Design Practice 2 - Covered: Research - OUGD505

Research began by looking into theoretical and philosophical book covers, this was to get an understanding of the types of designs that are included on such books and how they differentiate against novels and other books. As my key ideas are based around typography, this is something that needs to be looked at within this research. 

Firstly 'Slavoj Zizek, Absolut Recol' was looked into. What I found interesting within this works is the mix of types that create an interesting visual. This has been done to showcase his thoughts on the mix of naturalism and materialism and how this has failed to meet the challenges of the modern world. Has the chaotic nature of the hand-written font, against the grungy sans serif been designed in a way to show how these have not matched the challenges?(the typography not matching up) This, against the metallic nature of the covers stock creates for an eye-catching outcome. Does the material of the stock reinforce the idea of materialism itself? 

The message of this book is communicated instantly to its viewer due to the imagery, this, alongside the title 'Identity and Difference' it is obvious what the book it about. The book focuses on two key concepts the 'consciousness and the self'. The difference angles of the images are there to show these concepts. Illustrating the different sides of our identities and how they change and differentiate. The type alongside the imagery is clean and structured. This makes it so the imagery is key and the title is not overpowering, which created balance to the cover.   

'Renowned Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr has followed the collapse of the communist promise. The time after is not the uniform and morose time of those who no longer believe in anything. It is the time when we are less interested in histories and their successes or failures than we are in the delicate fabric of time from which they are carved. It is the time of pure material events, against which belief will be measured for as long as life will sustain it.'

Above is how Jacques Ranciere's book has been described. It perfectly sums up the design decisions on the book cover. It states how the book discusses how we are no longer interested in history, hence why a structured, detailed serif font has been used. Serif fonts connote the idea of class and history due to the origin it has, giving it a clear link the themes within the book. It also states ' the delicate fabric from which they are carved', the typography has an origin on historic influence and how type was carved from stone. The type on the book cover has been engraved, relating back to the historic influences and origin. The stock used is also a texturised stock, almost a 'delicate fabric'. Altogether the cover has been carefully thought about with the design decisions linking back to the concept and themes within the content.   

The book discusses the means of technology based communication. This is abundantly clear by the use of imagery. The sound waves like image symbolises the idea of media and technology, linking back to the content of the publication. What is also interesting is how the title has been displayed. They have included '…' which connotes something is coming after, due to the title name, the links well with how it has been written. 

In this text, Flusser explores different perspective and relations of objects from every days life, challenging the way we understand and see things. He apples a fluid and imagisitc style of phenomenology to this text. This is shown through the motion like grid that has been engraved on the cover. Flusser examines how we can perceive things differently with more understanding, this is shown in the gird as it could be interpreted differently at different angles. It changes dependent on how we see it, which is the basis of the publication. This links both cover and content together extremely well. The simplistic layout and gold colour scheme contrast well with the fluid like grid, making both text and 'image' work together. 

After looking back at my initial ideas I realised, as it was relevant, spot varnishing would be something I am interested in exploring within this brief. I have began looking into spot varnish designs, thinking about how this could be applied to both book cover and poster. I also took it upon myself to have a discussion with one of the print technicians in the screen printing resource, as I was unsure whether printing with the varnish was a different process. The technician explained how spot varnish tends to dry much quicker that normal inks, so printing needs to be much quicker. If not, the screen can become blocked. I felt like this can be done as I am quite confident with screen-printing and feel trying new techniques will only improve this.