Thursday 1 July 2010

SoFoBoMo 2010: done


I've finally completed my first submission for the year. Find it here.

Some points worth noting about my experience in doing the layout:

I was limited to an all electronic process, not having commissioned a printer since moving house (fully 6 months ago). I normally print the pages on small paper swatches and rearrange the on the floor/table.
This led to problems. Because of the multiple image sizes, I had a 2-dimensional problem as i looked to balance subject and image size across the whole book. equal sized thumbnails are not suited to this. The other major headache is the number of images: about 100. This makes it hard to keep track of them all while scrolling back and forth on the screen.
As a result, the actual layout of the spreads took about twice as long as it should.

I've also realised that the multiple page size idea is better suited to larger page sizes. here it works OK, and I could get a way with a few less than perfect pictures due to the smaller sizes. For a printed version, I think I'd want twice the page size.

Page size is also an interesting challenge. having both portrait and landscape orientation actually makes it trickier to select a page size. Life would be so much easier if I'd picked all the large images in one orientation and all the small ones in the other. Then I could pick a larger size but rectangular page.

I also surprised myself about double-truck (spread across the page fold). With the right subject and composition i think is can work quite well, as it does here. But that's just my opinion.

Please feel free to leave comments on what you think.

1 comment:

  1. A very interesting project.

    I wonder how well the double-spread layout will survive printing, I guess you have to be just right to get the images continue across the pages.

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