Type in Context, Design Decisions - OUGD504

To fit with with a theme of luxury and being niche lots of decisions had to be considered but because a theme was put into place it did help.

The colour for the cover was decided upon because blue has often been considered the colour to represent wealth or luxury as it was hard to come across natural blue to dye fabric. The gold colour is quite an obvious representation of wealth. The material for the cover was decided upon after looking through the different choices in the print room, the cloth that was used was the only in the correct colour that felt the most luxurious, it would have been nicer to have a different more fabric like feel of cloth but it wasn't available in the price range or at university.

Throughout the book a consistent typeface is used to tie everything together, all the body text is kept to 10 or 12 point and used 14 for titles inside the publication. Following The Vignelli Canon to an extent, it is said to use only two typeface per page but there are exceptions when using titles, sticking to only two type sizes apart from on titles and although the rule is not followed verbatim making sure all the titles used the same sizing and weight for this reason.
Following on from the type size the face used was Garamond, again taking note from Vignelli but also using the fact that it is one of the oldest typefaces around providing this classical timeless look.

The binding was decided upon when there was a block for what could possibly be done to suit the theme. Hardback had to be part of the design as it has always provided a more pricey niche look. Japanese stab stitch never influenced the original design because of the problem of being softback and not being able to stay open always wanting to close again. After speaking to a tutor other examples were shown including a hardback japanese stab stitch which was very interesting, the book still wanted to close on each page so it was suggested that the pages on the publication could be scored to help them fold with the cover to make sure the book was more interactive.

Paper choice is always a hard decision, after deciding GF smith paper would be too costly for the design, although the publication is meant to look expensive it is still meant to be affordable the main purpose is not to cost a lot but instead look like a luxury design that is juxtaposed by content. When working on another task more stock was found which was perfect for the publication as it looked similar to the GF smith stock and still fit the takeaways theme. The type was set on  a different stock to the imagery because the pictures couldn't lose any colour and it is said by Tschichold that type should never be set on a white background for it is less legible. A thicker stock was used for the imagery too to make sure they could be printed full bleed back to back.

Layout was influenced again by Vignelli inputting a grid system to make sure all pages flowed and fit together. Although the type was centered a margin had to be provided for the bind and make sure both sides of paper fit this. The publication size was taken from standard picture sizing so that the images would fit perfectly on a full bleed image and none would be lost apart from to the bind which was an aesthetic decision so that the publication looked purposeful throughout.