After arranging how I want to present my final prints and deciding which photographs are the most important for the message of my project, I am ready to begin working on the layout of my photo-book. To start with, I have decided to have my book as a standard portrait size of 20cm by 25cm. This is because, as with my last photo-book, I have multiple portrait images that will fit nicely on a single full-page, as well as quite a few landscape shots that will work beautifully as double page spreads. For this ‘environment’ project, we were informed that our final results must be presented in a thoughtful, careful and professional manner demonstrating skills in presenting with either window mounts, picture frames, foam-board, etc. As well as doing this, however, I think my photo-book will be a really nice finish to bring all my outcomes together, showing my journey as well as thoroughly getting across some environmental awareness.
When putting together my first layout in Lightroom I spent a long time tampering with the order and sizing of all my final outcomes. Whilst doing this I found that a few of my shoots did not fit in with the dramatic theme. These excluded results include the ones from my beach clean ups, my second plastic portraiture shoot, and my results from the La Collette recycling centre. Although I feel like these are still an important part of my project, they do not really contribute to the strong messages shown throughout my book and therefore will just remain a part of my supporting studies. Below is my first design laid out in the order I wish to present it (apart from a few final changes). When putting this together I thought about how many blank pages I wanted to leave, sequencing, the way it shows the narrative and the juxtaposition of certain images. The blank pages left between each subject (cigarette waste, plastic pollution, ocean pollution and Jersey waste disposal), as well as a few others, will later be filled with subheadings, messages and facts. The contact sheet below shows my initial design presented as a contact sheet of screen shots…
Initial Photo-Book Design:
The design above shows all of the pages I plan to have featured in my end result. The only definite change I will be making to this layout is to remove my single beach clean-up image, bringing my book down from 60 pages to 58. As well as this, I will be adding in subheadings, messages and facts to the blanks pages and at the start of the book; a second title page and a preface/quote. Although I have mixed up and joined together a lot of my shoots, my book will still be presenting four different sections looking at cigarette waste, plastic pollution, ocean pollution and Jersey’s waste disposal. My first decision for the design of my book was to make all the pages black, emphasising my more symbolic photographs and giving the book an overall dramatic tone. For the layout I have decided to show my journey through exploring the Islands pollution by presenting my themes in the order I completed them. The first and shortest section introduces the dark tone that is displayed throughout my book whilst only showing one style of studio photography. The next two plastic and ocean pollution sections, however, depict an array of symbolic, documentary and abstract images that, together, really do emphasise their meanings. Lastly is my Jersey waste disposal shoot which, like the first section, only shows one type of photography to tell the story. I love the variety of double page spreads, full bleeds, and mirroring techniques I have used throughout this layout and feel as if this book will be an informative and inspiring part of my final pieces.