Publishing Design // Task 1: Exercises

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1/9/2023- /9/2023 / Week 1 - Week 4

Trinity Wong Ka Yi / 0348778
Publishing Design / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Task 1: Exercises

LECTURES


LECTURE 1: FORMATS

There are many types of publications that fall under publishing: books, newspaper, magazines, etc. 
The book format is the oldest, and one of the most important and influential formats of publishing. It is a medium used to document and transmit ideas, knowledge, history and more.
To design a book, one requires a comprehensive understanding of typography, a sense of space, an eye for details, and a good understanding of publishing software.

Format constitutes the type of binding, type of paper, size, etc. 
Many factors influence and determine a book's format, e.g. who are the readers, what is the content, etc.

HISTORICAL FORMATS OF THE BOOK

Different formats used across different civilizations.

1) Mesopotamia (Iran-Iraq)

Pictographic writing on clay tablets


2) Indus River Valley Civilizations (oldest living civilization)

Cuneiform written by sharp tools on clay tablets

Palm leaf manuscripts, commonly used in South Asia


3) Ancient Egypt (Egypt) 
Hieroglyphs on papyrus paper and tomb walls

4) Han Chinese (China) (Bamboo scripts)
Chinese characters written in vertical columns on a thin strip of bamboo

Diamond Sutra, the earliest known printed book.

Movable type, adapted from Chinese to Korean.

5) Ancient Egypt (Egypt)  European / Turkey / 'The West' 

Leather parchment



LECTURE 2: HISTORY OF PRINT

2nd - 8th Century AD 175

Confucian scholars laid sheets of paper on engraved slabs and rubbed all over it with charcoal or graphite, taking away a text in white letters on black ground.

 


Korea and Japan: AD 750-768


Fig. 1.8 Dharani Sutra

The world's earliest known printed document is the Dharani sutra printed on a single sheet of paper in Korea AD 750.

Fig. 1.9 Hyakumanto Dharani Scroll, Nara Japan


Japan also made a bold experiment in mass printing a document, which had its own packaging. The Hyakumanto Darani is a famous large-scale woodblock printing, the earliest recorded uses of woodblock printing in Japan.


The first printed book: AD 868


Fig. 1.10 Diamond Sutra 868 CE- First Printed Book


The earliest known printed book is Chinese, from the end of the T'ang dynasty. It is a scroll that is 16 feet long and a foot high, formed by sheet of paper glued together at their edges. It is also the world's first printed illustration.


Moveable type: from the 11th century


Separate ready-made characters or letters that can be arranged in the correct order for a particular text and then reused. It was experimented in China, but it was unpractical as Chinese script has so many characters. Chinese printers also cast their characters in clay and then fire them as pottery, but it was too fragile to be used.


Type foundry in Korea: c.1380


Fig. 1.11 Moveable Type in Korea


In the late 14th century, the Koreans established a foundry to cast moveable type in bronze, which is much stronger for repeated printing, dismantling, and resetting for a new text. Although the Koreans were still using the Chinese script at the time, they solved it in 1443 when they began inventing their own national alphabet known as 'Hangul'.


Saints and playing cards: AD c.1400




In about 1400, the technique of printing from wood blocks is introduced in Europe. As in the east, the images are printed by laying a piece of paper on a carved and inked block, and then rubbing its back to transfer the ink.


Gutenberg & western printing: AD 1439- 1457




Gutenberg's great achievement is his development of the printing press. More significant are Gutenberg's skills with metal which enabled him to master the complex stages in manufacturing individual pieces of type.


LECTURE 3: TYPO REDUX


TYPOGRAPHY

- The most important area in graphic design to master

- The art of arranging and composing text

- Medium for expression and communication

- Central role in any design work


Important points in typography:


  • Small caps
  • Numerals
  • Fractions
  • Ligatures
  • Punctuations
  • Mathematical signs
  • Symbols
  • Non-aligning factors

LEGIBILITY

To ensure the type is legible, choose typefaces which are open & well-proportioned. Make sure the typeface is easily readable when designing a book.


Underline: It should be lowered so it doesn't touch the characters as it will affect the readability.


Small Caps & All Caps: Small capitals are good for subheadings or first line of a paragraph. All caps are used in short headlines or subheads. Capital letters are a punctuation that marks the beginning of a sentence.


Special-Purpose Style: Formatting styles for making footnotes, references & mathematical formulas. Usually embedded or nested within tools sections that normal users are not aware of. Example: Superscript, subscript, strikethrough, etc.


Text Scaling: Some programs allow for the creation of pseudo-condense or pseudo-extended font, by horizontally or vertically squeezing or stretching as a font. Never do this. It will make it look cheap.


Outline & Shadow: Outline should not exceed 1pt. Shadows should not go too far away from the main text.


Type size, line length, line spacing: Text that flows naturally when read is achieved when type size, line length, and spaces between lines of type have a harmonious relationship. Column type should usually be about 50-65 characters. If the line of type is too long or short, it will tire the reader out and ruin the pleasant reading rhythm.


Character & Word Space: Sometimes, the type needs extra adjustments to the space between characters, or eliminating widows and orphans.


Alignment, Paragraph spacing, Paragraph Indent, Special formatting


LECTURE 4: THE GRID


Raster Systeme

The use of grids as ordering systems is the expression of a certain mental attitude ub as nycg as it shows how a designer conceives his work in terms that are constructive terms." - Brockmann, 2010


The grid divides a two-dimensional place into smaller fields or a three-dimensional space into smaller compartments.


The Purpose of the Grid

Used by designers to solve visual problems in 2D and 3D.

The designer can favorably place texts, photographs, and diagrams in a functional matter when arranging in the grid spaces.


Modular

The grid allows for flexibility, if one is able to see a multitude of combinations.

However, a limit must be set to maintain an amount of continuity and coherence in its outlook & navigation.

A grid allows the designer to systemize the information so that it becomes easy to read & understand.


LECTURE 5: ELEMENTS


Elements

The 3 major elements in all publications:

  • Type
  • Colour
  • Image

Holding these 3 together are format and grids.


Variation

Must create variation yet maintain consistency across the book to avoid predictability. Keep certain areas fixed: hangline, typeface, colour, image style, and create variation in their arrangement. THis doesn't mean that every page must be different, we are bound to re-use and rotate the formulas in the book.


A good book takes its reader on a journey without the reader even knowing it.

INSTRUCTIONS

TASKS

Exercise 1: Text Formatting

For the start, we had to acquire written content consisting of 3000 words, either written by ourselves or others. I decided to go with a short story I wrote with my friend called "Resume: Trobo" since it was already existing and we always wanted to find a way to publish it (officially or not). However, the problem was that it was 7000+ words, way over the word count, so we decided to cut it in half and count it as the first volume. Another requirement was that we had to have at least 3 chapters, and suggested not to have more than 4. Since Trobo had 11 chapters + a prologue, I had to condense the first 8 chapters into 4. Below is the edited and shortened version:

Fig 2.1 Resume: Trobo [Shortened and formatted] (PDF)

Exercise 2: Book Mock-up

For this week, we had to determine what size we wanted for our book. We were each given a piece of A3 paper and told to fold it in half to form an A4. From there, we had to draw the size of an A5, and from the space between it and A4, come up with 3 size options.

First, we messed up HAHA, instructions unclear, somehow managed to do it very wrong and not how it was intended to be. Refer to pic below:

Fig 2.2 Messed-up mockup

Apparently, we were supposed to draw the A5 (portrait orientation) on the A4 (portrait orientation). Below are my 3 size options, with my final choice highlighted with a darker line (option 2).

Initially, I wanted a perfect square and drew it 21cm x 21cm, but it was not allowed because it cannot be the same width of an A4, and not the same height of an A5. So Mr Vinod suggested I adjust each side by 0.5cm, making is 20.5cm x 21.5cm. Hence, it appears to be a perfect square when it isn't.

Fig 2.3 Three size options

After that, we got to make our very own book mockups! Using the A3 paper we brought, we put together 16 sheets of it along with the cover of the drawing block as our mock cover and stapled them together to form a mock A4 book. We then had to cut the book according to the size we wanted and voila! 


Fig 2.4 Final book mockup

Exercise 3: Signature Folding System

We got to make our own zines this week! 

First, we each took a piece of A3 and folded it in half 4 times, appearing to be a 16-page A7 book. We then had to number the pages from 1 to 16, in which upon opening the paper revealed 16 rectangles. We then had to outline these rectangles in marker/pen. 


Fig 2.6 Front (left) and Back (right) of Kwai Pin's sample.

Then, we had to take the contents of our book and slap it into Indesign, arranging it in any layout we wanted. We were then asked to pick a black-and-white photo of our liking and slap it into the layout too, cropping it in different ways to tell a story.

Unbeknownst to me, I picked a picture of Hitler, because it was somehow the first thing that came into my mind when he asked for a black-and-white photo of anything. I then cropped the photo in different ways, only leaving the full photo as the last page to reveal 'The Man, The Myth, The Legend" (it was coincidentally the title of my last chapter ok).

Fig 2.7 My zine layout (PDF)

After arranging everything, we had to place the pages on an A3 page according to the order of the paper we folded. If you noticed, my zine did not follow the layout of my sample because Mr Vinod held my sample hostage for half the time and I ended up following Kwai Pin's sample's layout, which was different because we somehow folded differently.

Fig 2.8 Mine, Shannon, Kai Wei, and Kwai Pin's zines

Exercise 4: Van de Graaf

Today, we were guided in making the Van de Graaf system. Not to be mistaken for Van de Graaff generator, this was a method apparently used even in medieval times to divide a page to form a margin. 


Fig 2.6 Van de Graaf grid

Exercise 5: Determining Grids

Fig 2.10 Determining grids


Fig 2.11 Trial typesetting

Title Font: Vinque
Body Text Font: Minion Pro
Pull-Quote Font: Tuppence

FEEDBACK

Week 5:

Can't do islands of text for the layout, chosen fonts are ok.


Week 4:

N/A


Week 3:

Can't go with a perfect square size because it wouldn't fit the size requirements. Was suggested to go 1cm shorter on each side so it looks almost like a perfect square.

Week 2:

The introduction/prologue is a bit short.


REFLECTION

Experience
It was super fun to do hands-on physical exercises in class with the other classmates because it reminded me of arts and crafts HAHA. In addition, I also discovered how much money we paid as part of our resource fees for printing allowance, and also how much it cost to print all our exercises. Over the weeks, we somehow made silly mistakes every week which was funny but we were still able to sort out any problems we faced. As mentioned in the Elements lecture, I can see how the exercises have helped in the layout-making phase. Overall, I found the exercises really fun and educational, even allowing us to bond with our other classmates.

Observation
TIME FLIES MAN. Every week, it felt like we only spent 2 hours in class doing the exercises because we were having fun. We were also really excited to do every exercise til we even stayed past 12pm on most days to finish our work.

Findings
It was quite fun to learn about the many different ways to make a book and being able to do it with friends was exciting. I also learned a lot of extra history or fun facts in class when Mr Vinod randomly remembers some things, and discovered a lot of good music.

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