Book update

So as I head towards laying out my book here are some of the decisions I’ve made.

• Pacing and the use of photography styles/framing/composition to control that: I am working with basically 2 sets of photographs—people and objects—and each has a range that consists of the bigger picture (shots of the entire space), the detail and photos that has a mix of both. I also have black and white photographs. Each will be used in an specific way so that the book has a certain underlying logic.
• Type treatment
• Use of cutout/collage images: my intent is to use them as decorative/flourish elements. I find that the pictures were compelling and descriptive enough and having big images on top was hindering the “readability” of the images.

Now, to production!

Title for my book

After deciding on what the content of my book will be and how it’ll be organized, I realized that I have a new problem: I need a different title. The previous one was going to be Tonsorial Tales: Stories from barbershops. Since it’ll cover more than just stories I was thinking of something that is more broad.

Here are some of the suggestions and variations:

Cut, cut, cut.

Chop, chop, chop.

Snippets

Snip!

Snip! Snip! Snip!

Sniptale

Sniperview (snip + interview)

In between snips

Between snips

While you were snipping. (Okay, it’s starting to sound too much like a movie)

Any suggestion?

Side life

Just came across this post. It’s the work of Veronica Bailey and her amazing decorated edges. Take a look and read the post if you have a chance. I have no idea of how this was done. Anyone knows?

http://blog.eyemagazine.com/?p=204

I can see a light!

After a weekend of work, I was finally able to pin down and be happy with the general art direction of my book. I have some spreads here as examples. What I’m doing basically is applying collage not on top of ‘white’ paper, but on top of another photograph. This approach works well enough to establish a setting and context for my text and images. The collage adds quirkiness to the page and also reflects the culture of these shops.

I’ve also decided to divide and categorize the contents of the interviews, rather than having full interviews one after another. In this way, I find that the theme of barbershop becomes more important instead of the personal stories, allowing the book to portray a general picture of these places. It also breaks the repetition and linearity that would be seen if the book was a series of the same interviews over and over.

I also need to set the pacing and flow of the whole book. What images would set the tone/pacing of the book? How can I use images to build-up or give a break at different points of the book? Hopefully these will be answered soon!

3 Questions

Here are my 3 questions. Thinking about it, I actually have more than 3, but I guess this is the limit!

1. What cover should I do? Hard cover with squares? Just a bit thicker than ‘paperback?’ I want my book to have a good distinction between the cover and the pages, but without interrupting the flow too much, as I’m planning to use my folios as a visual device (I want people to be able to flip through the book easily).

2. Should I use french fold? I think it’ll add a bit more to the book, instead of the ’standard’ way…

3. Do you think my layouts (see revised blueprint) can be used together or are they too different to be combined? Mostly I was thinking of the collages and the big type on top of photos or with small cutouts between some ‘pull quotes.’ I can also use the black and white pics to break the pacing a bit more.

Thanks!