Communications Studio Project II
Publication
Gridding exercise
Layout sketch
I implemented a lot of stylistic elements that were in my poster throughout the booklet as well.
For the one on the right the overall idea was mainly focusing on type by having large sort of be the main focus and in the background as well. For the one on the left below I focused on implementing patterns and shapes that were inspired from Paula’s posters. Based on the feedback I received I decided to combine two layout sketches by keeping the slanted text ideas for the cover, table of contents and timeline and use the patterns and shapes for the spreads talking about her career.
In terms of content I divided it up and ordered it in terms of different parts of her career which are:
- Early life
- Album cover design at CBS records
- Work for Public Theater
- Painting Maps
- Developing logos/ branding systems.
As I was digitizing the spreads I grew more hesitant about my concept as my sketches and what I imagined in my head and my sketches looked very different when digitized. Therefore, I took out the patterns I planned on implementing and kept the slanting theme by adding triangles in the spreads instead.
First Rough Draft
Reassessing the overall concept
I realized as I was designing the booklet that I needed to step back and reassess the overall concept. I was too focused on trying to match the overall style of the spreads with the poster I created and her work that it lacked my voice and my style.
I decided to therefore revisit her work as even though her famous work was mainly from the 90s she still has been producing work and so I looked at more of her recent work to gain some inspiration and incorporate some modernist elements as well.
Working on the cover
Even though Paula Scher’s style has somewhat changed throughout the years one thing that consistently stayed the same in her posters was the level of density. I felt that my poster lacked those elements even with the layered text and bold colors something was missing so I used the letters in her name and negative shapes as a pattern for this next iteration.
Iterations for the front/back cover:
I put the front and back cover in one spread to make the pattern feel more continuous.
Second draft process
To continue with the theme on the front and back coverr, for some of the pages I used enlarged letters with negative shapes.
Second Draft
Feedback:
- Play around with the color palette
- Alter the map spread as the shapes are distracting
- Play with page number maybe bold or sans-serif
- Pull drop cap to the third row
- The background on the table of contents is distracting
- Reduce the number of type faces in the words have meaning spread and get rid of the map pattern on the letters
- Take the word public out as it is already written on the poster
- Timeline add 10 dates maybe continue on another page later on in the book or fit on one page
- Add more images in last spread
Establishing a new color palette
Draft 3
Feedback:
- Try to go bit more different from her cover (Maybe bring in the purple)
- Place color palette throughout
- Keep in mind of spacing for the table of contents page and write the page numbers while the feature pictures have the page number of where it is on
- Add page number separately start from next to table of content page
- Make sure columns of paragraphs line up evenly
- Give more contrast and level of depth that the timeline delivers to the other quotes in the booklet
Final booklet
I finally established a color palette and incorporated it throughout the booklet. Having a clear color scheme also definitely facilitated the process of creating some of graphic elements.
For the quotes I decided to use the same layering method as the timeline page to make the quotes appear more dynamic and with added contrast with the bold colors as well. And lastly for the logo page I added more logos to create the dense feeling that Paula’s works also have.
