Using foiling or flocking to the title pages would create texture and give a different dimension to the stock, but when the pages are laid upon one another within the publication, it would be difficult to see the titles of the sections, and the title pages would still look the same as the other pages within the publication. This is why I need to use a printing process that covers the whole page.
Marbling of inks on the paper is a great way to give a pattern to the page, and this can also be used alongside many other printing processes.
The marbling technique I used worked really well, and I think that this could look really good with other techniques used throughout my publication, specifically screen print or foiling.
From here I wanted to try out these marbling pages with other techniques to see whether this would work well, and so I used foiling on top of them for my processes and finishes section title page.
The foiling on top of these marbled pages worked really well. I am really happy with how they turned out, particularly the black and white marbled paper. Although the foil looks good on top of the coloured paper, I want my publication to be very streamlined and professional looking, and I think that using a lot of colour could make the publication look unprofessional.
This made me think about the colour scheme I would like to use within my publication. I want to keep the colours very muted and so perhaps grey and black would work well, with some pops of colour throughout to keep it modern and interesting. The foil that I used is a bronze colour and I think that it works really well with the black/grey marble paper and so I will use this as a colour within my publication (although I won't be able to recreate this with digital printing methods). I also think that a pop of a bright or florescent colour could work really well with the black, grey and bronze and so I think that I will use maybe a yellow or orange to keep the publication looking modern.
For my other title pages I want to keep the marble paper the same and use different printing processes to illustrate the sections, for example for the colour section I will use screen print to print the title in a colour, and for my stock section I will use laser cut to reveal a different stock behind the title page.
From here I then went on to thinking about my from cover and how this will look. I want to use something interesting to cover the hard cover that isn't the usual sticky back plastic that is used on most folders and binders.
Researching into this I found book cloth that would work really well to make the folder look more interesting and also much more than just a regular folder, this way the user will be more inclined to look after the folder and keep it safe.
For the front cover if my publication, I want it to be quite simple and striking, using just type or type and a simple shape or image. The font I use needs to be formal and informative looking, like something that you would find in a newspaper or a textbook, which is almost like what this is.
Inkeeping with the bronze foil I used on my inside title page, I want to keep the cloud scheme similar to that with bronze and a pop of fluorescent colour. I think that yellow would work really well with the shiny bronze foil.
I tried this fabric covering on three different stocks to see which would work best for the kind of folder that I want to create. The first was a thin card, which is much too thin for the purpose that I need it for. The fabric is much too heavy for the card and so it bends out of shape easily and would not hold the pages inside very easily.
The second that I tried was a thick cardboard which worked a lot better than the thin card. This was much more sturdy and would definitely hold the pages inside well, as well as the paper fastener. However it feels very stiff when opening and closing and so I think I can find a much better suited material.
The third material I tried was the grey board used in making hardback books, and this works the best out of all three materials. It is sturdy enough to hold the pages and the paper fastener inside, and is also easy to open and close without too much wear.
This is also the final print that I will be using. I have used the foil on the fabric for the main title, and also included a pop of florescent yellow which I think keeps the publication looking quite modern without using a lot of colour.
Does my folder need to have a side?
Looking into different folder designs I came upon a piece that uses the same paper fastener that I am using, and it does not have a side the the folder, instead the edges are exposed and the paper fastener becomes a part of the front design.
I really like how the edges of the pages would be exposed in this design, but would it look more messy that a standard folder? I think that the exposed paper fastener would look really good as part of the complete design and would make the publication look more modern and interesting. This would also make taking out pieces of paper from the publication slightly harder in that the whole publication including the front and back covers would come off while doing so. This would make it even more important to have the pages all numbered .
Peer Feedback
This peer feedback session was really helpful in moving my designs a long. I got really stuck before this about how to create my folder and especially the front cover.
- One point made multiple times is that they weren't sure about why I used the fabric on the outside of the folder. It was suggested that I try to use a different type of fabric such as buckram, or just leave out the fabric altogether and try using a thick card to keep it sturdy.
From this I think that I will try to use a thick card or grey board used for book binding as this will be better to print onto, and I could also try some embossing or debossing on this to give my front cover more depth and texture.
- It was also suggested to me that I use metallic ink rather than foil on the from cover because it is less likely to flake off and ware away.
This is a good idea and so I want to try this. I also could use this on the inside title pages too so that the colour scheme goes throughout the publication.
- The overlapping titles on the layout don't work as they are not very easy to read
On these pages with a lot of information on them, I will move them onto two pages so that the information is more spread out and the content can be easily read and understood.
- The layout looks as if it has too much white space on it.
This is something that I was worried about at first, and so I think I will try to add into the white space with some design features to make the pages look more interesting and not so sparse.
