23/09/2024 - 10/11/2024 / Week 1 - Week 8
Song Yang / 0355576
Publishing Design / Bachelor of Creative Media / Taylor's University
Task 1
LECTURES
Week 1 ：Formats
The Book / Historical formates
Iran-Iraq ： Mesopotamian civilization
- Progression from simple & complex tokens to bullae set the stage for the early forms of pictographic writing on clay tablets
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Fig 1.1 Mesopotamian Writing System
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Eygpt ：Ancient Egyptian civilization
- The scribes were the only people in ancient Egypt that could read & write Hieroglyphics
- It was written on a special type of paper called papyrus (a thick type of paper made from the pith of the papyrus plant), it would also be written on the tomb walls
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Fig 1.2 Papyrus Paper |
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Fig 1.3 Hieroglyphics on Tomb Walls |
India-Pakistan-Afghanistan ： Indus Valley civilization
- Not much is known about record keeping but what is known is they had a complex system
- Cuneiform was one of the earliest systems of writing, it was written on soft clay tablets by using shaper-pointed tools
- Records about their government, religion, & trade
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Fig 1.4 Cuneiform Writing System |
- The oldest surviving Palm leaf manuscript is from Nepal & dates around the 800-900 CE
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Fig 1.5 Palm leaf manuscript |
China ： Han Chinese civilization
- Chinese characters in the early period are written in vertical columns, the ideal single column would be a thin strip of bamboo; 2 lines of thread link each bamboo strip to its neighbor to create a longer document
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| Fig 1.6 Chinese characters on bamboo strips
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- The earliest known book is Chinese, from the end of T'ang dynasty; discovered in a cave at Dunhuang in 1899, using paper in a scroll format
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| Fig 1.7 Chinese characters on paper scroll |
- In the 10th to 11th century, wood blocks were used as a form of printing
- The carving of so many characters in reverse on wood blocks was unavoidable until the introduction of movable type; seems to have been pioneered in China but achieved in Korea
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Fig 1.8 Chinese characters on wood blocks |
Europe (Turkey & beyond) ：European civilization
- Parchment (made from the animal hide) was first invented in Turkey (197-159 BC), which later spread to Europe
- Around 50 AD, Europeans started making parchment books
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Fig 1.9 Parchment Book |
Week 2
History of Print
2nd - 8th Century AD
- In AD 175, the emperor of China commands that the 6 classics of Confucianism be carved in stone
- Lay sheets of paper on the engraved slabs & rub all over them with charcoal/graphite, taking away a text in white letters on a black ground
Korea & Japan: AD 750 - 768
- World's earliest known printed document is a sutra printed on a single sheet of paper in Korea in AD 750
- Closely followed in Japan by a bold experiment in mass circulation
- Hyakumanto Darani, the One Million Pagodas & Dharani Prayers is a famous large-scale woodblock printing (earliest recorded uses of woodblock printing in Japan)
The first printed book: AD 868
- The earliest known printed book is Chinese (from the T'ang dynasty); it's a 16 feet long & a foot high scroll (containing the text of the Diamond Sutra) alongside the world's first printed illustration
Movable type: from the 11th century
- Movable type (separate ready-made characters/letters that can be arranged in any order & able to be reused)
Type foundry in Korea: c.1380
- Koreans establish a foundry to cast movable type in bronze (sufficiently strong for repeated printing, dismantling & resetting for a new text)
Saints & playing cards: AD c.1400
- The technique of printing from woodblocks is introduced in Europe
- In the east, images are printed by laying a piece of paper on a carved & inked block & then rubbing its back to transfer the ink; the main market is holy images for sale to pilgrims
- Playing cards are another early part of the western trade
- In the 15th century, Germany made technical advances that rapidly transform printing from a cottage industry to a cornerstone of western civilization
Gutenberg & western printing: AD 1439 - 1457
- Gutenberg's great achievement in the story of printing has several components, one is his development of the printing press
- More significant are Gutenberg's skills with metal (his original trade is that of a goldsmith) enables him to master the complex stages in the manufacture of individual pieces of type
Week 3
Typography Redox
Characters in a typeface
- Small Caps
- Numerals
- Fractions
- Ligatures
- Punctuations
- Mathematical Signs
- Symbols
- Non-Aligning Figures
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Fig 2.1 Characters in a typeface
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| Fig 2.2 Weights in a typeface (Roboto Ver)
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Legibility
- The first step in making type legible is to choose text typefaces that are open & well proportioned
Some considerations to take on board when formatting text for legibility:
- Underline; should be lowered so that they don't touch the characters (impedes readability)
- Small Caps & All Caps; small capitals are good for subheads/for the first line of a paragraph, while all caps should never be used for long sentences & for emphasis
- Special-Purpose Style
- Text Scaling; should never do this as it distorts the font & makes messaging appear cheap
- Outline & Shadow; try to avoid outline & shadow as far as possible
Type Size, Line Length & Line Spacing
- Text that flows naturally when read is achieved when a harmonious relationship exists between type size, line length, & spaces between lines of type (line spacing/leading)
- A column of type usually is about 50-65 characters
Major factors to consider when deciding how much line space is used:
- Font used
- Line length
- Type size
Character & Word Space
- Factors that determine correct word spacing include "typeface which is chosen", the "size" & "weight of the type"
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Fig 2.3 Typographic "color" |
- Kerning creates a more pleasing look to the text
- Italics & oblique type are best suited to create emphasis within text rather than to function as text
Alignment
- F.lush left, ragged right; perhaps the most legible means of aligning text & the reader is able to easily locate each new line
- Flush right, ragged left; suitable for small amounts of text, not recommended for large amounts
- Centered; a very formal appearance & fine to used minimally, large amounts of text should be avoided for this style
- Justified (left, centre & right); can be very readable if the designer ensures spacing between each words are consistent
Paragraph Spacing
- A more elegant way to space out paragraphs
Paragraph Indent
- First-line paragraphs indents only should be used if there is no paragraph space
- The standard amount of indent is equal to the type size
Special Formatting
- Hyphens can also be used to break words from one line to the next; headlines & subheads should never use this at a line ending
- 2 varieties (En-dash & Em-dash); En-dashes are slightly longer than hyphens & are used to separate ranges of items (dates, quantities, & time)
- Drop caps are used to start off new chapters & special sections of a report
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Fig 2.4 Drop Caps |
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Fig 2.5 Useful Tips
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- A sidebar is the text that accompanies the main body copy; an added description that has some relation to the main narrative but isn't important enough to be part of it
Week 4
The Grid
Raster Systeme
- The designer's work should have a clear intelligible, objective, functional, & aesthetic quality of mathematical thinking
- Divides a 2-dimensional plane into smaller fields / a 3-dimensional space into smaller compartments
- Creates a sense of compact planning, intelligibility & clarity & suggests orderliness in design
The Grid is modular in nature.
Week 5
Elements
Book
All publications consist of 3 major elements:
1. Type
2. Colour
3. Image
Holding the above together is the format & grid
Variation
- It is important to not fall into the trap of predictability, must create variation within the layout while maintaining consistency across the book
- Keeping certain areas fixed; hang line, typeface, color, image style, etc
- Variation is created within the grid system; used in a modular fashion where elements are positioned logically but also in a compositionally attractive manner
Conclusion
- Don't be predictable
- Create variation while maintaining consistency
INSTRUCTIONS
Exercise 1: Text Formatting (pdf)
We were tasked to source or write 3000 words of material, the draft version is placed below.
Exercise 2: Mockup Making
For this week's exercise, we had to draw and explore 3 sizes of a book that are bigger than A5 and smaller than A4. Below are the following sizes drawn:
-176mm x 250mm
-153mm x 228mm
-160mm x 222mm
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Fig 2.1 Book Size Exploration |
I ended up going with 160mm x 222mm as I feel like its the best option and its the perfect size for my book. I proceeded to folding 8 pieces of A3 paper in half and cutting it to my desired size after binding them together. I ended up with a book with 32 pages.
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Fig 2.2 Final Book Mock-up |
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Fig 2.3 Final Book Mock-up Inside |
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Fig 2.4 Stapler Binding |
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Fig 2.5 Flat Lay |
Exercise 3: Signature Folding System
For this exercise, I used the A2 paper that Mr. Hijjaz provided in class. First, I folded the paper according to his instructions, and then marked each page with the corresponding page number.
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Fig 3.1 Signature fold closed |
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Fig 3.2 Signature fold opened |
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Fig 3.3 Signature fold front (unfolded) |
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Fig 3.4 Signature fold back (unfolded) |
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Fig 3.5 Signature fold outer binding |
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Fig 3.6 Signature fold inner binding |
Exercise 4: Classic Grid Structure
For exercise 4, we were to create a Van de Graaff. We created the Van de Graaff based on the measurements of our book using Adobe InDesign.
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Fig 4.1 Van de Graaff |
Fig 4.1 Van de Graaff (PDF)
Exercise 5: Determining Grids
Exercise 6: Form & Movement
FEEDBACK
Week 3: You need to write more specifics to let readers know. When writing about characters, you need to write specific names. For example, when writing about my father, you should write when I was a few years old/in that year, my father + name. For pictures, choose more photos you took yourself, and less photos from the Internet.
Week 6: Some sentences in the first chapter are well written. Continue to complete the rest of the chapters.
Week 7: The content is complete. Note that pictures from the Internet need to be marked with the source.
REFLECTIONS
Writing this book was both a rewarding and challenging journey, especially when I tried to transform personal memories into a story that would resonate with others. The difficulty I faced was that I wrote too rigidly, and it looked like a Wikipedia introduction to my hometown. My mentor, Mr. Hijjaz, encouraged me to tell my story from a broader perspective. He suggested that I add more unique memories of my own family and explain cultural details. I followed Mr. Hijjaz's advice and rewrote about my family. It really seemed more humane and allowed readers to have a deeper understanding of my hometown.
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