Covers

Possible pressmark

This is what I am thinking for my pressmark. What do you think?

Title page examples

So here are three ideas I've come up with for my book's title page. I think the first design flows the best from the left to right pages. My favorite, though, I think is the third design. It feels symmetrical or balanced, but I think I need to change the colors around a little bit. Maybe make the circle cyan and the square magenta so that it doesn't take away from the rest of the page as much. Does our title page need to be neutral, like it is reflecting all artists, or rather none in particular? Of course I don't want to make the other artists seem unimportant in comparison to mine, yet I still want it to reflect my artist because it is going to be turned in with my book.

Table of Contents

These are three possible ideas for my table of contents. The first one is a unique design similar to an image I found on Google. I kind of like it. The second one is also interesting. It looks like a bar graph, which seems unusual for a list of this sort, but it's a fun and different way to personalize my table of contents. My personal favorite, I think, is the third idea. It's easy to read and the magenta squares bring your attention right to the designers. I also think it's a cool touch that I put "Table of Contents" into my designer's Alphabet 26 typeface in all three spreads.

B. Thompson 4

I think my main goal with this last spread of the originals, was to bring even more color and I tried to find bigger images with 300 ppi, which was surprisingly difficult for Bradbury bring so well known. I also tried to put in a few direct quotes that I highlighted in magenta and made a little larger than the rest of the text.

B. Thompson 3

This is one of the three original spreads. I loved the dynamic angle made by the multi-colored images on the front page (which Bradbury is known for doing). Other than that, I really wanted to make paragraph breaks using color blocks, and I think they are actually fairly successful. My only worry is how the yellow blocks will print. After all, Bradbury is also famous for using pure CMYK hues and I wanted to incorporate that into my book design.

B. Thompson 2

This was my original layout with the bibliography at the beginning. I think I like the colors in this one better, but I like the arrangement of my other spread better. When I first presented it to my classmates, they decided in favor of this spread, out of the original three, because they liked the difference in shapes; this one wasn't as "blocky." Margie suggested I could get rid of most of the circles, but keep four to put page numbers in. It's a possibility...

B. Thompson 1

This is the first layout for my pages in the book. I think I have gotten used to the guides, but I still think they are a pain to use sometimes. Overall I like the look of this spread with the bibliography at the end. I do, however, have another option which I shall bring along with this sequence to class for critique.

Future Vessel

After I get the box back, I would like to apply the poly to the interior of the larger box, which I had neglected to do because of the slightly more obvious glue stains still on the walls. Glue which is a pain to remove. I will also be adding some sort of hook to the underside of the lid from which to hang my necklace, and source of inspiration. Also, a student suggested that, because my lid fits in properly one way only, to indicate which way the lid and box fit together. Possibly by incorporating a thin walnut strip, off-center and stretching from the side of the box and coordinating side of the lid. I was thinking the same as she suggested it, so I might also do that when I reacquire my project. Overall, however, I thoroughly enjoyed this project (the best so far I think) and I love my box.

Vessel Complete... mostly

I finished my box, with a few changes. In the end, I decided that I didn't want to add a top piece to the lid. I also held off on burning or carving my "toy box" initials into the sides of my box. After it was done, and after applying the polyurethane, I thought the box looked beautiful just having the simple exterior with the added substantial piece of the walnut of the bottom, in addition to the surprise slide-out interior/stopper. I believe that the added lego or interlocking circles on the lid would have made it look a little cheesy or like they were added as an afterthought, at the last minute. I also think that if I had burned the designs onto the sides, it would have taken away from the overall simplistic look of the box, and I love the look of the natural wood itself.