Thursday, 29 October 2015

OUGD504 STUDIO BRIEF THREE - CABIN PORN RESEARCH

After deciding on a concept for the publication, with the book Cabin Porn as inspiration for this, the next logical step was to research into the layout and construction of the Cabin Porn book.

Front cover. Hard wearing, textured hard cover with a very smooth stock half sleeve with the title on. Embossed title to create a more 3D appearance, giving more texture to the smooth band. The colour scheme is fairly minimal, black and white with a majority green and slightly brown photograph on the hard cover, reflecting the nature environment of the book and it's contents. There is a simple linear illustration of a tree above the title, perhaps an illustration to form part of the logo, as the title is also their logo. This is simple and reflects the minimalist, contemporary layout of the book. The band being so clean and minimal allows the information to be clearly read, and allows the photograph to appear as contrasting as possible, and the colours to appear more vibrant and green than they possibly are.The slight, contemporary serif typeface title creates a softer, less clinical, more personal appearance, yep still appears up to date because of it's slight nature. 

The back cover creates a similar appearance, with minimal text, describing the cabins in a peaceful manner, and commenting on who this book is for, rather than what the book contains, which creates a much more personal tone, more connected with the reader. 

Double spread full bleed image. This layout is used for the title pages, such as introduction or types of cabins, as the book is split up into different kinds of cabins. This creates the photograph almost as a pattern for which the text sits on, creating intrigue for the reader.

Another example of double spread full bleed photograph layout.

Double spread full bleed photograph. This is no title page, just a double spread to show the wonders of key photographs, on as large a scale as is possible with this book.

In this double spread the photograph extends over both pages, with a border across the top, bottom and right side. On the space on the right is text, along with a heading for a topic, in the same typeface as the title of the book, creating continuity in appearance. Even though there is a more than small amount of text, the photograph is still the main element of the spread, taking up the majority of the room, and being the only colourful part of the spread.

This is the same layout as the example above, only with the photograph on the right and the text on the left, in reverse, to mix things up a little bit, creating interest throughout the book.

Again the same layout, however there is no title, just text, presumably a continuation of text from another page, with there being no title.

The same layout again, only instead of an article of text, there is a quote about buildings cabins, which perhaps explains this love and passion for building cabins and buildings in general, as a sort of opening to the book.

Here, contrasting cabins fill the two pages of this spread, almost at full bleed, with the photographs going right to the edges of the pages on three sides, with only a margin at the bottom for descriptions of each cabin. This contrast in photograph shows how very different cabins can be, and how they appear in different countries or times of the year. Again there is extremely minimal text, letting the photographs speak for themselves.

Two photographs of the same cabin, capturing different aspects fill this spread, with a neat border around each photograph, unlike those from previous layouts. This border frames each photograph nicely, holding them in place, creating a sense of balance. This may also be for practical reasons as if the photographs were full bleed on three sides, there would be no border, or a very small one, at the bottom for the information or page numbers, and the two separate photographs may merge slightly being so similar in content and colour.

Two more contrasting cabins side by side, only with a much larger margin at the bottom, about a 50:50 split. This may be to create a variation on previous layouts, or due to the nature and shape of the photographs, being landscape. 

One photograph extends onto the other page, with a sliver of a gap before the next photograph, both going right to the edge of the page on two sides, with an equal sizeable margin at the bottom, despite the difference in width between the photographs. This puts more emphasis on the larger photograph, because it occupies more space, but may not be because it is more important, but purely because of the size of the photograph, and the detail that was needed to show.

This is a slightly different layout, with two photographs occupying one page, a thin border separating them, but them otherwise extending to the edges on two sides, and one photograph on the other side, again stretching to the edges on three sides this time, with an equal margin at the bottom, left for minimal descriptions of each photograph and cabin. 

This spread is a lot fuller than all of the previous layouts, with the left page containing two photographs on top of one another, and the right page with one photograph, then two columns of text. The photograph on the right extends the full width of the page, however there is a neat margin at the top which reflects that on the left page as well. More of the space is filled, and this shows in the fullness of the spread, however the layouts of each page, despite being different in content, are similar, with one object on the top half and another on the bottom half, creating balance.

This is a similar layout to the one above, however the photographs on the left aren't nearly as well balanced as those from the previous example, as the lower photograph is a lot smaller than the top, however this is due to providing room for the description of the photographs. Similarly to the photograph on the right above, the top left photograph here extends the full width of the page, creating a solid edge to the page. The photograph on the right however has a sleek border around it, varying widths at each side, but this holds the photograph like a frame, in place.

This is similar to the text layouts from previously, however this is used as a title page, to their archive of cabins. The text being on the side allows each aspect to stand out individually, rather than be combined. 

This is just an example of how small the photograph description text size is. It is very small as you can see, however still very readable, which allows more text to be written without taking up much space, meaning the photographs can be larger, and the text to just define things in the photographs, rather than the other way around.
Researching into the layouts of the Cabin Porn book has shown the range of page layouts it uses, and how they are all really just variations on one set layout, with some exceptions of course. It has also showed me how the layouts are informed by the size and shape of the photographs, not the other way around, which is something to take into consideration when creating the layouts for the Type in Context publication.

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