Refined Book cover & Poster series production, Finals, Rationale and Evaluation

Refined Book cover & Poster series production, Finals, Rationale and Evaluation 

Exploration of Production
Printed a few CMYK stock posters out to experiment with, entirely as an experiment with print finishes using spray paint as an analogue method of applying colour to reference traditional print in an abstract way. 

Concept & Purpose
The concept takes focus from an essay within the book, "The work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" the idea is to visualise explanations in the book on how aura in original artworks is lost through mechanical reproduction and documentation.

The dark and light tone of voice in the book and the idea of progression of technology in the aiding of communication of information through medium is message will support the visual response.

The target persona is someone who would digest a message with an open mind, taking into consideration numerous view points so there was lots of potential exploration within; legibility, illegibility deconstruction, construction, texture, tone, contrast, progression, warping, surreality, colour and typography. 

Rationale and Finals
One of the book cover posters was printed on semi translucent stock to expand on the idea of opacities as a way of emulating dilution of Aura while the cyan gradient has connotations of energy while the dilution of the gradient reflects the idea of lost Aura. 

The warped and layered header reflects how repetition can obscure the message of artwork while the outlined type connotes ideas of emptiness through this repetition. 

The strong use of contrasting black and white rectangles reflects the dark & light tone of voice often used in the book while it supports and frames up the movement within the serif typography as a reflection of progression from traditional print to advanced technologies. 

The book jacket carries the same concept with an expansion on an idea of reflections and contrast between the front and back of the cover, black contrasts in tone while the gradient is a literal reflection of the cover to show a contrast between when print had limitations to when it became more advanced. 


Physically applied gradients to reflect on traditional and physical printing and contemporary print techniques and possibilities to reflect theories in the book that predict the future of communication methods. The A3 posters work as an extension of the idea that CMYK can reflect ideas of progression.

Exploring ideas of physical reflection of type to warp the message and cause illegibility. 

Progression of distortion to represent lost aura and warped reality through progression, I planned on scanning these in to further work on the idea of repetition and lost aura through digital manipulation but didn't have time, something I will be exploring through the summer though as its an interesting concept.  

Evaluation

Although a smaller brief I have enjoyed the whole process a lot, it has allowed a lot of room for experimentation within the production side of things to help strengthen a message related to a specific concept, using spray paint, acetate, semi translucent stock alongside digital print methods has allowed me to capitalize on the separate process's advantages. 

Conceptually I am very pleased with the outcome, at first it was a little daunting to form a concept that references such a dense theory book that covers so many subjects, past briefs have been more focused and directed in terms of a response. I enjoyed figuring out the target persona that suited this book to act as a starting point to generating ideas that reflect the books content.

I learnt to skim read content, taking important bits out focusing on how to express them through the exploration of visual design. Informing a message around a subject that isn't within the creative sector allows lots of exploration within the creative process so this allowed me to be quite open with the techniques, ideas and concepts I explored resulting in lots of trial and error.

I had intentions to expand to concept of mechanical reproduction as mentioned through the use of scanning as a method of repetition to expand on the concept but time didn't allow, I want to play around with physical subversion to alter the perception of things, adding, subtracting or manipulating can completely change the aesthetic and message presented and has lots of mileage and will certainly feed into my COP3 proposal of experimentation and the use of technology as a way of changing the perception of

design. 

It was important to create designs informed by a strong concept that took influence from theory, I feel I did this very well and communicated many aspects of the book within a visual resolution that comes together nicely using lots of visual explorations through type, color, image, texture, layout, use of stock and production to emulate a message.

I understood constraints relating to color limitations and the use of mandatory content like barcodes and dub information within editorial design, its ok making design look structured and well balanced with content you want to put in but when the content is given to you lots of limitations arise that need to be overcome. 

What could have benefited this brief though was more exploration and typographic explanation, there was a lot of mileage in the message that typography could carry. And it reflected a main element of the book, the use of a serif type reflected tradition but progression of time could have been explored with a contrasting modern typeface, this would have also reflected the dark and light tone of voice within the book.

Specifying a set amount of time for exploration and lots of trial and error will allow stronger response's to be generated that take into account lots more process's. Im beginning to think more lateral now and avoiding safe process's so over the summer I will begin investigating lots of experimental techniques.