Foil Blocking

I have been trying to decide what to do to the front cover of my books and have finally settled on foil blocking. On book I have made in the past I have made dust covers, which I think if not done really well cheapen a book and also screen printed onto the buckram. The screen printing didn't work well last time and is a bit of a lengthy process that I am not really interested in doing again. Foil blocking seemed like the logical choice as it would provide me with a professional finish that I won't have to do myself. I only want the title of the books and my name, positioned centrally on the cover, so screen printing seemed like a lot of extra work for very little gain. Foil blocking will also stand out a bit more if I decide to go for a gold finish. The only downside is that the place I have found to do it are closed all this week so I will not have it done for submission but I can get it done before the exhibition, which is what really matters.

Book Development

Buckram



Thread to match

I have now decided on what colours I am using for the covers of my books. I have decided to stick with the green buckram that I have used on my practice books but then contrast this with a blood red colour. I thought both were classic colours and had a very British feeling, which is a bit of an abstract feeling but I guess short of going for white and red or blue, white and red they were colours that worked for me. I still haven't decided what colour is going to be used for what book, I think I will just let that be a unconscious decision when it comes to binding both books. I also managed to find thread to match both colours so I think i will try to make so that the thread is a bit more discreet, as on Japanese binding the thread is left exposed.

'Photoshoping'

Image after using Photoshop



Original Image

I have never claimed to be an expert when it comes to using photoshop and I think that this boils down to the fact that I would rather never have to edit my photos in it. This however raises the problem that I am not a technically advanced enough photographer to not have to use it, especially for a project like this where I wanted the images to look well finished. It has been a bit of a learning curve in terms of using photoshop as I have developed new skill that I didn't have prior to the FMP. I would however had liked to have spent a bit more time on each image as some of them had to be rushed through due to the fact that I hadn't left myself a lot of time towards the end of the project to print the pages.

I think that I wouldn't have been able to use a lot of the images I have if it wasn't for photoshop because some of them were quite under or over exposed and I think that this was down to the fact that it was the first time I had tried shooting people in a documentary style, where you sometimes don't have a lot of time to set up your camera for the shot.

After looking at the Tony Ray-Jones book by Russell Roberts I thought that it would be interesting and important for my project to look at how I write down my plans and keep myself on track. I have a diary that I use to plan my week and make notes along the way. I do have to admit that some weeks I get really into this and then others I don't use it and I end up just writing things down on bits of paper and then keeping them for as long as I need to. It has been an interesting process to look back at how I have planned and to try and understand how successful I was at this. I think it is a bit of a amalgamation of techniques that I use but having a diary definitely helps me out.

Book Design Development

A5 Japanese Binding.



A4 Japanese Binding.



Experimenting with A5 corner Binding.

Above are two examples of the development for the design of the book itself. I personally really like the Japanese binding style, it is very simple yet very effective. I also like the way that it looks with the visible binding as I gives it a very hand made feel because you know that someone bound it by hand. The second example where I attempted to bind it on the corner so that it would open in a fan like motion, just wasn't a practical and easy way to enjoy the book. I think I envisaged it working better in my head, so that idea was quickly dropped. I have been trying to Japanese bind more as I want my level of finish to be a lot higher when it comes to binding my final 2 books. Just after binding three books and a fourth set of covers I feel that I have improved and I am starting to pick up some useful techniques. I am planning to bind the two covers in different colour covers and I still need to try and come up with a good and simple idea for the cover. I want some very simple lettering on the front and then for the first page to be a more colourful and thoughtfully designed cover page.

First Attempt at Front Cover Designs

Above are my first attempts at designing a front cover to go onto both my photo books, one for Leeds and one for London. The top one is more of an experiment with the possibility of creating a fill for some text from one of my photographs but my idea never really went past that.

The next two are a bit more of a bold concept and I guess quite in your face. I personally quite like the use of text over images but the text has to be well placed and work with the image. I am not by any means saying that this is the case with my designs but they are a first attempt and could be worked on further when I take more photographs.

The third design is a bit more of a traditional take and yet still keeping to a very simplistic design. I don't want to overcomplicate any of these front covers so I am trying to keep everything very basic and simple as well as making it look very professional as this is the last ting I will do on my degree.

The name is another sticking point as I have provisionally gone with NEW BRITISH PATRIOTISM as a means of describing the effect and movement towards a new patriotism's that encompasses the multiculturalism of Britain today. It also acts as a play on words with organisations like the BNP, but this does make me worry that it may come across as racist. On the flip side I guess the photographic content should help to steer the book away from these connotations and hopefully everyone will understand the message behind the project. With that said the name is not set in stone so could still be changed.