Brief: Working with the outlined publishing models, identify the various roles you (and potentially others) will be undertaking for assignment five. For example, you’re likely to be writing your own content, designing your book, editing and reviewing it. You may also be involved in the production, printing and distribution process. Consider each aspect of the book assignment and briefly list what roles you think you’ll be doing, and what these roles entail. Also make notes of the roles of others who might be involved in your assignment and what their contribution is.
To start with I felt it would help to take a look at assignment 5’s brief. In assignment 5 I am asked to produce a book of my choice. This could be a book on influential book designers, typography, found and altered books or a topic of my choice.
I then reminded myself of the publishing models; Model 1: Writer – Publisher – Editor – Designer – Production – Printer – Distribution – Retail. Model 2: Artist/Designer/Author – Publisher – Editor – Production – Printer – Distribution – Retail. Model 1 is the overview of the process in a large publishing house, Model 2 is more closely aligned with artists’ books where the author is the designer.
The following list shows the roles which I will be responsible for during assignment 5;
- Designer – I need to ensure that thorough research has been collected to gain inspiration and generate ideas for my book, this will lead to me narrowing down my selection and experimenting with different ideas before choosing one to develop further. I must consider all aspects of the books design with how I envision the audience will engage with my book and to ensure that the chosen design is appropriate for the context of the book and is visually pleasing. Things which are important in this stage are the overall design, layouts and grids, typography, colour palettes, paper and binding methods and wether there will be imagery and if this will be illustrations or photographs.
- Editor – I must critically analyse my design throughly, checking for small errors and making sure everything is to what I feel is the highest standard possible. This would be where I print out a mockup to see how everything works well and to see how the book looks – this sometimes is where I make the most changes to help beneficial my work.
- Production – During the final stages before print I would again reflect over the points made during the previous two points making sure everything was correct and that I am happy, then prepare for print with all appropriate materials ready to go. I would need to have all files ready for print, preferably saved in a pdf format and to add the final details such as publishing names, barcodes and copyright pages.
- Printer – This is where the book will come to life! I will need to decide if I am going to print this myself at home or have it printed professionally. I will need to decide on the finish of the paper and need to take into consideration how colours and images will come out with the print quality. At the final stage I will establish the format, page size, paper stock, binding methods and print finishes.
The last two stages of the publishing model are Distribution and Retail which would need to be carried out by others. Distributors of books pitch and sell books to wholesalers, book stores and libraries etc which is an important step to publishing a successful book, this is closely followed by retail which are those who sell the books to the readers. To reach maximum success within this stage you would also need to think about advertisement for the book in places such as newspapers, magazines and social media platforms. Although it is highly unlikely for my book to personally go down this route its good to follow the publishing models key steps. However the roles of other which I may use in my assignment would be as follows;
- Critique – I would ask friends, family and fellow peers for feedback on my design, it’s always refreshing to hear others thoughts wether they are positive or negative as it helps determine the weaker areas which sometimes as the designer you could become slightly biased.
- Printing – I may decided to have my work professionally printed, if this is the case then the company will need to be sent pdf files ready for print along with knowing the paper stock and finish desired. It is also important to ensure that the files are comparable with the companies printer settings e.g. the colour settings and format, usually CMYK is preferred and that the files aren’t low resolution and have a bleed.
Throughout this assignment I need to ensure I am well organised and pay excellent attention to detail. Looking at the publishing models and planning out each step will help me stay on track and I will refer back to this exercise as a guide when I start assignment 5.
rachaelmayesbook.design.blog 