I’ve now received my draft photo
book back from ‘Blurb’ and had a good look through it. Overall I’m reasonably
happy with the design and feel of the book, although I can see a number of ways
in which it can be improved (discussed below). I hope that a further iteration
of the book should see me reach the final product. More advice from my tutor
will be sought and I am prepared to change, add and/or remove images in order to
produce the final version. I’ve actioned some (mainly technical) changes to the
current images, but I don’t envisage making more than a tiny number of
alterations to the text. The key questions to answer are whether the images in
the book work artistically, whether they enhance the emotions invoked by the
text, whether they fit together from a stylistic point of view and whether they
tell the story of my relationship with my mother in her final years in a way
that encourages empathy in the viewer/reader. The front and back covers of the
draft (by no means certain to be used in the final product) are shown in the
image below.
Covers for Draft Photo Book
There are (mostly) minor
technical issues with specific images, which will be rectified if the images
are retained, before a final draft is produced. The following general comments
can be made.
General Comments on the Photo Book
·
The book (7” square; soft cover) feels too small
and lightweight. Ideally I’d like it to be 20-25cm square and have a hard cover.
‘Blurb’ only does 7” and 12” square sizes, so I should research other
book-making companies as I think that 12” square is too large.
·
I’m happy with the general presentation (text on
the left, images on the right with a full ‘bleed’).
·
There are some issues with images ‘disappearing’
into the spine: these will be addressed for the next (final?) version.
·
Ideally I would like slightly bigger margins
around the text.
·
Should the pages be numbered (at the moment they
are not)? Numbering (LHS only) might assist the assessors and also help during
the preparation of the book, but should not be necessary for the general
reader.
·
The shorter passages of text should be placed
consistently on each page (Centrally? Near the top?) in the next iteration: at
the moment there are some disparities between the pages of text.
·
I have introduced single ‘prologue’ and
‘epilogue’ double pages of an image and corresponding text. These have,
together with the main story, been given title pages with faint images of
Nidderdale landscapes in the background. I like this idea, but have not yet
consulted my tutor about it. Does this idea work?
·
Do I make an effort to separate out the two ‘clinical
depression intermission’ double pages (two pages of text, two images) from the main
work, relating to my relationship with my mother, which is on either side of this
text? Likewise, do I separate out the unique double page graph in some way?
General Comments on the Text
·
I used a ‘Times New Roman’ font for the text
(‘Blurb’ doesn’t offer my favoured ‘Calibri’). I’m happy with the font, but
still open to alternative suggestions.
·
The font size is consistent on most of the pages
but in one or two cases I had to use a smaller font size in order to fit all
the text onto a single page. I must ensure that the font size is consistent
throughout in the final book, which I could do in the following ways: (a) alter
the font size for all the text to the smaller font size – this should read ok
in a larger book; (b) reduce the amount of text for the pages where a smaller
font size has been used by re-writing the text; (c) split the longer passages
of text into two and incorporate additional images. I currently favour the
‘easy’ option (a), but am open to alternatives.
·
I have used ‘justify’ rather than ‘align text
left’. This is my preferred option, but I am open to the alternative option if
a good argument can be put forward for it.
·
I would like to make the right hand margin
slightly larger, so that there is no chance of the text disappearing into the
spine of the book in (say) a hard copy edition.
·
I would like to somehow differentiate the two
pages of text relating to clinical depression from the rest of the text, since
this represents an ‘intermission’ in my story. How do I do this? See also the
final bullet of ‘General Comments on the photo book’ above.
General Comments on the Images
·
The images have all (with the exception of the
monochrome first image of my mother, taken in 1940, and the final colour image
of my mother, taken on her 80th birthday) been produced as 50%
saturated. This, together with the square format of the images, benefits
consistency of style. Does this format work in book form? I think that it does,
but I can change to full colour or modify the saturation level to any degree if
necessary.
·
Some images need to be moved a little right
(i.e. away from the spine of the book) in order to demonstrate key features,
but generally there is no issue with them ‘disappearing’ into the spine of the
book in this particular ‘Blurb’ soft cover edition.
·
This minor issue aside, the full bleed appears
to work well.
·
Does the design of the new prologue, main title
and epilogue pages, using faint images of Nidderdale landscapes as background,
work?
·
Some of the images, particularly those in the first
half of the book, have printed out a little too dark or light in places. These
images will be altered, if they are retained for the final version.
·
Following my tutor’s comments on the set of
images that I submitted for my last assignment (Assignment 5) and a reappraisal
of the connection between the text, images and the emphasis of the book I have
introduced one additional new image, replaced another image, drastically
altered a third and made significant modifications to a few others. The
artistic and technical content of these images need to be discussed with my
tutor, in addition to the points raised above.
Hopefully, once
the issues described above have been addressed, I will be in a good position to
produce a final photo book. I also intend to produce a multimedia presentation,
with video, but will wait until the image set has been finalised before getting
round to this.
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