OUGD504 - Study Task 03 - Conventions of the Book

Book of Ideas - 
Radim Malinic (Brand Nu)

1. Identify and list the properties/conventions of the book (layout, bind, etc.)

Adhesive binding.
Layout is a combination of text and images, although most pages are consumed by only images, with few larger bodies of text spread across the different chapters.
The main titles of each chapter are always positioned to the left of the page, whereas larger passages of body text are always positioned to the right of the page. Both are left-aligned.
Paper stock choice includes 350gsm GalerieArt Satin and 100gsm Inaset Plus Offset.

2. Acknowledge the subject matter of the book. Referring back to initial list, discuss ways that you could tailor/add/manipulate these conventions to communicate the subject more effectively.

The author has defined the subject matter of the book as 'a journal of creative direction and graphic design; a collection of thoughts, musings and observations from my ups and downs in the creative industry. It's about how the world outside influences the creativity inside; and how it inspires us, teaches us and makes us create better work'.

Since the subject matter of this publication is all about thoughts and observations from time spent working within the creative industry, this could potentially be communicated more effectively through layouts which visibly show those observations and principles which also helped to inform the overall design of the publication. For instance, a visible grid, showing how these can be changed dependent on the type of information wanting to be collated or dependent on how you wish this to be communicated, since different systems communicate different messages.
The positioning of the titles and body text could also be manipulated to be more aligned with each other to produce more consistency amongst this element of design.

3. How could the 'clients' subject matter be communicated through at least one of the conventions identified?

Within my own publication, the author's subject matter being the city of Barcelona could be communicated through a more dominant focus on imagery rather than text. This would specifically highlight aspects of architectural beauty within Barcelona whilst also enhancing the communication of these images since there would be limited written text to distract the eye of the reader away from the images.

Adhesive binding could also be utilised to provide structure within the publication design, reflective of the strength in materials used to produce such pieces of architecture around Barcelona. With all information collated into one whole section for this method of binding, this could also reflect the block style of materials such as bricks which can be stuck together using an adhesive (adhesive binding) such as concrete or cement.