Introduction

This exercise required me to create a photobook of my work using the software provided by an online book printer. 

Product

Decisions

Producing the book I found that there were a number of design decisions to be made:

1: Order

My images fall into three categories: decaying, modernised, rebuilt.  I found that there were decisions to be made in terms of wether or not to create three distinct sections, and then the order of the images within those sections.

2: Facing

Part of order in a sense, there were decisions to make on what image faced what.  In the end I actually chose to go with blank facing pages because I wanted to keep focus on one image at a time.  But then there was a choice of which page to be blank, and even if I should have a double blank page to insert a pause.

3. Lead image

I wanted the first image in the book to be strong. But then I found a challenge with this intent and the image that I would use for the cover – which should be the strongest, should they be the same.  A similar dilemma for the back cover and lat image in the book, along with deciding wether to make the black page blank. 

4. Title Page

What goes on the front or title page.

Production 

In previous book productions, I chosen to use Adobe InDesign along with a template provided by Blurb.  I chose this option because when I have carried out similar tasks in the past, I have found software to be too constraining.  With InDesign I can have all the freedom I want but Blurb’s plugin handles the setup of the book including things such as creating cover templates, spine measurements etc. 

For this exercise I decided to use the blurb provided software to understand the difference between the two tools.

I found the software easy to use for basic positioning of images and distribution of the images within the book.  Less sophisticated were alignment tools and other features that are more to do with book production in any context – but that is after all what InDesign is made for.

Output of the proof copy is done at very low quality but is useful for creating a low file size.  It is this proof that I have attached to this exercise.

If it possible that I will chose a book for my assignment.  If I do, I will create text for the back cover, will add the artists statement at the beginning and will explore adding, or not, page numbers and titles for the images. 

This is my draft output: Stroud Mills Proof