A New Cover Design (v7)

This is not really a new design, but a variation on the previous concept.

Up until now i’ve been sketching out rough cover design ideas, with no real direction. But I feel ready to start settling on two different routes.

Cover Design 6

Trying out a different approach. I saw a feature in one of my wife’s fashion magazines that I thought would make a good cover style. Obviously the images in the final cover would have to be passed for copyright and the selection would have to closely reflect the contents, but it’s just a concept and I’m quite happy with it. Perhaps it could do with a spiral binding down the side to complete the scrapbook feel.

Progress Report

Although not much has been happening here on the blog, it doesn’t mean not much has been happening with the project. In fact I’ve purposefully stayed away from blog updates, so I can maximise my time on the chapter introductions. The first few introductions felt easy to write, but for some reason when it came to Chapters 4 and 5 I really struggled to make progress. I found myself putting them off and wasting time when I should have been getting notes together. I soon realised what i was doing and thought my way round the problem. Essentially I became overly precious about getting the introductions exactly right in the first draft. Once I decided to concentrate on getting something (anything) down, knowing i had plenty of time for sculpting afterwards, things moved on at last.

Even though the project has some fundamental elements to conclude (publishing format being the main one) it’s now moving forward at a more confident pace. Once i’ve got the first draft of all the chapter intros done, i’ll move back on to the design work and share some new concepts.

IDEO’s future of the book

http://player.vimeo.com/video/15142335

The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.

This blows me away. I have long held IDEO in high regard. To my mind they can usually be found at the very forefront of modern design and this work only furthers my admiration.

In fact watching this project unfold has made me seriously question my path through traditional print based publishing (shhhh don’t tell my publisher). Perhaps having a printed book along with a digital network is not the way to go? But then again the central theme of the book is online and offline working together, so i’ve gone around in circles with my thinking.

Not having a team to help me resolve these issues is certainly the hardest part of this project so far. I haven’t worked on a creative project in isolation for a long time and I’ve often thought about inviting a friend to become a co-author. For now I’ll keep chipping away.

Apologies for the rambling nature of this post.

Looking for examples, please help

For Chapter 3 I need examples of brands that encourage variation and creative interpretation of their identity. Examples I’m already using include the NYC identity and Aol’s new logos, both by Wolff Olins

Anyone got any other examples?

Recent book consumption

Since I kicked this project off I’ve been soaking my head in as many books around the subject as possible.

I’m getting through a lot. At the moment I have six titles on the stack and a couple coming soon.

Baked In
Haven’t started this yet. Looking forward to reading more on Alex Bogusky’s approach.

Oh My God What Happened and What Should I Do?
I’ve only just started this, but how could i resist a description like this “This book is for everyone who wants to move into the digital era of awesomeness”. This book also had some brilliant new ideas for payment and distribution.

The Designful Company
A quick read, that deals with the importance of a design approach to businesses and brands.

Brand Identity Now
This is probably the closest book to how I imagined mine. However the selected subject matter would be more focussed on digital than here. A good book none the less.

How to do better creative work
Perhaps not the most obviously relevant book around, but this is not only a really good book on creative concept development. It also tackles the place of digital next to offline and includes some insight that i thoroughly intend to mine.

I Miss My Pencil
To be honest I don’t remember what lead me to this title, but it’s from the IDEO stable so it’s sure to be a gem.

Toyota Auris interface advert

Here is a strange little cross over between online and offline. The new ATL advert from Toyota for its Auris car references a touch screen interface. You will often see websites making references to TV and Print, but it’s rare to see such strong references to mobile in a TV campaign. I wonder if Toyota has made the natural connection and created a phone app that you can interact with in the same way?