My personal deliverables for this project:
- I want to create something that hasn't already been done, I want to use illustration to accompany these poems and amplify them.
- I want the book to look modern with nods of the era it refers to, to have a satisfying and effective layout and story to run through the book.
- It needs to feel cohesive.
Why this project:
The language used in poetry can include beautiful imagery and give their readers all sorts of emotion. I wanted to put a face to this imagery and recreate and solidify that emotion.
- I want to create something that hasn't already been done, I want to use illustration to accompany these poems and amplify them.
- I want the book to look modern with nods of the era it refers to, to have a satisfying and effective layout and story to run through the book.
- It needs to feel cohesive.
Why this project:
The language used in poetry can include beautiful imagery and give their readers all sorts of emotion. I wanted to put a face to this imagery and recreate and solidify that emotion.
First thoughts
Anthologies
In this project what I am to create is an anthology, a collections of poems by varying poets.
Looking at this in practice, a common theme that can be split up into smaller sections is more effective. I have looked over the layout and format of different poem anthologies, and have decided what I like and don't like.
I have chosen a theme for the anthology itself as well as a theme for the poems themselves.
Looking at this in practice, a common theme that can be split up into smaller sections is more effective. I have looked over the layout and format of different poem anthologies, and have decided what I like and don't like.
I have chosen a theme for the anthology itself as well as a theme for the poems themselves.
And so following this layout (which has been widely used and isn't specific to the above anthology) I decided to do my poems about love and only feature female poets in the 1800s. The different kinds of love will be my sections, I will need to test out some titles for them.
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These are some of the poem anthologies that I have read/looked over, 'The Poetry Cure' edited by Julia Darling and Cynthia fuller, stood out to me, the title cleverly alludes to the medical theme of the book, with the chapters having names like 'Poems to make you feel better' and ' What it feels like'.
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Physical Reaserch
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I took a few photos of pages that I liked the layout of, as well as the typefaces and other things.
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'The Poetry Cure', Edited by Julia Darling & Cynthia fuller
I adored the poetic nature of the chapter names, which I will be taking forward into my own anthology, as well as the blank page which is paired with those titles which I will also defiantly consider.
I adored the poetic nature of the chapter names, which I will be taking forward into my own anthology, as well as the blank page which is paired with those titles which I will also defiantly consider.
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'Pictures From Brueghel & other poems' by William Carlos Williams
I liked the use of page furniture ("For My Wife"), so I used this as another option for the chapter name pages.
I liked the use of page furniture ("For My Wife"), so I used this as another option for the chapter name pages.
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'Collected Poems' by Sylvia Plath
Again the page furniture, referring specifically to the reminder of the chapter at the top of the page is something I learned for this research and will also take into consideration.
Again the page furniture, referring specifically to the reminder of the chapter at the top of the page is something I learned for this research and will also take into consideration.
Poets I wanna use
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I went looking for public domain poetry that would fit with my brief of female poets during the 1800s, I wanted to bring attention to female poets at a time where they were grossly overlooked.
Using the 'random' button on openpoet.org I came across a collection of poets I wanted to use, they are: Isabel Ecclestone Mackay Emily Dickinson Mary Gardiner Horsford. |
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Isobel was by far my favourite of these poets, the imagery she uses in her poems gave me huge inspiration for accompanying illustrations.
She also alludes quite a lot to queer relationships she's been in, which helps me when creating this book as I want as one of my aims is to show and bring to life things that have been overlooked, such as queer relationships and a woman's work.
She also alludes quite a lot to queer relationships she's been in, which helps me when creating this book as I want as one of my aims is to show and bring to life things that have been overlooked, such as queer relationships and a woman's work.
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Emily has a beautiful way of setting out and presenting her poetry which, for me, creates an exciting and new layout to work with, being able to elevate the poetry while its already beautifully set out makes my job much exciting.
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Mary writes so much poetry about a relationship between a mother and daughter, with the topic of woman being a high point in this anthology this is something I found to be very important to include. Her poetry really moved me and has a very strong emotional impact which I cannot wait to accompany.
Categorising the poems
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To see the poems and what they individually talked about I printed out all my pages of the word document I was putting the poems onto and went through 1-4 of my categorising of different kinds of love.
Family Romantic Greif Nature |
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Layout Options
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I spent a long time working on the layout of the poems, being heavily inspired by 'The Poetry Cure' I followed a lot of the rule they set in that book. Such as a larger header in bold, as well as a author name in bold.
With help from the designers in the studio, I was shown how to create paragraph styles, which meant i could put the text in and select which style and InDesign would do all the work for me. This made the process so much easier. I was always constantly aware of the spaces I was leaving for my illustrations, how far I push the illustrations in the way of closeness to the text is going to be my next experimentation. |
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Looking again at the poetry cure I put a few poems onto the same page if they were short enough, even though this gives me less room to illustration, I think the design of this layout is more effective for the overall anthology itself.
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As I was trying out some stuff I called Vince over to give me a hand with what my layout is looking like, the overall look was much cleaner and connected to the image and took more care on where the reader will be looking.
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The Poems
With some feedback, it was clear I needed to sort out my tone of voice and make sure all the illustrations look like they were done by the same artist.
Before style change |
After style change |
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Type and page layout experimenting
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During this point Damon gave me some help with type so these uploads have the new type settings on them.
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Chapter Pages
Motherly Love
Romantic Love
Love and Grief
Love and nature
Romantic Love
Love and Grief
Love and nature
Motherly Love
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Final Version
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Romantic Love
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I decided to redo this image a wee bit just to add a little more atmosphere, and tone down the harsh greens a little.
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Final Version
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Love and Grief
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Final Version
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Love and Nature
Final Version |
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Final Version
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With only a few more illustrations to complete, using the feedback I had gotten I made a list of what poems I needed to sort out |
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In-Pages
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For the in-pages I decided a simple look would go best with the style this book carries, a pastel background colour with the texture I've been using layered on top.
However mixam the company that I'm printing this off with already gives you two plain in pages therefore I did another design.
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Contents Page
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To start I did some looking at the effect of contents pages. I knew I needed my style to be consistent but just how much, if many, illustration is visible on these pages is what I started figuring out.
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The version on the left turned out to be too stuffy and crowded, once I cut some of the plants away I had a much better Outcome.
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Final Version
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Front and back Covers + Name
Name Ideas
'Love: An Illustrated Poetry Anthology'To make sure I wasn't claiming any ownership over the poems I decided to go with a title that explains what I did in regards to the illustrations and keeps the poems separate.
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Final Version:
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Front
I changed the font for 'LOVE' to a slightly more red colour.
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Back Cover
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Originally the back cover would have been a continuation of the illustrated used on the front cover, however with the white boarder I decided to do a blurb more than anything and focus on that. I wrote a small introduction and then created a small spot illustration to go on here and the title in pages.
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Final Version
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Full Version of my illustrated Poetry book
This is what the document looked like when it was sent to test print, The changes I made for sending it to final print were adding a background on a good few images, as well as changing key black on the text to a slightly lighter black.
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Mixam Research
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The book I want to create is something professional and a piece of art for someone to keep, therefore a hardback is my best bet.
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Looking at a higher quantity of books the prices aren't awful, and The smaller size of the book is a choice I made because 'The Poetry Cure' is one of my research books I took the most influence of. The small size of the book made it feel more personal and comforting which is the exact feeling I want to convey with my book.
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The only thing I needed more information on was Paper Weight.
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I looked at the page specifications that I needed to follow, looking particularly at the 'Quiet area' which i mocked up on indesign just to double check and rearrange my images if i needed to.
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The Final Book
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