MINI PROJECT

Here is my project for the last small assignment where we were meant to do a bit of a manuscript without using the computer. (I hope I interpreted the project correctly) I did a passage from Susan Sontag's 'On Photography' using collage and handwriting. I'm surprisingly pleased with the results! Here are the collages before I wrote on one side of them (I think I like them better without the writing)

UPDATE

I printed my book today! After many catastrophes (and about ten hours) trying to print on the super yellow-toned printer at York I decided to take my book to the delightful ladies at 3 Cent Copy at Bloor and Spadina who printed my book in an hour for only $70. (which is really good considering it is 200 pages!). Now I have to guillotine it, drill holes, sew and put on the cover. These are all thing I am very bad at and generally screw up so I am very nervous but I'm just going to take my time and hope for the best.

Here are some images from the final book:

QUESTION 3

This is more of a technical question. My design has no grid because it is a fairly small page so I was just adhering to the margins and also I was kind of just making each page the way it looked best. I was wondering if it looks too scattered and if you think I would benefit from a grid? I was thinking of using the golden section because it is so rigid and controlled and I thought it ight fit well with my theme. Related to this, I was also hoping to get some comments on my typeface choices. I have a mix of Didoni, Akkurat Mono and Gridnik, that machiney-type one. I was wondering if the three are working together or if I need to stick to one predominantly and if so which works best. Thank you!

QUESTION 2

This question is the one I am the most concerned about which I keep asking anybody who will look at my book!

I am wondering whether when you look at all of the spreads and the bit of text so far (there will certainly be more text) you are getting a general theme or whether it all seems too confusing. If it is confusing I really want to know because I think there are ways I can have it make more sense, I just haven't done them because it seems like the theme and the text/imagery combination makes sense to me but that could totally just be because I have been staring at it for so long.

QUESTION 1

So far my book is all black and white/off white, navy, and red. These colours are sort of like, communist, 50's and 60's colours and fit with my theme I think. The thing is that I am beginning to feel really limited by this colour scheme and like I can't include a lot of the imagery I want to include. I know maybe I just need to work with it, but I was wondering what everyone thought about adding a bit of other colour maybe in a specific section.

So my question is, if I included a chunk of pages with colour imagery (similar subdued colours to the imagery below) would this look cohesive at all with the rest of my book or would it just not match?

MORE SPREADS

Here are some more spreads so that everyone can get a better idea of my book!

BINDING

I am reeeaaallly attached to the idea of making a book with smaller papers and books within it and extra pages going over the cover (like the picture below!). I'm not sure if this will be possible or will lend itself to the book but I'm working on but I've been starting to make smaller map pages to be interspersed throughout and I thought maybe some of the old photos could be printed on different sizes of paper as if they have just been inserted into the book.



(I unfortunately can't find the source for this image I will post it soon!)

CHANGED CONCEPT

So I changed my concept quite significantly since my initial concept that was my first post, it just sort of morphed into something else while I was gathering all my imagery.

I was thinking of doing a book about the aesthetics of control, so the imagery associated with controlling and categorizing people. It will kind of be a loose visualization of Foucault's 'The subject and power' and some other ideas. So for example, architectural imagery and drawings, (which I love!), so images of how people are controlled in space, economic charts and graphs, old photos that showed otherness or pictures of things considered curiosities, which is a way of controlling people by forcing them to be 'other', photos of customs or traditions which categorize people, photos of parades and celebrations and repressive regimes (so ways of controlling people using kitsch in the Milan Kundera definition of the word), and a lot of other things. I want to collage a lot of this imagery too.

I know this sounds kind of out there but I want it to be more of a conceptual project or an art project. So most of the type will be Foucault and then also maybe some excerpts from Baudrillard 'The System of Objects'. The sets of imagery will be accompanied with text saying how they represent control. It will be sort of like an illustrated textbook and it will be a compendium of all this imagery that ties together under the theme. It is still kind of the cabinet of curiosity idea but I think this will be more specific and more conceptual.

ADDITIONAL PICTURES

Here are some connecting pages that I've been making to connect the major themes of my imagery. I am hoping that they might function as chapter openings or be interspersed throughout the book.

COLLAGES

Here are some of the collages I have been making for my book.

Initial Ideas