Cascade'

From a distance, this cover looks like it could be from a fantasy novel (to me, anyway). I think it's because of the muted, pink and green colour palette that somehow reminded me of the pretty glowy elves from Lord of the Rings. Anyhoo, on closer inspection it appears that the illustration is actually a really beautiful and traditional nature painting, with a few people in early 20th century dress. Because of all of these indicators, I decided on this font 'Fogtwo no5'. I think it's pretty classic and definitely signifies a vintage period, but I also think that it isn't too predictable and 'broadway'. 

 

2. ' Space Cats'

This a pretty cute illustration of a cat, in space (two of my favourite things). I really like this idea, and I chose a font that wasn't too traditionally 'childrens' because I think this image could possibly have potential with an older market too. 'Another' is a typewriter font with a rounded, approachable feel. 

 

3. 'Morning Dawn'

This design is a nice, fresh graphic design that doesn't give away much. Because of the palette and because of the style, I would think that this book is aimed at women. I decided that it didn't look much like a romance novel, so I settled on a memoir-type idea, and used a handwritten font called 'Hickory Jack'.

 

4. 'Demon Flight'.

This book with a demon on the front first indicated to me that I needed to take a wander down the 'gothic' section of dafont.com. However, after saving a few very garish and obvious fonts to my desktop, I decided on 'Optimus Princeps'. It's not quite as restrictive, and I feel that the cover of the book is deliberately enigmatic enough to draw a wide range of reader, and it should be complimented by a font that respects that. 

 

5. 'The Greatest Feeling'

This cover deserved a typical retro font, because of the mid century fashion illustation on the cover. I really like the graphic colour scheme, and I think the font could be easily edged up by colouring it acid yellow and outlining it in black.

 

6. 'Dancing: An Illustrated History'

This was my least favourite of all of the covers because it doesn't really say much except 'dance'. The fonts related to dance that I could find were all quite comical, so I settled for an aptly titled, 'timeless' serif font. 

 

7. 'POP!'

I really like this cover. I originally thought that this would be a 60s-inspired art book about pop art, but on second thought, it would make a really interesting contemporary literary fiction cover. I settled with the font 'Nova' in the end, because I thought that it encompassed the best of both worlds. This cover was definitely the hardest to look for, because I couldn't really pin it down

Now I'm going to make a full front and back cover from one of the illustrations above, I'll probably upload a separate post going through that though - look out for that!