Thursday 21 May 2015

Covered: Edited Conversations - Confucius

The book is called Analects which translates to "Edited Conversations". I thought this would be an interesting title to work with because I could directly apply it to the book cover by editing and manipulating the words.

編輯對話 = Edited Conversations









This is the process I took when creating my book cover. As it was work for an exhibition I wanted it to grab attention straight away which is why I have chosen to keep the image central on a white background using bold colours. I had created a variety of colour combinations for the type and felt that this was the most appropriate. 

To show the blend between languages I mirrored the English heading with the Chinese version which creates and effective contrast between the two and gives the title and overall design more of a context. 

The back cover is a small blurb roughly outlining some of Confucius' ideologies and a quote to accompany it.    



Another subtle effect to make the print look more organic was to add a displacement map which randomly distorts the image by breaking up some of the pixels. 

I feel as though I have achieved what I proposed for this project and found I could't expand on the design much further. The cover works as an original rather then a re-design as the original was just a collection of scriptures. I have brought a book 1000s of years old and appropriated it into a contemporary setting.          

Exhibition piece:

Printed on snowden cartridge 300gsm 









Tuesday 19 May 2015

Hands Up, Don't Shoot - Website

A strong design aesthetic has already been established so was simple to transfer to a web format.

News Feed 

The pages are fairly self explanatory: the home url will open up to the 'News Feed' which will have a list of news reports as they happen and will be constantly updated with a time and date stamp to order them. The user will be able to scroll 4 stories on a page then navigate to older posts though a page number link. Spreading out the content to multiple pages will cut down the pages loading time as there is less information and will make it easier to the user to manage what they are browsing.


In terms of design, it layout is straight forward as the content take priority and would't want overly decorative features to obstruct important information. 


When hovering over a link the text will invert making it clear that it is selected and will remain when on the page. 


This will be the same when hovering over a story. 



Once a link to the story is clicked this is how it will appear on the page with other article links at the side of the page. 


Location

For the location page the navigation will act the same way but when hovered over will change to the most recent incidents coordinations through as gif. image.  



The locations page page will open up a map with the locations of any of the stories across the globe. I decided to add this section as it links the coordinates in my zine and I felt that it was too focused on America despite it being and global issue so wanted to show that. It also could extend the project to creating quarterly zines about different countries where it is a problem. 


When a point on the map is clicked text will show with links to articles related to that area.  

The Zine


To promote my zine further I have added a page where a copy can be requested and then posted. The zine will be free as it is a non-profitalble cause however I will ask for the cost of postage and a small donation of their choice. 

I would like to continue this project beyond the module as it is a cause I feel strongly about and is an ongoing problem. It was also enjoyable creating the zine and will be good to start a series of issues. 







Friday 15 May 2015

Hands Up, Don't Shoot - Zine

Final publication for a collection of police brutality cases in America. Overall I am pleased with the outcome and how it has printed, despite some issues in page alignment which were due to the printer and beyond my control. The zine has achieved my initial goal which was to collect incidents of police brutality and show the severity and in some cases the injustice for the victims. I have also linked it to prior incidents to show how little attitudes have changed over decades which could still be down to a form of institutionalised racism.
 











An extension to this project (as police brutality is an ongoing issue) would be to create a website which can constantly be updated with articles and images as they happen. Extending it to a website will allow for more broad reportage from around the globe and through comments sections and a public forum on the website would provide a platform for discussion.