VisCom: Taxonomy Book Ideas

Alright, so I've done some more thinking on the overall concept of the book. I'm still going to be doing a stab Japanese binding, but I might try something more intracate than I tried in the Caligraphy course last year.  Perhaps something like this one:

Or perhaps something more simple and modern like this bound edition of "Flatland" that I stumbled across:

I want to use transparencies as a form of labelling over the images.  I might also decide to flip this concept, and print the icons onto the transparencies and do the labeling behind them on sketch paper. Both would look nice.

To continue this concept of transparency, I want to use a semi-transparent plastic or acrylic as the cover, with printed type behind it on the sketch paper for the title. something like this card used:
Should lend a nice clean modern look to the book.  However, this does create difficulty in opening the book with the stab bind since there wouldn't be a hinge.  So I think that I'll do some experimenting with hardcore scoring methods using a sort of vice or clamping tool to create a sort of hinge in the cover.  If I find a thin enough plastic however, it might just be able to bend, which would also be more friendly and clean looking. So maybe I'll look into that.  I think I might be able to find some of this material in some binders' covers like these:

I have some yellow/ green cord that I'll use for the stab binding.

VisCom: Taxonomy Proposal

For my mark making book, I'll be doing a traditional Japanese bind. The pages will hold a few icons, allowing for a smaller and more weildly size for the book.  I'll drill press the holes through a sort of high quality drawing paper to allow labeling for pages that need any. Probably Strathomore.  The color scheme will be neutral, and depending on the restrictions for the books cover, I might do some printing on the cover paper. 

The Taxonomy of the book will be classified in the following ways:

1. Natural or Manmade Tool
2. Geometric or Organic Shape
3. Denotation of Insect, Geometric Form, or Unknown
4. Connotations negative, nuetral, or positive in appearance.

Type: Web Layouts

These are my first 3 proposals for my web layout on the element website.  NOTE: I might add color later, but seeing as it's a metal, and I'm primarily focusing on layout at the moment, I'm going to leave color alone till I narrow my layout choices down a bit.

CDF: Update 11\8\09

These color excersizes have been difficult, but I can't stress the importance enough of learning the relationships between the hues. I do still have a lot of conceptual ground to make up in the world of chroma, but I know it'll be worth the efforts when we begin later projects.  While going out of the design building the other day, I noticed an upper classman's work on a nearby table. This work had simple geometric forms, but you could tell the focus was on color grouping. Despite how flat these forms might appear normally, the color choices they made really made them pop off the page and move into dimensionality.  I envy them for that assignment, but I'll just have to be patient.

On the other side of things, the color book is going amazingly.  What assignment could be better than finding color in things I love? It makes the time fly by, and it's a blast at the same time.  Though when I'm going through these antique's and oddities, I truly have to keep a tight hold on my wallet. There are some great buys out there.  But I was thinking on my last trek how odd it is that people tend to naturally put colors together.  Yellow objects are usually with yellow ones, warm and cold colors, etc.  I wonder what it is that makes people do this... I realize that  some of the booths did this on purpose to attract customers, but I could certainly tell that some of this was unplanned.  I'm excited to check out other places and get even more shots. I figure my photo count at this point is over 50. The trick is in the selectivity I guess.

I don't have any documentation of my recent studies in Albers and Munsell yet, but I do have a few inspirational pieces that are full of color to share!

The top two are a great arrangement of package design. They definitely work well together in the retail environment.

Type: Newest Spreads

As of now, these are my nearly finalized spreads for the Element books entry for Hafnium.