STUDIO BRIEF 2: Publication First Draft

In the group I am one of the people in charge of creating the publication/archive for the exhibition. I've started creating a publication relating to the concept/idea that we have in mind. As we were going for the traditional museum feel for the exhibition, we thought of possibly making a very type heavy publication which visitors can look and read through. We've also talked to Ben and Pat and they've suggested using it as a possibly invite to get people to come to the exhibition; by giving them all the information they need they can come to the exhibition and look at the specific micro-genres and objects that they are particularly interested in. Also, among the group we've decided to choose Bodoni for the title and headings and Futura for the body text as Bodoni can fit the overall aesthetic of traditional and archaic but Futura is much more legible due to it being a sans serif font.

For the front cover of the publication. I've took direct reference from Darwin's On the Origins of Species book. I think it's quite effective and is quite eye-catching and matches the feel that we are going for with the whole exhibition. I've also consulted my group and they've liked what I've done with the front cover, which I was quite happy about.

 Possibly, including table of contents would be ideal giving a more ordered and structured appeal to the publication, much like a book or an archive that people can follow to look at which part they want to read.

I've chosen a column grid system to implement in the publication, to have a strong structure which can make the writing easier to read and follow, as there is a lot of writing as the publication is quite type heavy with minimum pictorial to it. I think having the three column grid is quite nice as it keeps everything neat and tidy, however I feel like it will be too much writing on the pages and I feel like the whole type-heavy idea may be quite too much and make the publication quite bland and boring. I feel like if I was a visitor I would not want to read this much writing on the pages and focus more on the exhibition, thus possibly making all the writing redundant on this design. Therefore I thought of maybe adding large double or single sided illustration to break up the type heavy pages in the publication to make it more varied and free. I've talked to my groups about this, but some of them liked this idea and having this structured three column grid with paragraphs for each micro-genre, however some have opposed and thought of suggestions such as having illustrations to break up the pages like I've said or include little pictorials for each genre, as well as keeping the description to a minimum of 1-2 sentences.  I feel like these suggestions may improve the design of the publication, as I feel like now, it just look a bit too much and quite intimidating too, because although the whole concept  is to be quite traditional and museum based, I don't think museums even have these kinds of publications which are kind of newspaper-y and full of texts all over.

I will definitely think over the design of the publication as well as get more feedback on the critical we'll have tomorrow on how it should be developed and to which direction- a. keeping it type heavy and very strongly and tightly structured to the three column grid or b. make it more varied and dynamic with having illustrations and designs or possible contents as well as slightly adjusted minimum writing. I think we need to have a compromise in order to make a better publication, because this publication could also be the invite and the invite is the most important thing to actually get people interested in making people come to the exhibition. It has to be exciting and intriguing at the same time and worthy of sharing to other people or to social media, creating wider exposure to the exhibition as well.