Assignment

We do an oversized booklet, a mega-booklet without the let, of 32 pages in total. Its final size will be coming from an A0 sheet folded twice in half (A0: 841mm × 1189mm unfolded). The format of your publication is an A2 format (420 × 594mm).

Format
A2 (A0 folded twice), stapled publications

Printing and production
To be discussed in class

Procedure

• PART I
  Gather objects from outside the school and within your neighborhood that have shapes you like: imagine the shapes’ silhouettes as flat object. A silhouette should emphasize on an object outline and not on what happens within the object or say, its texture;


• The shapes should not relate to anything we know – hence not to be figurative, they should remain abstract and should not reminisce of something we can recognize;


• Choose from 9 to 15 objects to be represented into black silhouettes. Draw or trace in illustrator, using the pen tool, each of the objects’ contour in order to get black silhouettes. You can also photograph the objects in an angle of your choice and trace them in the software afterwards. The shapes can be resized after being drawn. The goal is to come up with a SET of 9 to 15 different shapes that we will use to make VISUAL COMPOSITIONS;


• Think of the shapes together as a set, meaning as a family. You will not be able to add more shapes to your set during the next step of this exercise. After a couple of attempts at making quick compositions you will not be permitted to alter your shapes: no resizing allowed. You cannot overlap the shapes under any circumstances;


• Tracing accuracy in illustrator will be important here;




• PART II
  Once your set is settled, start making visual compositions for each pages of your publication. For this new step you will need to work by hand (why???) and AT SCALE: gather your shapes as cut-outs, as printed shapes that you will arrange BY HAND. This means you need to plan a working process. Below shows a step-by-step summary of what we have covered so far:


1. In illustrator in a A2 document, create a set of black shapes;
2. Cut out those shapes, printed at scale;
3. Using an A2 sheets, create your compositions;
4. 1 composition for each of your interior pages;
5. Photograph (with a good camera) your best compositions;
6. Import your photos and retrace all of the compositions;
7. Compositions should be all made in Illustrator;
8. The booklet should be layed-out in Indesign;
9. Compositions can be placed on the right-hand page, or on both pages;
10. Think about the sequence of compositions in the book;
11. Lastly, prepare the imposition of the whole book;


• Again, while arranging your pieces, shapes cannot overlap but can touch each other. Shapes cannot bleed out of the page but can be arranged along the edges;




• PART III
  Difficulty 1: stickers. During the course of this project, you will be asked to add 5 to 7 images in color somewhere within your compositions, 1 per selected comp. Each class, bring objects or images you find could fit in your images (minimum 3). Place these images within some of the compositions while thinking about how they can alter the visual arrangements, dimensions and depths of your pieces;


• Difficulty 2: filter pass-through. Once you have the whole series all figured out, you can devise a technique that can alter all the composition as a batch. A kind of filter that can change the physical qualities of the pieces. The filter should be comprised of 1 SINGLE GESTURE and not a series of operations;


• Cover. Finally, you will have to make a cover for your small publication. Find a title suitable to your project and use the shapes you made to make letters;