OUGD603 - Guidebook - Three Magnets Illustrations

One initial idea for the production of this publication was to create a book sleeve in which the publication would slip into to protect it as well as to give the publication an element of sophistication as a souvenir/keep-sake book on the town, rather than a typical guidebook. Since the development of the town was based partly on the three magnets diagram, which demonstrated the advantages and disadvantages of both the town and country, suggesting the development of a new town-country, it was thought that this publication itself should be named after this diagram 'The Three Magnets. However, it was thought that instead of using the words themselves, that the diagram should be recreated into a symbol which could potentially be embossed on the book case as a more interesting way to engage the audience.

In starting to develop this symbol, the original diagram was looked at and a colour scheme based on this was picked out which could inform the design of the illustrations.

The basic structure of the symbol was kept the same, however was manipulated slightly in bringing the three individual magnets closer together than positioned in the original diagram. Two variations of this were developed, one with additional detail, which were developed for use in different contexts. It was thought that to emboss or de-boss the symbol into the book case that this needed to be fairly minimalistic for the process to work effectively, so the slightly more detailed symbol was created for use within the publication itself, for instance on an imprint page.

In addition, it was also decided to develop a set of these symbols which did not use colour at all, simply black outlines and details. It was thought that these minimalistic colour variations would potentially work more effectively within the context of the publication in being inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement. However, usage of these or the colour variations will be better decided when starting to put together the publication itself in order to see which works better with the style and colour of the publication.