The Narrative

• family, history, passion
• a small insight into my families history and passion for motorsport
• Using a book format, featuring photos and small amounts of text showcasing family history and connections within motorsport. And how it has influenced my own passion for motorsport. This will also include archived images from family albums, creating a stronger sense of connection and narrative throughout the book. Using colours, textures, compositions I will aim to make connections between new and old images, for example I will include old photos of dogs in cars to now my dog in my mothers car. I hope to create a book that feels like a family story with enough context even a non family member can see how my parents have influenced me.

Design

• How you want your book to look and feel – I want to book to have a smooth, slightly matte look to it, similar to plastics on a bike. This will replicate the car/bikes themselves.
• Paper and ink I have selected premium lustre paper as a lot of my photos have deep detail and soft lighting so its important to have high quality ink and paper to preserve the photographs.
• Format, size and orientation I tried a few different book styles, before settling on a portrait 20X25cm book, allowing for my portrait photos to fit well and having to stretch the photos less to spread across a double page.
• Binding and cover My cover will be a hardback with a printed photo, while I like the idea of a dust cover I have found they gain greater damage than an image wrap cover.
• Title I do not think a title will benefit this book so won’t have one, instead I will have the focus on the cover photo. One that will provide an insight into the book, similar to a titles purpose.
• Design and layout – Within the book it will be produced in ‘sections’ using the photoshoots as mini stories within themselves. By doing this I can create a feel for each individual story that has gone into shaping my own passion. At the end I will include a snippet of my own story as a summary of the book.
• Editing and sequencing – the editing will remain similar throughout the book, keeping continuity within the narrative. As narrative progresses the bikes will get more modern requiring slightly harsher editing to enhance the colours and textures but this will be a very small element. Highlighting the progress within the sport. A lot of my images will be black and white, low contrast, softly lit. This adds a family album like feel, creating joyous, interesting photos with story rather than harsh tones.
• Images and text – there won’t be any text (subtitles and captions) within the book. While I have written an essay I won’t include it as I feel it would only break up the flow of the book. Having no text (other than author name) is unusual for photo books, however I think this suits the style I am going for, family photo album. The way I have taken the photos has allowed for the photos to tell stories without words. For example a comparison I will draw are the two photos below. Creating a connection and story without words.

Comparison between the original colour of the car in archive photos and the cars current colour with the old colour still showing slightly.

Book Design Mood Board

Having looked at blurb I have created a mood board of book covers I like. Most of them are black and white using a simple photo as the cover, something that sums up the book without having too much detail. There is a couple with smaller photos on the cover adding emphasis on the title, however while I like the covers I’m not sure it will suit my book. I also liked the red text on one, it helped the title stand out against the colour photo cover. All of these designs are image wrap covers, the option I will likely use for my book.