Final Book Layout Design

After a lot of designing and researching others that have created make up style books or coffee table styles I have finally completed my layout. I have decided to create a hardback, large square formatted book of 30cm x 30cm, similar sizing to the book 'FASHION: The Ultimate Book of Costume and Style' as this gives me the chance to incorporate clear close up images as well as good sized portrait images together. This will give my viewer a chance to see a small variety of each concept in a different angle. I also am reassured by this idea after Sharon posted on the Facebook group the best and more interesting sizes for coffee style books which included a large square. 

I have also decided to spend a little more on very good, quality proline pearl photo paper. Not only is it very strong but the shine enhances the final images and is much better to print on for that final professional look. 

To write my introduction I took inspiration and guidelines from the skills we learnt in our professional context unit. When developing my trend package, at the start of third year, I found websites such as WGSN very useful to help to write an incising, interesting and informative bit of creative writing that I needed to introduce the start of my book. 

My inspiration, as well as coming from the Vogue exhibition I attended, came from books such as the competitor book I mention in my proposal 'Make Up is Art', 'Faceprint' by Liza Eldridge and 'Miles of MAC' which too combines beauty close up and mid length images thought out the book which makes the book far more enjoyable to view. 

As well as this the book, 'Tom Ford' by Tom Ford, laid images out with borders just to either side rather than all the way around which I think makes the image wider and clear to view rather than wasting space and shrinking the size of the image to have borders all the way around. Another book that does this is the book 'Alexander McQueen's Savage Beauty', which I purchased at his exhibition a the V&A last year. The left and right sides of some of their images have slim white boarders but the image fills up the rest of the entire page. I have also chosen a font that encaptures the strong, stance of a super hero style comic but also have the fine lines and detailing that will still keep within the beauty theme.

I have now made all amendments, spell checks, edits and advice given to me by mentors and also other students as I wanted as many opinions as possible. I also got advised by a few student photographers to ask for PDF version of my book before purchasing as this gives an accurate look of the final book. I am very glad I did this as I had to amend a few little errors such as text going off the page. I now need to send off my book to be published to make sure I have lots of time to receive it before the hand in date. I have also shown those outside of the industry to get there opinion as they are my target market and a huge part of this project.  

Test: Still Life Image Trials

After a sleepless night and a lot of stress over this new, additional concept of adding some still life beauty and make up images for the finalising touch but with a lot of ideas in my head I decided to get up early and spend the whole day and evening in the studio. I took a variety of products to test with as well as hiring a macro lens from the hatch in the basement of university. 

For the first time ever I went all by myself as normally I have a model or someone else to help me so this was quite a scary prospect for me. Luckily I had the studios on the fourth floor all to myself and gave myself the whole day so that I had no clock watching and stress which I actually really enjoyed. As well as this, Chris Overend was available now and again to help me out a little which was very reassuring.

Reflecting on this experience, I was pleasantly surprised and happy with the final outcome and really enjoying shooting myself with a macro lens on a camera. I was glad I bought quite a few different products in as this gave me a wider range of items and looks to test. I am really glad I did this and took Jane's advice as, although I was very apprehensive, this now shows another skill that I am capable of rather than just portraits or people. I also took Elizabeth's advice to shoot in studio rather that on location which I think was a great idea. Shooting in studio blends in with all my other images rather that creating shots on location that don't match my other images. I now feel like once these are edited I have achieved so much more that I thought I was capable and am now so excited and nervous so compose my book.

Bubbles with Food Coloured 

As you can see the bubbles above were not that successful at all. The camera would not focus on them in time as they blended too much into the background before they floated to the ground or popped. I tried this on black background too and the overcome with very similar. This was a shame as I had thought this would be the most simple look but it was much harder than expected. I am glad I tested this though as I now know that adding food colouring, in this case orange, didn't change the colour of the bubble at all which I thought it would.  

Inspiration for below images: 

Colour is an art. Tribute to Jackson Pollock. Made with LE VERNIS DE CHANEL.

Marbled Nail Vanish of Symbolic Colour Palette

This was one of my most successful tests and ones that after some editing in photoshop I am really considering using as a front cover or inside image. I chose colours that were all in my colour symbolic language to keep in theme. I spiralled all the different colours to create a paint palette art effect serval times between each shot depending which colour needed more or less, this made it quite a long process as well as getting the lighting to hit the golds and shine of the nail vanish in the right way. This was very successful and fun to experiment with and I think that all the colours are impacting making as well contrasting beautifully.

Added Glitter 

After I had completed all my nail vanish marbling images I wanted to experiment with some glitter or additional sparkle for that star like shine. For some images the light caught the multi coloured glitter nicely but for others they just looked like dark dots which wasn't the look I wanted. I also tested the dripping paint effect down a canvas with different types of lighting, this again quite artistically worked in some shots which I loved the look of as it really captured the make up and art beauty I was trying to catch but for others this just looked messy as the coloured blended together. 

Inspiration for images below: Powder Brush with powder product as well as front cover of 'The Make Up Book' by Joy Terri

Golden Pigment with Make Up Brush 

These images were another set that I really liked and very surprised with. As gold is a huge colour in my symbolic colour palette, it caught the make up, brush and glitter all very clearly and beautifully keeping in theme with my book. I think the macro lens was great for this as each hair a piece of glitter can be see as well as the tiny specs of gold pigment I covered the brush and paper in. I am considering editing these further in photoshop and placing these in the inside first page of my book to interest my viewer as well as give them a clue as to what its about. 

Powdered Bombs

The powdered bombs were really interesting to test with. They created a big planet like effect when zoomed in very closely the rough surface appeared very similar to images I have seen of the moon or in galaxy images which I loved the feel and vibe of as this fits the out of this world superpower theme my book also contains. I also shot the image so that the light shone from the front and so I took the image slightly from the back to just trial different lighting effects. Although these images need quite a lot of editing to be worth of adding to the book I would like to place them somewhere appropriate if possible. I do like the natural vibrance of the colours and how they contrast against each other. 

Tutorial with Jane & Elizabeth: Still Life Photography

After a productive easter break and a lot to discuss with a tutor I decided to have a tutorial with Jane. This was very helpful as she liked my final images and could clearly see the meaning of all my images and concepts. She did suggest using the liquify tool on photoshop to make some of my models slimmer and the overall image neater as well as brightening a few areas which I intend to do now. As well as this she went over my text and fixed any spelling errors and gave some constructive advice on perhaps adding a more intellectual and spiritual quote into my front page. 

Jane and Elizabeth then began to elaborate further and suggested, as a final touch, the idea of perhaps creating a few beauty still life images as a front cover or to start the book to break up the pages a little. At first I felt absolutely terrified at the concept and very overwhelmed but as they showed me a few examples from references, such as the Insight Instagram account and the Holi celebration, of what they meant I found it interesting and decided to give it a try and at least test this idea as I did still have some time before I had to send it off. They suggested using the elements such as fire, wind and water or keeping the beauty and make up style , which I preferred the sound of as this is what my book is all about, using powders, bubbles, sparkles and other interesting products to keep in theme with my book. 

I now plan to test both on location and in studio these still life ideas as it would be nice to have a front cover that was of my own photography. I am a little concerned that this may take away some of the make up based style of book I am trying to create including still life but I still plan to test and experiment to see the outcome. I am also worried as my budget is very stretched at the moment and I need to be careful of that too. As well as this I need to have time to get my book printing but even so I definitely intend of testing this idea. 

After my tutorial I purchased some products to experiment with such as bath bombs, coloured pigments, powder paints, bubbles, glitter and food colouring to test and take some images of to see what effects I can get with each. Unfortunately I could not find any sparkles due to the time of year. 

Brainstorming FMP Title

The last few days I have been feeling extremely overwhelmed and have constantly been doubting myself. This is something that I know I do far too much. I want to achieve the best and perfect outcome as I have been working so hard but I feel that due to this I put myself under way too much stress and pressure that I get myself worked up into such a mess and this can effect my work. 

This term and especially during this unit I have tried very hard to change this and remember the first lecture that Jennifer gave us at the start of third year about believing in ourselves and how we should aim high then we can achieve it which I have tried to do as much as possible when I get myself all worked up and feeling low. 

With this all in mind and going on I decided to clear my mind a little and create some brainstorming lists for a possible title that would fit my whole concept and would want the viewer to look further into the book.  

Above are just a few that I have begun to play around with. I wanted the a single word that was impact making and very strong. The title needs to consist of the super hero vibe of the overall content as well as the self belief, self esteem building and confident making images and feel using the colour symbolic language and style of make up, hair and fashion. I wanted the title to be beautiful and to roll of the tongue nicely as well as being a solid, new creative word or words that work together. 

My favourites are the ones highlighted with a bracket and star. The meanings are very close to the overall book intentions I want to achieve. Before I decide 100% I plan to see my mentor and maybe another to see their opinion and their guidance that could help me decide.

VOGUE 100: A Century of Style. Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery

VOGUE 100 Exhibition

As I am now in the stages of designing my coffee table style book layout I was really worrying as I had a lot of ideas of how I was going to compose it but I wasn't sure if it was the right style for my book and I needed to know what would work the best. As this was the easter holidays I decided to attend the Vogue 100: Century of Style exhibition at the national portrait gallery in London. Although I know that Vogue is a magazine and I am creating a book I knew that this would still give me some great inspiration and insight into the layout of images focusing on make up as well as styling and hair. 

It was quite annoying as I was not allowed to take pictures during the exhibition but I made many notes of issues, such as March 1966 and June 1916, and front cover images that had very similar aspects to mine from the style of make up and colouring to the poses or hairstyle. I was also beginning to worry that perhaps I had made the wrong decision about not taking any full length images for my final book but after attending this and viewing the sort of images they take to advertise make up or cosmetic product I felt very reassured that I had definitely made the right choice as close up and mid length with subtle and beautiful poses were by far the most used style of image and it was only when the fashion styling was the main focus that they used full length and that is not what my book is all about. I have also begun to consider perhaps producing a square shaped book rather than portrait. Many of the images for make up were of square shape and this really defined the face with a high fashion feel as well as well as showing the make up in really fine detail.

I learn some very interesting facts and the change and overall variety of all the images photographers had taken, such as David Bailey, Cecil Beaton and Tim Walker, over the years since it begun in 1916 was so diversity and wide ranged which something I believe I have achieved in my final images. I also found that there is no perfect image for everyone. In the creative industry it seems to be impossible to please everyone and this is something that can be really get me down on my own work at times. This exhibition was very enlightening as so many people liked on image but then hated another that someone loved, it can be seen as all a matter of a opinion. 

I also found that the combination of full spread pages next to images with a whiten or black boarder were very commonly used and this gave such a high class and profession look to their magazines. I am so glad I attended this exhibition as I now feel very confident in my images and how I will test laying them out. I now intend to test this with my own images until I am 100% with the final look and I will check this serval times before sending off for printing. I also purchased a book that I will reference back to frequently when going through this process just for that extra bit of guidance. 

Investigation into Printing Companies

Over the last week, while editing all my chosen images, I have been researching companies that will be able to assist me in creating and publishing my book. I have found this to be much harder process than expected and very stressful. I thought that all companies worked with the software InDesign which I would create my layout on and then send to the companies via this method. After looking at professional photography companies many of them have there own software that is all new to me which I found very overwhelming and concerning. To reassure myself I decided to ring these companies so that they could explain the techniques and process they go through which really helped and solved my worrying problem.

Companies I am very interesting in working with are either Blurb, Loxley Colour, Aperture Books or 1stByte as these companies create bigger sized books of A4 or over as well as using high quality papers and covers for that really professional look and clear and perfectly coloured images which is a big requirement. I also found that it is very difficult to find printers that will print to A3 books portrait scale. Many create big square or A3 landscape but not much for portrait so I spend a lot of time to find printers that were perfect for my brief. I also want my book to be of hardback and premium photo paper. I feel that this will strengthen the overall book and make it appear more powerful, important, high quality book. This fits the emotions and thought provoking feelings that all my images and will make my viewers interested in the book before even opening it. 

I now need to continue to edit and adapt as well as beginning to structure my layout of my book as well as title and possible use of quotes to label each concept.