BOTW1 Process and Outcome

After collecting all the images, and having a conversation with Mehroosa about what we wanted the book to represent, we decided having the outcome still represent how secretive our theme is. We wanted to explore the idea of internet history being private by not revealing anything to the viewer through the book.

Image Manipulation:

Noise

Crystallize

Fragmentx4

Combining crystallise and noise

Crystallise and noise subtract layer filter ontop of original image

I personally like the crystallise filter the most as I think the shapes produced are really visually interesting, however it's not as effective for the purpose of keeping things secretive as the noise filter is. The noise filter also relates to technology, as its an effect that is directly inspired by glitched and pixelated screens, which is more effective to the theme of internet history.

We applied that effect to all the screenshots, with some images being a combination of different layers, such as screenshot of the actual internet history with the screenshot of the web page.

The layering was due to some of the images being too clear, and adding some more dimension as when printed out, the noise overpowers the images, and it will be in black and white which means there isn't any colour to create this distinction either.

Typeface
The left side of the document is the inDesign files, in which we used a downloaded font from Google fonts as we felt that none of the fonts directly available communicated the theme of the book.

Initially, we considered the fonts Krungthep, Monaco, Silom and Andale Mono as they reference pixel typefaces - typefaces created for the purpose of viewing on a screen. This is mostly communicated by their form being based on squares/pixels, and really fixed cap heights and x-heights, to the point where they seem to be cut off.

However, we didn't want the approach to the typeface be so typical, so we didn't want a traditional pixel typeface as it wouldn't communicate the idea of this book exploring something personal.
The typeface needed to be a more friendly typeface, such as Futura, where the counters and a lot of the shapes are based on a circle and designed to be easily read but also have references to pixel and digital typefaces to connect both the idea of personal secrets and the internet.

On Google Fonts, which we only discovered was a thing due to the live brief pack, we searched for "Mono" typefaces, and found Roboto Mono which combines the round, personality of Futura with the digitalised type styles like Andale Mono.

The effect of this typeface I believe communicates the idea of this being a personal secret more effectively than a typical digital typeface would due to the round counters, rather than a strict, square-based type.

Embossing

As the book is going to be the size of a trackpad, I measured the size of it, 13.5x8.4 cm and cut enough keys and a space bar to fit within it. The most difficult part of this was ensuring all the key's edges were rounded which was just very time consuming and often altered the size of the cardboard keys too much however I think it was imperative for the overall look of the outcome as keyboard keys are often rounded.

The embossing wasn't as successful as we'd hoped - the ridges of the cardboard came through and it was too weak to provide a really deep embossing. It worked better on these thin, neon paper stocks rather than the black card however the black card provided more of a relation to the keyboard, and also more of a relation to the idea of secrecy as its less visible.

Neon colours communicate the idea of standing out, whereas the purpose of the book is to remain secretive, therefore a more discreet colour such as the black card, and the weaker embossing actually played into this.

Outcome

Rationale: This is a book conveying our internet history as our own personal best kept secret. The book is embossed with keyboard shapes, and is the size of a Macbook trackpad. It opens up landscape, as a laptop would. The images of screenshots from our internet history are glitched, keeping it secretive, while the html reveals all and nothing at the same time. Therefore, our internet history is still our best kept secret.

Overall, I think the book communicated what we wanted it to communicate, but could have probably been developed more. The conceptual elements I think are really strong: the typeface to communicate both the theme of this being personal and the digital element, the size of the book being based on a trackpad, the embossed black card and the contrast between the glitched images and the stark black on white text.

What could've been improved is the paper stock, we chose just to use the paper available in the printer however with better time management, booking a print slot with James would allow for better paper stock which may have allowed the images to come out clearer, and show the noise more clear. It also would've been cheaper in a digital print slot, therefore we could've printed the images in colour and have the noise be more clear.