PUBLISHING DESIGN TASK 1

PUBLISHING DESIGN: TASK 01

Chen Nan 0363533

Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media

Task 1 / Exercises

Week 1 - Week 8

INSTRUCTIONS

LECTURES

Lecture 1 （Formats）

The book

• Publications: books, nnewapapers, magazines
• The book is a medium to document andtransmit, ideas, knowledge, records, historyand so much more.

Format

Question: 

In your view, what factor/sinfluence and determine the format of abook?

• age
• user

Historical Format

• lran-lraq =Mesopotamian civilization
• Egypt = Ancient Egyptian civilization,
• India-Pakistan-Afghanistan = Indus Valley civilization,
• China = Han Chinese civilization
• Europe (Turkey & beyond) = European civilization

Innovation almost always shadows technologyNew technology creates opportunity. lf thetechnology has potency it would have acascading effect on other areas of life.

Fig. 1.1 Regions

For Mesopotamia Denise Schmandt-Besserat(1995) contends in her essay on the token system “Record Keeping Before Writing,” that“lt is remarkable that the first writing system developed from a counting technology.

The progression from simple and complex tokens to bullae set the stage for the earlyforms of pictographic writing on clay tablets

Fig.1.2 clay tablets

In the Indus River Valley Civilizations(Harappan & Mohenjodaro) there is not much known about record keeping but we do know they had a complex system. Their writing,cuneiform, was one of the earliest systems of writing. They wrote records about their government, religion, and trade. Cuneiform was written on soft clay tablets by using sharp pointed tools.

Fig. 1.3 Cuneiform

The oldest surviving Palm leaf manuscript is from Nepal and dates around the 800-900 CE. However palm manuscripts may have been used as far back as 1000 BCE in the Indus Valley'. it was a medium that was common across South Asia.

Fig. 1.4 Palm Leaf Manuscript

The scribes were the only people in ancient Egypt that could read and write Hieroglyphics. The Egyptian scribes wrote on a special type of paper called papyrus.  In addition to writing on papyrus the Egyptians also would write on the tomb walls.

The word papyrus refers to a thick type of paper made from the pith of the papyrus plant(Cyperus papyrus).

Fig. 1.5  Tomb walls

Chinese characters in the early period are written in vertical columns, so a thin strip of bamboo is ideal for a single column. To create a longer document, two lines of thread link each bamboo strip to its neighbour. The modern Chinese character for a book evolves from a pictogram of bamboo strips threaded together.
An imperial court eunuch by the name of Cai Lun submitted a report in 105 CE of a new substance.

Fig.1.6 Bamboo books

The earliest known printed book is Chinese.from the end of the T'ang dynasty.   Discovered in a cave at Dun huang in 1899, it is a precisely dated document.

Using paper, it is in a scroll format.  

Paper was invented in 179-41 BC.

Fig. 1.7 Diamond Sutra

Parchment was first invented in Turkey,197-159 BC, which later spread to Europe.Parchment is made from animal hide. With papyrus and bamboo one could make scrolls but with leather this was not possible as it was to thick and heavy. Around 50 AD, Europeans started making parchment books.

Fig. 1.8 Parchment

The use of paper would make it slow journey west, from China to Persia-Arab empires and eventually through Turkey vis-à-vis the Ottoman empire to mainland Europe

Paper becomes widely available in Europe during 1400-1500 CE. The ingredient to make paper changes until 1860s when wood pulp is first used to print the Boston Weekly Journal.

LECTURE 5 - Typography Redux

Typography is to a graphic designer, what oxygenis to a living being. lt is 'the' most important area in graphic design to master.

Characters in a typeface

Small Caps

Numerals

Fractions

Ligatures

Punctuations

Mathematical signs

Symbols

Non aligning figures

Fig 3.1: Characters in a typeface

Fig 3.2: Characters in a typeface

Fig 3.3: Characters in a typeface

Fig 3.4: Characters in a typeface

Legibility

If the goal when working with type is to makea body of text more readable, then heedingestablished legibility guidelines is of utmostimportance.

Departure from these “rules" should beattempted when the designer is totallyfamiliarized with them, and when the contentlends itself to expressive interpretation.

The first step in making type legible isto choose text typefaces that are open andwell proportioned ie. classical serif typefacessuch as Garamond, Bodoni, Bembo, MinionPro, Baskerville,Jenson, Caslon; and the sansserif faces Franklin Gothic, Frutiger, Gill Sans,Helvetica, Myriad Pro, and more.

Fig 3.5:Open and Well-proportioned

Fig 3.6:Open and Well-proportioned

Small Caps & All Caps: 

Small Capitals are goodfor sub heads or for the first line of a paragraph.Text set in All Caps should be used in short headlines or subheads. All Caps should never be used for long sentences and for emphasis.

Fig 3.7:Small Caps & All Caps:

Special-Purpose Style: 

Many formatting stylesexist with in software's for making footnotesreferences, and mathematical formulas. These tend to be embedded or nested within the tools sections and a lay user may not be aware of itsfunctions.

Fig 3.8:Special-Purpose Style

Text Scaling: 

Some program allow for the user tocreate a pseudo-condense or pseudo-extendedfont by horizontally or vertically squeezing orstretching a font. This distorts the original designof the font. You should never do this, it distortsthe font and makes the messaging appear cheap-trust me, you don't want that.

Fig 3.9:Text Scaling

Outline & Shadow: 

Another style that tends to beabused a lot is the outline or shadow styles. Thishappens when deluded individuals through a flickof a mouse, and the aid of a software, think they can do magical things. lts takes many years ofpractice and many more years of experiencebefore one can format text beautifully andeffectively. Please avoid outline and shadow asfar as possible.

Fig 3.10: Outline & Shadow

When there is a harmonious relationship between font size, line length, and line spacing (line spacing or lead), text will naturally flow when reading.

Even a well-designed font is not easy to read when one aspect of it is out of balance.

A column of a type is usually about 50 characters long and no more than 65 characters long. The font is too small and too many letters are "crammed" into each line, making the copy difficult to read. Remember that words that are difficult to read may not be pronounced at all.

Exercise 01 | Text Formatting

We need to write 3,000 words, and I wrote a novel.

Exercise 02 | Mock-up Making

Final Book Size: 220mmx155mm

Figure 1 Book Size Explorations

Figure 2 Open Book Mockup

Figure 3 Book Binding

Exercise 03 | Signature Folding Systems (8+8=16)

Figure 4 Signature Folding System

Figure 5 Signature Folding System

Exercise 04 | Classical Grid Structure

Figure 6 Classical Grid Structure

Figure 7 Classical Grid Structure

Exercise 5: Determining Grids

REFLECTION

Completing this task gave me some insight into publishing a book, how to use ID and divide the screen. In the design process, the grid system is an important part, it can reasonably distribute the screen content, so that the composition of the article is orderly and reasonable.