Design Research
Not having much idea as to how coffee table
book designs usually are like, I have done some research to obtain some
inspiration and ideas as to how the layout and design of the book should be. The
following website links and images are the sources from which I obtained my
ideas from for my own coffee table book layout design.
1)
Apmadeirapt, 2011. Madeira Make it Real. Retrieved from http://issuu.com/apmadeirapt/docs/brochura_instit_en
The layout here shows the
use of more imagery over text. Images of picturesque scenery and landscape
provided me with good inspiration as to how my assignment layout should be as
well.
2)
Butterflyindia, 2012. Butterfly-Coffee Table Booklet. Retrieved
from http://issuu.com/butterflyindia/docs/butterflycoffeetablebooklet
This layout adapted a more
simplistic and clean layout and focus was on the butterfly which was the topic
of the book. This layout showed that clean backgrounds with some striking elements
and it gave me inspiration to make use of strong imagery to pop out and gain
the readers’ attention.
3)
Uhurudesign, 2011. Uhuru Deisgn Coffee Table Book. Retrieved
from http://issuu.com/uhurudesign/docs/book
This layout shows a more modern
take with placement of the text on the white space of the imagery so that the
text will not distract from the image, yet be clear for reading.
Conceptualization (Sketches)
Crafting
It started out with choosing the background picture I would use as
the front cover of the book. At first, I decided on this picture along with a
black side border to create an “album” feel to it.
After some thinking, I thought of adding a series of Polaroid
pictures of some beach landscapes to the front cover.
Adding in the title “Escapade” to that,
along with the “Tourism Malaysia” logo.
Seeing that the black border looked a bit
off place, I decided to scrap the idea.
Moving on to the foreword page, I decided
to keep it simple, just putting a picture of the tourism minister along with
the text beside.
The introduction
page was the next page, and as it was too bare to just have the text there, I
wanted to include a picture at the side. After some thinking, I decided to
create a curved border using Photoshop to crop the image into such a shape.
The first content page. Using a bleed
technique, I enlarged the picture from the left page to cover a bit of the
right page as well, then placing the text on the right, and adding a small
image at the bottom corner to fill some white space and create an overall balance
to the page.
For the next page, using the same concept
as I was aiming for a sense of continuity, I now swapped the image to start
from the right page extending to the left page and placing the text on the
left, with a small cropped image at the bottom left corner.
Going back to the cover page, I was not
satisfied with the picture chosen as it was not very high resolution and the
colour was not strong enough. So I decided to change to this picture as the
front cover picture. The Polaroid-styled pictures were too distracting from
this background and so I removed them.
After some more
tweaks and minor editing for the placement of the elements on the page.
The border I created for the introduction
page seemed nice and I got an idea to create one for the foreword page. Using
the same initial picture, I then cropped out the bottom left corner and created
the border for the foreword page. The end result showed a unique curved border
for these two pages.
Deciding that there was maybe too much text, I removed some of the
text.
I did the same for this page as well.
Final Artwork
Front Cover
Foreword &
Introduction Pages
Content pages 1 & 2
Content Pages 3 & 4
Images source:
1)
Munfrid Tour, 2012. Retrieved from
http://www.munfridtour.com/
2)
A growing teenager Diary, 2010.
Blogfest Asia 2010 Experiences. Retrieved from http://www.lonelyreload.com/2010/10/blogfest-asia-2010-experiences.html
3)
Terengganu Permata Hati, 2010.
Chapitre 53: Terokai Khazanah Laut Di Perairan Terengganu. Retrieved from http://tgtourism-azwansalleh.blogspot.com/2010/08/chapitre53terokai-khazanah-laut-di.html
4)
PromoteMalaysia.com, n.a.
Retrieved from http://www.promotemalaysia.com.tw/island_1.aspx?Island_Data_id=2
5)
Frog + Princess Blog, 2010.
Berjaya Redang. Retrieved from http://frogandprincess.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/berjaya-redang/
6)
Charterworld.com, 2012. 51m
Feadship Super Yacht Double Haven’s CAT Tender Visits Sipadan Island. Retrieved
from http://www.charterworld.com/news/feadship-51m-super-yacht-double-havens-cat-tender-visits-sipadan-island
