The student is asked to familiarise themselves with the process of print-on-demand applications and experiment with book design by supposing that that for this exercise that they will be producing a book to present their photographs for Assignment 5. 

The exercise suggests setting up an account with a print on demand service, such as Blurb, Blookup, Lulu, or tradeprint. 

I downloaded Blurbs Bookwright software, as it fitted the profile of the exercise, was simple to use and provided the required print to PDF feature. 

Before I started working on the proof, I examined the rationale for printing my work for Assignment 5. To be honest I am not quite sure that the brief and the work fits in with being presented as a book.  

As part of the exercise, I returned to browsing a number of monographs and art books to try and get familiar with the differing styles of layout, editing and sequencing of the images. Two books stood out as either end of the spectrum 

The first is Sons of Sinbad (Villers, A, 2006), which documented Villers journey from the Red Sea to Kuwait on Dhows between 1938 and 1939), the book contains hundreds of monochrome photographs of not only the people but their cultures and landscapes. Each section comes with a map and very detailed text on the journey.  

The second is Land (Godwin, F, 1985), once past the introductory text, the reader is left to browse through the photographs as they jump geographically around the country. The images presented on ivory paper, allow the monochromic images a chance to define themselves and stand out from the page. 

I feel that the work I am producing for Assignment 5 is closer in nature to Godwins Land, then to Villers, Sons of Sinbad. Although having given it the subject a lot of thought, the work could be expanded in detail, to become a similar style. 

The main stepping stone for me was the introduction, similar in nature to a musical piece, without a good hook, it can be difficult to draw the audience in, so I muddled over the introduction for some time. 

While the work for the Assignment is not complete, I have attached the PDF to this part of the learning log as required by the exercise. I still have quite a bit to go to complete the Assignment. 

doocots mockup

Certainly, the exercise has taught me several lessons. One of which is that my design skills need a good polish and I have quite a bit of learning about the layout and design of a book. Overall this has been an interesting exercise as it has pushed me to explore different options for displaying my work and made me consider how I can expand on a brief to produce a different piece of work later on. 

References 

Godwin, F., 1985. Land. William Heinemann Ltd. 

Magnus, L., 2013. The Public Catalogue Foundation Oil Painting in Public Ownership Southern Scotland. 1st ed. United Kingdom: The Public Catalogue Foundation. 

Villiers, V., 2010. Sons of Sindbad. (s.n.).