Ari Lamb: Project 1

These are chapter illustrations. They all need photoshop tweaking and I have some new detail ideas but some of them I feel are pretty close to done. A few don't even have line work on them yet, but try to imagine. I'm having trouble deciding which of my line work designs they should have on them..too many doodles right now.

Over all, I think they are more emotional than literal; they kind of remind me of mood boards. Most of them are based on the first paragraph of the chapter so the blurb on that page will possibly put you in that mood. The text is not real, just random cut out stuff, so disregard. Let me know if you think they need a lot more collage detailing, or just a little (or none I suppose).

I've been working as fast as possible, and I will definitely be able to meet the deadline but theres just a lot to do as you all know. Look a little later for the cover and some spread ideas.

Covers: I like the script style, but I think it would be fun to make the words with tree branches or give the lettering a 3D treatment of some kind. ps. drawing is not my strong suit if you haven't noticed.

Illustrations: I'm almost positive I want to start with photo manipulation, and use photoshop to give them the eerie, hallucinogenic feel. I like the idea of close up objects but we'll see.

Layout/Chapters: As far as layout goes, I do love the traditional look of a chapter book. If you change things up too much its just difficult to keep reading. I think the majority of the book would be 2 columns and then for chapter pages, lay out one column and illustrate around that column. I want them to be simple though, so the words are still most important.

Mood Board: I want to use bright colors, but pull them back in saturation or give them a muted feel. I do like the really intense, hallucinogenic colors, but maybe I would use those for the focal point, or just add here or there. This mood board feel really matte to me, but I'm starting to think I would like a more shiny quality?

Budget: Assuming I can keep this under 120 pages...I would like to do the 7x7 square with an image wrap hard cover. Thats $35.95 per book. 2 books would cost me $71.90. I don't know how much shipping would cost since we are all ordering together, but to order alone it is right around $10. Spendy project! Good motivation to do it well I suppose.

Expanded ideas/ revised sketches

I liked this cover design and have been playing with lots of different textures and ways to collage things together without getting that "scrapbook" feel. If this texture was a little tighter together in some areas I think it could work for fur or hair or whatever.

I liked the rule of thirds in this chapter layout so I think I'd like to have a couple different layouts for chapter headings that use this rule.

This is essentially the same mood board but I could some other bright yet muted colors and different styles i liked so I figured I could embellish.

there are other textures I'm playing with but they are scattered and all over my bedroom floor so maybe they will be more finished by monday! Having fun though, starting to find my theme for sure.

Christian Perkins - Publication Design Project 1

I don't have my illustrations done yet, I wanted to see if I was on the right track with this one first. They won't take very long at all so I'll be fine. I've decided to do them in colorless. This spread is basically how I want the rest of the book, the crooked lines in the body text might be distracting and painstaking, but I like it. I also need a better font.... I'm not very experienced with InDesign!

A character sheet of Alice.

Here are some more sketches, just my thoughts on how the illustrations will sit within the body text. There won't be any full page illustrations, just small ones for each chapter. There's a spiral behind the chapter numbers, just a theme I want to continue through out the book. Through out the book there will be ink blotches and spills in the margins and in the text itself. The text body will be crooked and messy, hopefully I figure it out on InDesign. I'll find a hand written, sort of cursive font. Once again, just to keep up my idea about Carroll writing this on the spot one afternoon. The page numbers will be hand written centered on the bottom. Also the chapter numbers and titles will be hand written.

Here are some revised sketches of my book cover, front and back. I'm still playing with color, I'll post some of those experiments up here shortly. It might be just black and white, but I'm leaning towards colored. A limited color range, possibly watercolors or colored pencils.

The spiral behind the title will appear behind every chapter number. I'm still looking for fonts, would it be too weird to have the title hand drawn? The lettering here on the cover is based on Carroll's actual hand drawn version of Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland, you can find the virtual version of that book on the British Library's website. http://www.bl.uk/ in case anyone is interested...

My concept is to approach this as if Lewis Carol had written and drawn it himself right after a crazy drug trip. It will have a very sketchy, messy, spontaneous feel to it, lots of energy. Very Ronald Searle inspired, I'm not sure the colors, it could work in just black and white to further the idea that the author just set to work with a pen and paper right after his acid trip.

Budget: I want to do a 8x10 portrait hardcover image wrap. With a single column of text I think that'd be a little under 80 pages? So I'm guessing $37.95 per book, +$6.99 for shipping.

christina • project one:

About this Book

Lewis Carroll's original story of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland inspired this 'cookie-cutter' version of Alice and the assorted acquaintances that transpire. Not only do the illustrations in this book directly reflect the initial overall look of each character, making them 'cookie-cutter' characters, but they have literally become cut out characters.

However, multiple characteristics, personalities, & behaviors can be and have been interpreted from each character in the story. This representation is reflected in the two layers of cut out pages for each three page illustration that precedes each chapter.

Old version:

(Sept. 7 2010)

Option 1: a more illustrative look & style

Option 2: photographic mood & style

I'm budgeting a $130 project cost; $121.90 to be exact.

>> 10x8 (or 8x10) • Image wrap • 161-200 pg's • x2 copies

Danelle Cheney: Alice In Wonderland

I have been working on two separate concepts but i think i have made up my mind as to which would be the better option.

my first idea was to pull lewis carroll's photographs of alice liddell (the girl who inspired the stories) and pair those with the text rather than the illustrations from the original publication. i love his photographs and they have a very interesting backstory so i think a book such as that would appeal to not only those who love the story of alice in wonderland but those who are interested in the history behind the story and carroll himself.

my second idea is very simple: treat the book so it looks as though it is a stacked deck of cards. the front cover will be the ace of hearts, the back cover will be a pattern that is reminiscent of those found on the back of playing cards. i want to pull this theme through the entire text and use very simple chapter heading illustrations to continue the playing card theme. i can use the cards to denote chapters and headings. i want to create a custom title and drop letters to accent the style of illustration i hope i can pull off.

my mood board shown here (last image) demonstrates the basic color scheme, symbols, and graphic nature i want to achieve... the text examples are in a similar style to what i think would work very well as the title and drop caps.

i would like to use the 8x10 blurb book format, preferably the hard cover with image wrap. i will choose premium matte paper for the inside pages. i am curious to know how many copies of this book we should anticipate on ordering... if i order two copies, that would be $100. i will budget myself $150 for this project as i will need illustration supplies and proofs of the book to look over before sending to final press.

if anyone is interested, you should check out this blog post by jessica hische. if you do not already know who jessica hische is, you should spend some time on her website. she is not much older than many of the seniors in the program and she is an amazing designer, known especially for her custom typography. she taught a class in philadelphia and assigned a similar project to this and posted the results. i think some of her students came up with very inspiring solutions... they were all illustration majors and that definitely shows, but maybe someone will find inspiration by looking at these like i did.

Here are my refined cover and chapter spread sketches.

As you can see, they are very simple. I want the book this way so the design is complimenting the story, not overwhelming it. The chapters will work out very well as I am assigning a suit to each chapter (chapter one=spades, chapter two=diamonds, chapter three=clubs, chapter four=hearts, chapter five=spades, etc) and there are twelve chapters total.

The one thing I am omitting is the chapter titles. I think they can be easily sacrificed for the sake of my design.

On each chapter spread sketch, I included a small mockup of what I will do on the following chapter pages as corner markers. Chapter one shows a complete set (all four corner treatments). The symbols will mirror the layout of playing cards.

I am going to work with oil paints for the cover and chapter pages (except for the body text. all symbols and drop caps will be painted). I will use vibrant colors and a painterly but neat aesthetic. See the link I posted above for an example.

Next I will start to work out the details of the title lettering. I have a basic layout in mind but I will start sketching for that.

Happy weekend!

Cover & Chapter Spreads:

I spent the evening trying different mediums to see what is going to work best. My main concern is the lettering as it is very delicate in some places and you can imagine how nerve-wracking that is going to be to paint.

lettering in oil, gouache & prismacolors:

chapter spreads (minus the text... but see sketches above for placement)

oil:

gouache:

acrylic:

prismacolors:

now these all look similar on your screen... if you click on each image to make it bigger you should be able to see the different textures and tones each medium is pulling up. my second concern (after being able to accomplish the lettering) is the texture. right now i am leaning toward using gouache as it can be applied smoothly and still obtains the rich colors i was wanting from oil. i think that i would like to try the markers jay bought for the department.. whatever those are called... and see if they might be suitable too.

i have the dimensions all mapped out:




and this is the cover layout ( i am doing it as one image since i want the image-wrap cover):
with lettering... check out the back cover.



without lettering



next, to start painting all the chapter spreads and drop them in the layout so i can see how the text falls.