Project Ideas for Year 3

I think we have to do six self-initiated projects in the third year. From what I saw at last year's degree show it seems everyone tries to do the following:

• a book
• a typeface
• a blog or website
• some posters, inc one to advertise the typeface and one for the book

I have been thinking of ideas for a book and the one I keep coming back to is a book of quotes and portraits of all my favourite musicians, who all happen to be dead. I will call it something like "All My Heroes Are Dead", if I am feeling sensible. On another day I might call it "Moths".

Having recently visited the utterly shite Damien Hirst exhibit at Tate Modern, I might be tempted to call it "Unfinished Business in a World of Broken Promises". 

Another project I would like to undertake would be to design a new set of banknotes for the UK. I would get rid of all those boring old farts and instead celebrate the people who make this country great. People like Simon Cowell, Jordan, Jade Goody (gawd bless her), Amy Winehouse and Boy George.

Hmm... how about a set of eighties-themed banknotes, with Ian Curtis, Simon Le Bon, Dave Gahan (or more likely Martin Gore) and Adam Ant? That would be nice, especially with a garish eighties palette. The values of the notes would be higher than the current ones to reflect the rising cost of living.

But they would have to look amazing and I am not sure I have the skills. I am talking proper fancy stuff like this:

http://blog.iso50.com/27300/redesigning-the-swedish-banknote/

Well, it's a start...

Publication Project - Final Mock

I managed to get a lot done over Easter, which is lucky as we are showing our final mockups tomorrow. My final publication weighs in at sixty pages broken down as follows:

• Cover 250gsm Xper uncoated
• Dedication (page 1) 110gsm GSK Transparent
• Pages 3-40 140gsm Xper uncoated
• Photography section (pages 41-60) 170gsm Freelife Gloss

The idea is to spend the first 40 pages showing the ins and out of amateur astronomy, with an attempt to focus on the DIY "garden shed" nature of the hobby, juxtaposed with the final 20 pages that are a sort of showcase of some of the stunning images my friends have captured with modest kit. The change of paper stock signals the shift in focus and quality from DIY to high-tech.

Anyway, here's my mock cover and a couple of the spreads:

Publication Project - Final Cover

I think I have finally nailed the cover! I designed a little telescope symbol that sits perfectly beneath the title and looks really nice repeated on the spine:

The spine is currently set to 10mm, which I am going to work from until I get a final page count and figure from the printers. The QR code on the back cover takes you to the Bath Astronomers site.

The telescope symbol was originally like this:

However, my tutor pointed out that she wouldn't instantly think of that as a telescope. It is in fact an SCT-type scope design (Schmidt–Cassegrain Telescope) which is very popular with amateur astronomers these days, although I do agree that a more traditional "long and thin" design would work better. So I came up with this one:

It's not only more instantly recognisable but it also looks a lot better in my opinion.

With the cover finished I decided to have another stab at the star-map conundrum. It seems to me that the only workable solution is to have them on the inside covers, or endpapers.

(click for larger image)

The inside-front cover (left) shows the summer sky as at 22.00 BST on June 1st 2012 looking north, while the inside-back cover (right) shows the view to the south. I created these in Adobe Illustrator and got the positions of the constellations, planets, etc from Cartes du Ciel.

It is worth noting that after showing this to the guys at Ripe Digital, I was advised to remove the black from the spine area of the inside cover, as this could adversely affect the performance of the glue in the binding. The book will be perfect bound, in case I haven't mentioned this before.

Publication Project - Illustration Win?

I showed my "Don't Forget..." pages to my tutor and she agreed that they are not really working and jump out a bit too much. So I decided to stretch the "stargazer silhouette" theme that I am using on one of my spreads. I think they are much better and more in keeping with the look and feel of my book.

I want the effect to be subtle but I don't want people to miss the joke altogether, so I had to play around with the CMYK values and print a few test pages. Turns out a good setting is C0, M0, Y0, K100 for the back ground and C40, M40, Y40, K100 for the silhouetted figures.

Thanks to mag design legend Terry Stokes for the top tip!

Publication Project - Illustration Fail

I thought it would be nice to break up some of the main content of my publication with these three handy tips:

Now, I know they prove once again that I am not an illustrator but there is something I quite like about them. The problem is that they kind of jar in the context of my publication so I may have to think of an alternative.

Publication Project - More Spread Ideas

Here are a few more spreads I have been working on. This one is the template for all the Urban Observatory spreads. I think it works pretty well:

The following two spreads are for the Self-Build Scope feature. The first one is based around the original Sketchup designs that Colin gave me, while the second one features the best photos that I took on Clifton Downs of Colin, his fabricator/inventor friend Gabriel (who built the thing) and the scope itself:

Publication Project - A Visit to the Printer

There is no way that I am going to rely on the uni printer to get my book done on time, especially as he is snowed under with third-year's degree show work. Obviously that takes priority. So I arranged a visit to Ripe Digital in Corsham.

They seem like a decent lot and they showed me around the various bits of kit and told me what could and couldn't be done. I have decided to get my books perfect-bound, which they do as individual sheets (as opposed to sections), at least on a job this small. My book/mag looks like it will come in at around 50 - 60 pages.

I want the dedication page to be on tracing paper, so I have chosen a 110gsm GSK Transparent sheet. It is not as light as I would have liked but it seems to be the lightest transparency they will put through their press. The bulk of my publication will be printed on 140gsm Xper, uncoated stock, which has a similar feel to that used in Little White Lies. I plan on using the final 10 pages or so as a showcase of some of the stunning images that my astrophotography friends have captured in their modest observatories, so these will be printed on 170gsm Freelife Gloss. I like the idea of having different paper stocks in the same publication.

The cover will be printed on the 250gsm version of Xper uncoated.

Publication Project - Foldout Star-Maps

A lot of the publications Nigel showed us in the "Formats" tutorial had really cool foldout sections. I know a lot of tutors were keen on stuff like this in the first year too, so I really want to do something in my publication. I don't want to shoehorn it in there for the sake of it though.

My idea is to have a foldout star-map at the back. Basically, the back cover will fold out twice to make a panoramic guide to the night sky. I spoke to George at Ripe (my printer) and discovered it is not possible. My foldout would make the cover over 590mm wide (plus spine) which would not be printable on A3. They can print larger format but only single-sided.

So my idea for a foldout cover is a non-starter. Must come up with another solution as I really like the star-map idea...

Publication Project - Silhouette Spread

This is my idea for the silhouette spread, whereby I explain that it's hard to spot your fellow astronomer at night. The starry background is the result of twenty 30-second exposures taken in my backyard, stacked using Deep Sky Stacker and then tweaked in Photoshop. On top of this I have added vector drawings of a scope and an astronomer in suitably silly hat. A friend of mine who works in magazine design said I should set the vectors to C40, M40, Y40, K100 to get an almost spot-varnish black on black effect. I want it to be pretty subtle but I don't want people to miss it.

Publication Project - Spread Ideas

Here are the first few spread ideas I have come up with. As you will see, text pages are two-column and headings are set in OCR. After extensive testing I have decided to use 8pt MetaPro for the body copy.

Urban Observatory Spread

Tiny Saturn Spread

Self-Build Spread

Publication Project - Initial Flatplan

Here's my initial flatplan. I am sure it will change a lot before the publication goes to print but you have to start somewhere and it is difficult to visualise the flow of content without this.

I want the first page to be a dedication to the memory of Dick Phillips, the founder of Bath Astronomers who sadly passed away earlier this year. I think it would be nice to have this on thin tracing paper, setting it apart from the main content of the book.

My main ideas for the bulk of the content include:

Great Expectations (or what you actually see through a telescope)
I have a great photo of Saturn that one of my friends took a few years ago. It's an expanse of black and Saturn is tiny, nestled in one corner. I think this would look great as a spread, with a comment about how blown away I was when I first saw Saturn for myself.

Urban Observatories
These are the photos I took of people's kit in their back gardens (including my own). I have six in total, so I think it could be nice to dot them throughout the publication as a kind of running theme.

In Search of Dark Skies
Profiles of Bath Astronomers' three primary observing sites at Wellow, Gypsy Lane and Marshfield.

Observing the Moon
Did you know that the worst time to look at the moon is when it is full?

Are We Alone?
Responses to my questionnaire about extraterrestrial life.

Imagers vs Observers
Some observational astronomers scoff at amateur attempts at astrophotography. Others admire the craft and dedication required, as well as the staggering results that some imagers can achieve.

Self-Build Scope
One of our number has gone to great lengths (and expense) to design and build a massive telescope from scratch. I will interview him to find out more, plus take some photos of his unique design.

I would also like to scatter a few running themes/gags throughout the publication. Firstly, I mentioned to Teresa how you learn to identify fellow astronomers by their voice and silhouette, such is the total darkness of our observing sites. She liked the idea and thought it could be a strong graphic feature. Secondly, there are a few tips for observing that I would like to present, almost as adverts in the publication, such as:

• Remember torched need red filters to preserve night-adapted vision
• Wrap up warm as the winter is the time for the best dark skies
• Take a flask of hot tea when you go out observing

I think that's enough to get me started generating content. Time to crack on!

Publication Project - Format and Cover Ideas

I really like it when a magazine or book has a slightly unconventional format. Little White Lies is slightly shorter than A4 but also slightly wider. I decided that my astronomy publication should be quite a bit smaller than a standard magazine. Making it A5 would mean that I can print out mock spreads on my home printer in colour, which is definitely a bonus. Also, I spoke to Ripe Digital, a printer in Corsham, and they print at "Super A3" size, so an A5 magazine would be printed four pages to a sheet, making it cost-effective.

I didn't want standard A5 (210x148) though, so I played around a bit before settling on a page setting of 200mm x 148mm.

During my last tutorial, I showed Teresa my proposed cover photo, which she loved, and came up with the title "Don't Look At The Sun" on the spot! It just seemed to really work with the image and it also reinforced the DIY backyard feel. So I set to work on some ideas for the cover...

This is my first attempt at the cover. I think the title font, American Captain, is really rather nice. It looks a bit Star Trek, which is evocative of the sixties, a time where people were wrapped up in the space race and increasingly fascinated by the universe around them. The subtitle "A Celebration of Backyard Astronomy" is set in OCR A Std.

This title is in Dubiel Italic, which I think also has a very sixties feel to it. I am not sure I like it as much as the previous one though. I have rounded the corners of the photo on this one, making more like the sixties surf mags that inspired me.

Not so sure about this one. The typeface is Designer Block, which is pretty nice but I am not sure it really works for my magazine. I have also tried moving the content summary text to beneath the photo for balance but I don't think it is successful. All part of the process...

I really like this one. It is a very delicate retro typeface called Across The Stars which I think works well in all lower-case. This is definitely my second favourite after the first one in this post.

This is called Droid Regular. I like the fact it is condensed as it really seems to balance the page. It's also very sixties in style. I still don't think it's quite there but it's not that far off.