There has been a risk that this book design project could take over from my progress in Social Documentary, it has been my current obsession. This weekend I decided that it was time to bring the project to its conclusion and commit to the final incarnation of the book. I had all the tools I needed, 2 earlier attempts available in print, helpful critique from fellow students and an extra day off to do the work.
Although there are a great many steps and challenges in making a book there are two fundamental problems that must be solved. Narrative and Design. Of these narrative is the dominant question, design informs and supports the story telling but it cannot alone carry the reader. I am sure it is possible to create a well designed book that has no narrative, but I would be lost as to what the point would be. Poor design, however, will get in the way of the narrative, the reader will spend more time trying to understand the structure and potentially being irritated to the extent that they abandon the attempt to understand the work.
Whilst working on the final version I went through a few variations in design as the sequencing of the photos and hence the narrative started to coalesce towards a final form. In effect design and narrative were interacting in my mind and so it is difficult to talk about one without the other. However, in the interests of clarity I have separated them out for the purposes of this monologue.
Design
Design starts by understanding constraints and understanding what can and can not be done. The first constraint comes from my on-demand publisher, Blurb. To manage costs and create a conveniently packaged book I elected to use their "Standard" landscape format, which is neither standard not landscape, unless you live in the USA. The pages are 8x10 inches, which once trimmed and allowing for the gutter means a 9x8 inch area that is usable in the book. In other words the image space is almost a square. I would much prefer an A4 or wider aspect ratio enabling me to fully utilize the image I see in the viewfinder when I make the photograph. The only real alternative is actually square at 7x7 or 12x12 or what they call large landscape 13x11. The bottom line is that if you want to avoid excessive amounts of white space on the pages it is important when shooting to think square. I do wonder if the standards I see here are driven by an historic use of medium format (6x6, 6x7) or large format (5x4, 8x10) cameras.
I did look at alternates, but all had the drawback of being significantly more expensive and not having the ability to share the books online, create ebooks for the iPad and download a high quality PDF of the book. The former is essentially for the collaborative nature of the project and the latter to have something that I can share easily with my tutor.
Given the constraints, I then had to design several page options. I started with the cover. This work is not going to be sold in a bookstore, it does not need a cover that pulls the customer in and makes them want to look inside hopefully then to make a purchase. But, I still wanted the cover to have impact and to convey a sense of what the book contained. I have retained the cover design from the first book as this worked very well. The full bleed images of the crowd reinforces the vast number of people attending, there is no end to the crowd. This image had to be built in Photoshop to enable me to exceed the limited text sizes Blurb can handle. The back cover image was chosen to illustrate the energy of the event and the almost surreal combinations of people attending. I have chosen Gill Sans MT as my font, an elegant sanserif that provides a modern feel.
Inside the book I opted to retain a chapter structure and used the below style to open each chapter, a simple full bleed image fronted by a white page.
Within each chapter I opted for 2 different two-page spreads. One valid criticism of the earlier book was that the full bleed images merged into one another and created visual confusion. To avoid this I have surrounded each photograph with white space. I wanted to use as much of the books available image space, filling the pages provided a greater sense of the chaos of the fest. However, some images could only work in their original aspect ratio so a page structure was also needed for these. In one incarnation I mixed the two page types together. I found that the book worked better with each pair of pages being symmetrical. The other design issue was then to ensure that each pair of images visually balanced and either complemented each other or provided a clear contrast. The examples below illustrate that. The first is more to do with the colour pink, the second is a contrast of two very different and yet colourful groups of people waiting for the event to start.
To add some extra impact I also included a small number (five) of two page spreads that I used to terminate a few of the chapters. This allowed me to better convey the sheer size of the fest and the mad mixture of colours, but also to mix up the visual style a little.
With the book size decided and the page design complete a few other more minor details needed to be decided. I elected to limit the book to 80 pages, this sits on a price break, but also provides a manageable volume to look at. I was flexible on this, but 80 worked well. I went for an image wrap cover in which the cover photographs are pasted to the end boards. I find this works better for photobooks than a dust cover, but it is a personal choice. For weddings I always use a dust cover. Paper choice was easy, Matte, but not the proline Matte. I have used that before, but it is very much more expensive and I don't think it is that much better. I added white end pages as I think these simply look professional. So that was the design, what about the contents?
Narrative
The first two books helped immensely in deciding the narrative flow for the book. They allowed me to experiment with two basic ideas and then see what they looked like on paper. The first book used a "Wakes Progress" approach, portraying the progressive descent from the traditional start through the fun of the fair, to the drinking, then finally finishing with the grim reality of vomit and unconsciousness. This may well still be my approach for the 12 image assignment, but it was too bleak for the book and had the issues of ending on a low point and being over-moralizing. Coming from someone who drank 6 liters of beer on the last Friday of the fest and spent the next 2 days deeply regretting it, this would be rich indeed.
In the second book I elected for a temporal narrative following the fest through the day. This had the advantage of being far less judgmental and being able to finish at a more positive place. It worked much better and is the basis for the final version. In a sense I am presenting "A day in the Life of" the Oktoberfest. In reality this is many days and certain photographs would sit outside the temporal flow.
The next question was what photographs to include. The first book used 107, the second 39, this one would sit somewhere in the middle. This is where having the books already to hand really helped. I went through each and using post-it notes colour coded the pages. Red signified a definite, yellow a possible. Once I completed the manual selection I then grouped those photographs in Lightroom and did some last processing to ensure visual consistency. I did not crop the images at this stage, it is easier to crop inside the book making software as the photos drop into the image containers. That allows me to see two photos adjacent to one another and make editing decisions to bring balance or contrast. At this stage I also pulled in photos as yet not used, the new page designs offered a little more flexibility than I had before.
I started the narrative with 3 photographs that served as a reminder of the tradition that underlies the Fest, but at the same time not wanting to overdo this aspect.
I stepped through the early morning arrivals and the people waiting for the event to start. I incldued chapters that portrayed the day time experience of the fest and a rather gloomy one that showed that it was far less fun in the pouring rain. A key element for my personal vision of the fest was to show that it was bloody good fun and had its funny side, but to also keep an eye to the fact that there are dangers in drinking so much. The following two spreads illustrate this:
In the first book I had too many shots of the consequences of drink, they were too dark and dismal. For this volume I brought in an as yet not used image that sums it up with a degree of humour. It almost looks as if they are trying to spell something out. The two page spread rescued this letter box image and gave it a new currency.
At the same time, there are problems at the fest and one that sadly it is getting worse year by year. Violence is an occasional problem, actually surprisingly rare given the nature of the event. Of greater concern was the increase this year in the number of people needing medical treatment due to alcohol poisoning. The good thing is that the red cross and paramedics know what they are about and do a great job with their covered stretchers on wheels.
This needed to be said, but not over stated. On the whole I wanted imagery that captured the colour and the madness of the event.
I also elected to include the people who keep it all going, it is brutally hard work and in particular those who serve beer in the tents are a hardy bunch of people.
I finished the book as I did in book 1 with an early morning shot of the Wiesn shuttered and completely empty of people. With this I imply the start of the next day, but also an end.
This ended being a very personal take on the fest. I have tried to avoid the usual cliches that are found in the official views, but at the same time to capture the fun and vibrance of this crazy event. It has its problems and after a few days all of us who live in the city wish it would go away. However, there is every year a special feeling I get when I first walk onto the Theresienwiese and hear the roar of the tents in full voice and smell the grilling meat and beer. It is a sense of excitement engendered by the expectation of fun and joyful expression. Like the anticipation of Christmas, reality is something of a let down, but it is still a very special place and a unique experience.
I thoroughly enjoyed creating this volume, from planning, through photography and into design, it was a great learning experience and one that will help me as I transition towards my final year degree studies:
FEST
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