Extended Practice: Artbook

In the studio, Annabeth brought in her Studio Ghibli artbooks from Toyko to give us a reference for the layout of our own artbooks. I loved the style and template of them as they were mainly full of pictures with simple descriptions so it looked interesting and easily accessible for anyone of any background which is perfect for the exhibition. I was influenced a lot from these artbooks as I followed some of the templates from the book to try and keep it concise, symmetrical but still visually appealing. I also really wanted to have the front and back covers match, even perhaps try and use one image across both of them as this is something I did for Responsive last year and the Penguin book cover brief. I found that when the front and back covers were cohesive, the feel of the book as a whole is more inviting and looks put together.

I started with this aspect, trying to get the front and back to look as if they are one image. I did this in Photoshop and then imported it into Illustrator on a 'master layer' so that when I sent the book to print, it would be exactly symmetrical. I did wish that I was able to create the artbook horizontally, as all of my images were 1920 x 1080 pixels meaning that they were horizontal. Not just with the cover, but with the layout of the book inside and as a whole, I found difficult to put together because of how I had to change everything to portrait images to fit the a5 size.

However this is what I ended up creating. Despite it's difficulty in organising the layout, I did really enjoy putting this together and seeing all of the design work for pre production. I now feel like I am getting somewhere with this project which is exciting.

And this is what the book looks like printed! I used the printing facilities in the print room at university for the first time and was surprised at how simple it is to create an artbook. I think I will defintely be going there again in the future, for other aspects such as business cards and posters perhaps. When talking with James, who is in charge of all of the printing facilities, he recommended me to use matte paper for a sturdier feel and use 120gsm for the inside and 200gsm for the cover. I really liked the outcome so I was happy with what he recommended. I think if I update my artbook, I will fix the saturation and darkness on some of the images, as they seemed to have gotten lost within the matte paper. But other than that, I am happy to show the book at the exhibition on Thursday!