Unit 3 Professional and Academic Contexts (PAC)

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This project required me to submit a body of research work that supports the development and delivery of an A3 publication. The content for the publication was drawn from presentations by design practitioners whose work is situated in either an academic or a professional context. I was required to attend four presentations, organised by the course, to gather the material for the publication; to identify key quotes from the speakers; take photographs of the session and engage in discussion with them to get an in-depth insight into the way they work.

Below a Video Mock-Up of my complete publication.

The process of making this publication made me learn a lot about editorial and the professional print industry. The assignment was set as a “professional challenge”, as having to deliver a large publication we were approaching a completely different universe. Beginning from the production phase we had to find printer shops printing in large formats (A2 in my case as I divided my publication in sections) and we had to learn about submitting our work to them in an effective way. The process of making this publication made me learn a lot about editorial and the professional print industry. The assignment was set as a “professional challenge”, as having to deliver a large publication we were approaching a completely different universe. Beginning from the production phase we had to find printer shops printing in large formats (A2 in my case as I divided my publication in sections) and we had to learn about submitting our work to them in an effective way.

For the print publication I have used a coptic binding to make sure it was flat when open. This because I experimented placing images and text on the spine.

The cover was printed in the letterpress workshop at LCC over two days. The registration process was long and precise but also satisfying. Both aligning and levelling out elements to print the right texture were manual actions and required several trials. For the alignment of the small text to the typeface and especially for the alignment of the red dot (as different colours print at different turns) several proof prints were needed. Hence, I would have wasted several sheets of paper, so I begun printing on that I had already used. The idea was inspired by experimentation I did in Unit 1 where I overlapped words to explore type.

The typeface on the cover was designed on a picas grid, it was modular in order to be composed of letterpress spacing elements. Specifically, I used Quads (Quadrats) which are made of Em spaces grouped in one element. Quads are extra wide spaces used for centering things, for example poetry. In the letterpress workshop there are Quads of 3x6, 4x6, 5x6 and 6x6 picas available for me to design my typeface. The complication derived from the fact that spacing elements are not for printing but for creating whitespace so they are lower than printing elements. Using them for printing meant I had to level them up to the minimum roller height by using type high roller gauge and layering sheets of tissue paper or cardboard under each Quad.