OUGD603 Extended Practice Brief 03 Botanical Collaboration Final Images and Evaluation

I visited Village Book Store to get some photograph of our Botany book in its intended habitat.

Evaluation:

This brief took a long time to come to fruition, the time that we spent figuring out how the illustrations and the type would interact has, however, been time well spent.  This is the main strength of the design. The subtle and not over worked (a breakthrough for me) way in which the illustrations use the negative space of the letters (not growing around them) is a defining aspect of the overall tone of voice of the publication. It speaks of both a subtle beauty (in the plants) and a certain truth and practicality; this way the plants are represented truthfully, essential to botany. In practice this was achieved through really good communication between Jess and myself. We had long discussions about the type of look we wanted to create and starting by crating a Mood board on pinterest was a formative part of this. Most of all this collaboration really respected the roles that each of us played in the creation of the final design; we both offered critique in the execution of our separate jobs but in a gentle and generally polite way that was conducive of good results for both of us.

Opting for hobs to print and bind the finished product was a good overall choice. However, I do have my reservations about how pristine the finished object is. Small details such as slightly crushed corners and a tiny tear along the spine would be something that I would re-do if I had been binding the book. However, the stock that they had for the job is undoubtedly better than anything I could have printed on. The silk finish in a gentle off white fits exactly with the market placement that Jess and I were aiming for (high end magazine/book for young professionals). It also means that the stock registers little to no finger prints, perfect when it also should function as an identifying book, which you would need to return to.

This positioning of the publication is also the reason we didn't include any extra fluff that might be present in a full magazine. For example, we considered creating facing pages with colour swatches from the illustrations and adding fluff about the plants. However, because we wanted the book to be about botany we decided again it. It needs to be true to practicality as well as being beautiful.