OUGD603 - Photography Book - Digital Layout and Format Experiments (2)

Format: H 184.507 mm x W 327.3 mm

Continuing to experiment with how potential formats would potentially affect layout ideas, the next format experimented with was H 184.507 mm x W 327.3, a very obscure and specific format, however a size which was found as one of the sizes for Akshay's photographs. It was thought therefore that this may work more effectively with the content. With the width being longer it was thought that this also partially reflected the aesthetics of petrol station signs as explored in visual research (rotated 90 degrees), and therefore reflects the content of the book through its format. However, it was soon realised that this did not work effectively for the squared format images and reduced the impact of these dramatically, and so it was decided that this would not be the most appropriate format to use in the production of the book.

Format: H 210 mm x W 130 mm

Another idea was to use the format H 210 mm x W 130 mm, which is just under A5 in size. Like the previous format, it was thought that this reflected the nature of the photography, with the length mimicking the typical design of petrol station columns, which could be used as a subtle link between the format and content of the book. It was also considered that this format would potentially create a good size which people can handle and engage with easily.

As a variation, it was thought this format could be experimented with in landscape, since this would allow the rectangular photography in particular to fill the pages better when working with individual photographs on individual pages. However, when working with the square images, it was thought that this was not as effective, and overall thought that this landscape distorted the narrative in that this did not prove to be very clear or create an sense of direction typical to that of the content of the book.

For this reason, it was decided to experiment with portrait format as originally intended, which was found to work slightly better with the format of some imagery in particular layouts, such as full length images across the entire spread. However, when using these rectangular formatted images on individual pages in this format, these drastically lost impact due to their size having to be manipulated and made smaller to fit the page. Therefore, it was decided that this also was not an appropriate format to use in the book's production since it presented too many challenges.

Format: H 210 mm x W 297 mm

As a final potential format, it was considered that A4 size could be used, the typical standard paper size which was thought could work effectively with the average size of Akshay's photography and would therefore contain the images better and allow for a better layout to be created. The first layouts experimented with in this format were found to work in a similarly effective way to the format H 210 x W 250mm, which is just under A4 in size, creating a good balance between the images and the negative space around these.

Columned layouts were picked back up on in exploring layouts within this format, which was found to work more effectively in this instance than previous formats since this allowed for a better balance to be created between images, with them sitting on the same baseline and height.