Publishing Design

Mesopotamia Denise Schmandt-Besserat (1995) contends in her essay on the token system "Record Keeping Before Writing, " that "It is remarkable that the first writing system developed from a counting technology." The progression from simple and complex tokens to bullae set the stage for the early forms of pictographic writing on clay tablets.

In the Indus River Valley Cilizations (Harappan & Mohenjodaro) ther is not much known about record keeping, but we do know they had a complex system. Their writing, cuneiform, was one of the earliest systems of writing. They wrote records on soft clay tablets by using sharp, pointed tools.

The scribes were the only people in Egypt that could read and write Hieroglyphics. The Egyptian scribes wrote on a special type of paper called papyrus. In addition to writing on papyrus the Egyptians also would on the tomb walls.

Chinese characters in the early period were written in vertical columns, so a thin strip of bamboo is ideal for a single column. To create a longer document, two lines of thread link each bamboo strip to its neighbour. The modern Chinese character for a book evolves from a pictogram of bamboo strips threaded together.

Parchment was first invented in Turkey, 197-159 BC, which later spread to Europe. Parchment is made from animal hide. With papyrus and bamboo could make scrolls but with leather it was too thick and heavy. Around 50 AD, Europeans started making parchment books.

History of Print:

The emperor of China commands, in AD 175, that the six main classics of Confucianism carved in stone. Confucian scholars eager to own these important text simply lay sheets of paper on the engraved slabs and rub all over it with charcoal or graphite taking away a text in white letters on a black ground.

The invention of printing was by Buddhists in east Asia. Korea takes the lead. The world's earliest known printed document is a sutra printed on a single sheet of paper in Korea in AD 750.

Following this, Japan in AD 768, in devoulty Buddist Nara, the empress commissioned a huge edition of a lucky charm or prayer. It is said that the project takes six years to complete and that the number of copies printed, for distribution to pilgrams, is a million. Many have survived.

Typo Redux:

Characters in Typeface:

Small Caps
Numerals
Fractions
Ligatures
Punctuations
Mathematical Signs
Symbols
Non-Aligning Figures

Legibility

Legibility is to choose text types that are open and well proportioned, for example:

Classic Serif:

Garamond
Bodoni
Bembo
Minion Pro
Baskerville
Jenson
Caslon

Sans-serif:

Frutiger
Gill Sans
Helvetica
Myriad Pro

Special Styles:

1. Underline - Should be lowered so it does not touch the characters

2. Small Caps & All Caps - Small caps are suitable for subheads and the first line of a paragraph.

3. Text Scaling - Do not stretch the font horizontally or vertically, squeeze or stretch it as it distorts the original design of the font.

4. Outline & Shadow - Avoid outlining and shadowing on text as much as possible.

Legibility in Type size, line length & line space:

A column of text is 50 - 65 characters long
Type that is too small will cram too many letters per line, making it hard to read.
Type that is hard to read may not be read by readers and skipped
Font size determines line length, which determines line spacing.
Line length - Overly long or short lines of type tire the reader
Larger type size need adjustments to the space between characters and paragraphs need to be adjusted to eliminate widows & orphans.
Kerning - Spacing between innercharaters to appear more pleasing
Word spacing - consistent word spacing provides typographic "colour", refers to overall brightness or darkness of a text.
Italics - Suitable of creating emphasis within text.
Capitals - Consumes more space. Capital letters lacks visual variety, while lowercase imbue text with visual cues.

Alignment

Flush left - Evens the letter and word spacing. Readers easily locate each new line.
Flush right - Difficult to find each line, not suitable for large amount of text.
Centred - Formal look. alright if used minimally.
Justified - Can be readable if the spacing between the words are consistent and gaps or rivers do not interrupt the flow of text.

The Grid

Raster System – A grid that divides a 2D surface or 3D space into smaller sections, which can be uniform or varied in size.
The grid is a fundamental tool in publishing design, used to create structure, consistency, and clarity. It provides a modular framework that reflects a designer’s approach and values.
Purpose of the Grid – To organise text, images, and diagrams clearly and logically, making information easier to read, understand, and remember.
Readability & Legibility – The grid improves user experience by guiding the eye and allowing content to communicate clearly and effectively.

Elements that make up a book

Elements of all publications:

Type
Colour
Image

Variation:

While using the 3 elements in a grid system, variation should be used within the layout while also maintaining consistency. If used correctly, the end result will give the readers a surprise at every turn while maintaining consistency within the book. The grid system makes the elements appear organised and attractive, allowing for modular layouts that can be reused without losing harmony.

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2. INSTRUCTIONS

3. EXERCISE

TASK 1: EXERCISES

Exercise 1: Mock-up (Book Size)

For exercise 1, we had to make a mock-up of the size of our book by measuring an A3 paper folded in half with the sizes we opted for our book. We followed a tutorial by our lecturer from Publishing Design — Mock Up: Book Size_Ex1.

Fig 3.1, Exercise 1

Exercise 2: Signatures

For exercise 2, we had to make a signature by using an A4 paper posing as an A1 paper, folding it in half 3 times to make 16 folded lines on the paper. and cut the edges to form a book. We followed a tutorial by our lecturer from Publishing Design: Signatures_Ex2.

Fig 3.2, Exercise 2

Fig 3.3, Exercise 2

Exercise 3: Van De Graff

For exercise 3, we had to make a Van De Graff, a margin for the sized paper, by using a ruler and geometry. I did it on folded A3 paper, and my sized paper, which was 270mm x 189mm.

Fig 3.4, Exercise 3

Exercise 3A: Digital Van De Graff

For exercise 3, we had to make a Van De Graff, a margin for the sized paper, this is done digitally in Adobe InDesign.

Fig 3.5, Exercise 3A (Grid only)

After completing the box, I added paragraphs of text, which were from a story I was reading.

Fig 3.6, Exercise 3A (With Grid)

Fig 3.7, Exercise 3A (Without Grid)

Exercise 4: Form and Movement

For exercise 4, we had to use a shape to bring movement to the spreads, this is done digitally in Adobe InDesign.

TASK 2: CONTENT GENERATION

For this task, we had to write a 3000-word story about:

Yourself
Your family
Someone who inspires you
Your hometown
A meaningful experience, belief, or idea

I choose to write about myself, and my love or obsession for reading, mostly through my phone.

TASK 3: E-BOOK

For this task, I chose illustrations for the imagery in this book. Mostly due to my liking to drawings and partly due to me being uncomfortable with photographing myself personally.

I started looking at which art style to use when one became striking to me. It was an art style by South Korean artists Vivinos and Qmeng. This art style appears as cover art (CV) for their songs.

Fig 3.8, From left to right, CV of "Black Sorrow (Mizi.ver)", CV of "All-in (Till.ver)", CV of "All-in (Luka.ver)", CV of "wiege (Till & Ivan.ver)",

CV of "Ruler Of My Heart Acapella [SUA.ver]", CV of "wiege (Ivan.ver)", CV of "Black Sorrow (Hyuna.ver)", CV of "wiege (Mizi & Sua.ver)"

While I did take inspiration, I altered it to fit my drawing style more. Making the lines thicker and simpler, also by making it in black and white to appear more contrasting. I then chose my main subject, the person who will be appearing for the majority of the pages.

I decided to draw a character I made meant to represent me. The character does not have a name to follow the theme of me not saying my name at all throughout the pages in the book. This character was made for a previous assignment, and I later really liked them due to their simple yet noticeable design.

Fig 3.9, The character I chose to draw

After finally deciding on the method, I started the layout of the words first, as I needed to figure out the word placement before I could start on the illustrations.

Fig 3.10, Text with illustration placeholders

I repeated this for all the pages and started working on my illustrations in IblisPaint X. After I finished the illustrations, I converted them into psd files in Photoshop and transferred the illustrations into Indesign. Then I readjusted them and kerned the text. For the cover page, I used elements from my content to make it to have it more cohesive. For the cover page, I used elements from my content to make it to have it more cohesive.

Raw illustrations, not cropped

I then made the book launch poster in Illustrator, using the same design elements as the rest of the book. I took inspiration from Pinterest as I was not familiar with book launch posters and wanted mine to look contrasting and somewhat striking. There are also elements or "easter eggs" throughout the book and poster. I also made a presentation slide to help present my book. Finally, I placed them for me to look back on and laugh. ^ - ^

Fig 3.11, Screenshot from Pinterest for "Book lauch poster"

FINAL RESULTS

E-Book

Fig 3.12, Book Launch Poster

Presentation Slides

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4. FEEDBACK

Week 1
Ms Vitiyaa introduced the course and provided a clear breakdown of the assignments and assessment criteria. She also asked us to bring paper for hands-on exercises, which helped prepare us for the upcoming practical work and set expectations for the course.

Week 2
We began the exercise by deciding on the size of our book. I presented my chosen dimensions to Ms Vitiyaa, and she approved them, allowing me to move forward in my design direction.

Week 3
Ms Vitiyaa shared information about the work and further explained the requirements for the 3,000-word text and accompanying imagery for the final book. This helped clarify the overall scope and expectations of the project.

Week 4
Ms Vitiyaa explained the formats and styles we could follow for the book, as well as the types of imagery that would be appropriate. This helped me better understand how to approach the visual and layout aspects of the book.

Week 5
I submitted the completed 3,000-word story, which allowed me to shift my focus towards design and layout development.

Week 6
I started developing the mood board and explored visual themes that matched the mood and tone of the story. This process helped inform and guide my later design decisions.

Week 7
Ms Vitiyaa introduced us to key functions in InDesign and Photoshop, including the use of master pages and converting images from RGB to CMYK. These technical skills were needed for preparing the book for print.

Week 8
Unfortunately, I did not finish my work, therefore Ms Vitiyaa could not give any feedback.

Week 9
Unfortunatel,y I did not finish my work, therefore Ms Vitiyaa could not give any feedback.

Week 10
Unfortunatel,y I did not finish my work, therefore Ms Vitiyaa could not give any feedback.

Week 11
The lines of text in my book were too long, which affected readability and layout. I shortened and re-edited the text to improve spacing, clarity, and overall visual flow.

Week 12
There was a repeated word in my text that was initially thought to be a mistake; however, it was a deliberate stylistic choice to emphasise a specific idea. Aside from this clarification, the rest of the work met the required standard

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5. REFLECTION

Experience

My experience with this module was quite the roller coaster. First, I did not like the topic to begin with, as I had to talk about myself or something about me, while there were paths I could take to get around this issue without going against the rubric, I ended up just expanding on a previous assignment I had. After the writing was done, I immediately chose illustrations. While I knew it was going to be harder, I still powered through, then came a miscummication, the visuals took way longer than I thought they would, and I also thought that I could only show it to my tutor after everything was completed. Turns out I could show her a work in progress, which means I could have asked for her feedback throughout the months, but I did not think I had to finish it right then and there.

Well, I still finished in time for the submission. So all was well.

Observations

I came to observe that I had a lot of talented classmates, each with their own skills and stories, especially when it came time for the presentation. Since all of us came in front of the class to present, I got to see all my classmates' stories and a sneak peek into their books. I heard a lot of wonderful stories, both sad and happy. I realised that behind every book is a person's experience.

Findings
This module showed me that personal storytelling can be challenging but meaningful. A miscommunication about feedback highlighted the importance of sharing work in progress and seeking guidance regularly. This module was truly a roller coaster.

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6. FURTHER READING

Fig 6.1, Screenshot of the article "11 Steps to a Professional Book Layout"

I read the article "11 Steps to a Professional Book Layout" by Paul to get a start on designing a book. I read this as a prep and started designing the layout with my interpretations.

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Aw Wen Chia. 0368828

Publishing Design

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