Book format and design

I have been playing around with both possible formats and designs or layouts for the picture book.

The first step involved going through the first dummy version of the book. What I was looking for were any double page spreads that didn't work. Either the story not being told fully enough through lack of text or not enough visuals to support the text. There were many areas that need consideration and adjustments, some of which were able to be solved by using the information found through my case studies. Some of the layouts used by Shaun Tan and Levi Pinfold were used to develop ideas for page layouts. This also altered the text greatly as many pages have much more text than in the first version. These changes will hopeful bring a change in the pace and flow of the story. Some spreads only contain a few words and a single image which I hope the reader will spend time trying to connect together. Others have more text and more small illustrations almost in symmetry, this again will change pace and offer the reader different situations which I hope will generate interest and explain the story better. Some of the methods involved in sketching out ideas are shown below.

The next stage involved designing layouts for each of the pages. My initial format was done using a 125mm page set up. This was due my intention of having a final book with pages 300x300mm. Whilst creating the designs for the pages I realised that I should also consider portrait. This is important as portrait picture books are actually slightly cheaper to produce than square books due to printing processes and widths of rolls required for each. The most likely size for me to use is 200mm wide x 250mm in height, this has lead to me creating two versions with each having some pages that differ slightly. The only thing remaining exactly the same is the text, although I have ran out of printer ink so I will need to fill in images once I can print out and see which format works best. Some examples of the page layouts are shown below.

pages 6 & 7 square layout

pages 6 & 7 portrait layout

pages 28 & 29 square layout

pages 28 & 29 portait layout