Publishing Design
24.09.2025 - 17.12.2025 / Week 1 — Week 13
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Chan Zhi-Ren Zenndan / 0369069
Publishing Design / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's UniversityTable of Contents
1. Lectures
2. Instructions
3. Process Work
3.1 Task 1: Exercises
3.2 Task 2: Content Generation
3.3 Task 3A: Book
3.4 Task 3B: eBook
4. Reflection
1. Lectures
Formats
The focus this semester is solely on the book format, simply due to its historical significance, it is the oldest format of publishing.
Designing a book requires you to have a comprehensive understanding of typography, a good sense of space, an eye for details, and a good understanding of a publishing software.
Fig 2.1 Lectures notes on 'Historical formats' (8/10/2025).
History of Print
Fig 2.2 Lecture notes on the 'History of Print' (08/10/2025).
Typo Redux
Fig 2.3 Lecture notes on 'Typo Redux' (08/10/2025).
The Grid
Fig 2.4 Lecture notes on 'The Grid' (08/10/2025).
Elements
Fig 2.5 Lecture notes on 'Elements' (08/10/2025).
2. Instructions
Document 2.1 Module Information (08/10/2025).
3. Process Work
3.1 Task 1: Exercises
Exercise 1: Mock-Up — Book Size
Create a book mock-up by taping two A4 sheets together to visualize sizes between A5 and A4. Lecture videos later cover standard book formats.
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Figure 3.1 Selecting book size (1/10/2025).
After getting a sense of the proportions, I created a custom size to visualize the book for upcoming work. The chosen dimensions are 17 cm × 22.6 cm.
Exercise 2: Signatures
Next, I worked on understanding the layout for a 16-page book. This exercise provided a practical look at how pages are arranged, helping me grasp the basics of offset printing for mass publishing. I folded the sheets into 8 sections, added page numbers to check the order, and then cut the folds to create the openings.
Figure 3.2 Folding (01/10/2025).
Figure 3.3 Before (left) and after (right) cutting (01/10/2025).
Exercise 3: Van De Graaf
The Van de Graaf exercise helps determine the ideal placement of text within a page. The grids are created by measuring from one point to another until a diagonal cross is formed. These points are then used as guides to draw a central rectangle, which defines the area for the text.
Figure 3.4 Before (left) and after (right) cutting (01/10/2025).
Exercise 3A: Digi Van De Graaf
For this exercise, I digitized the Van de Graaf grid in Adobe InDesign using the book’s chosen paper size. I followed the tutorial step by step, and the process is shown below.
Figure 3.5 Margins adjusted to my chosen size (01/10/2025).
Figure 3.6 Digitized Van De Graff within my chosen size, PDF format (01/10/2025).
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Figure 3.7 Digitized Van De Graff within my chosen size, JPG format (01/10/2025).
Exercise 4: Form and Movement
This exercise helps us explore grid movement and form, creating a visual flow from page to page. The final piece then serves as a guide for the next task, showing how we can use formatting effectively.
Figure 3.8 Form and Movement exercise(01/10/2025).
Figure 3.9 Form and Movement exercise with guides (01/10/2025).
Figure 3.10 My version of Form and Movement exercise (01/10/2025).
Figure 3.11 My version of Form and Movement exercise with guides (01/10/2025).
3.2 Task 2: Content Generation
For this project, I chose to write about myself by focusing on my photography journey, covering how I started and how my involvement with photography changed over time. I completed the required three thousand words and organised them into three chapters with the necessary subtexts and captions. For the visual component, I selected sixteen photographs from different points in my photography experience and included a few recent images that relate to the final chapter.
Document 3.1 Task 2 Content for Book (22/10/2025).
Most of the photos shown in Figure 3.12 will be included in the book, and the layout visualisation is still in progress.
Figure 3.12 Photos visualisation (22/10/2025).
3.3 Task 3A: Book
Taught in Week 7:
- Print in CMYK
- Use EPS file or TIFF instead of PNG
To convert multiple photos into TIFF or whichever format in Photoshop:
- Have all your photos in a folder
- Create a destination folder for transfer
- Open Photoshop
- Open any one (1) file from the folder
- Go to the nav bar and find Windows > Actions > Create new action > (name your action)
- Once you name your action, click Record to start recording every action from then
- Navigate to the nav bar and click Mode > CMYK Mode
- Navigate to the nav bar and click File > Save As > Save as type > TIFF
- Go back to your Action panel and stop recording
- Go back to Photoshop and click File > Automate > Batch... > (select the action you created) > Source (photos folder) > Destination (destination folder) > OK
The abovementioned lesson will help me since I will be primarily using original photographs.
I started by applying my form and movement from Task 2 into my book.
Shown below is the contact sheet of my book layout, which was shown to my lecturer.
Document 3.2 Book layout attempt #1
The feedback I got was pretty harsh, mainly saying there was "no movement" and that it was "plain and repetitive." I initially thought a minimalistic approach was decent considering my book is mostly like a photobook but apparently I needed to research further into book layouts.
I sticked to using 2 columns and tried to even out the words for each page to hit the 32-page count but I eventually managed.
I also experimented more image placements since it was part of the feedback (which said I didn't experiment enough).
Below is my second attempt at the book layout. I used this as the final layout for my book.
Document 3.3 Book layout attempt #2
Satisfied with this attempt, I had to go print it out into my proposed size from Task 1. This was for submission the next day, along with a presentation about the book.
Below are some photos of the printing process.
Figure 3.13 Printing process
Figure 3.14 Cutting edges
Below are a few pictures of my book.
The cover is 250 gsm, and the papers inside are 130 gsm.
Figure 3.15 Book cover
Figure 3.16 Back cover
Figure 3.17 Top view
Figure 3.18 Inside
Below are the final spreads of the book for submission.
Document 3.4 Final book layout
3.4 Task 3B: eBook
This task requires us to publish our book on FlipHTML5.Book link: https://online.fliphtml5.com/khowmu/sjmf/
Document 3.3 E-book
We were also asked to design a promotional poster for our book. Below is my final design. The background photo is also taken by me.
Figure 3.19 Book promotional poster
4. Reflection
This module was meaningful as it gave me the chance to showcase old photos in a custom-sized book format, and I enjoyed choosing the size I wanted for my book. I learned the importance of consistency, experimenting with different layouts, and handling harsh criticism. I enjoyed taking the time to think carefully about the positioning of my photos, so I was a bit taken aback when I was told I wasn’t experimenting enough. Overall, it was my first experience working with anything book-related, and it was a valuable learning process that pushed me to explore new creative approaches.
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