Experimental Layout Design

The emphasis of this project was to experiment with layout design. Take a look at the image above and you’ll see what I’m talking about. This is just a quick experiment with the grid, typography and hierarchy treatment.

Process Book

Above, you can see the process book I put together for this project. It ended up being a 42 page book with a french fold that’s spiral bound. The concept was to align the gutter of the spreads with the edges of the pages. This would allow space for commentary on each page. The french folds allow for the reader to flatten a page to see the full spread as well as the previous and next page all at once, hiding the commentary.

Process

The process of expanding on the concepts of Gestalt Theory and Accessibility was just as important as the final products. A lot of time and effort went in to writing the articles before the design was even considered. I interviewed Qi Zhu, a disabled student at VCU. She gave me a lot of insight in to the problems with accessibility on campus, around popular research avenues and online. The article on Gestalt Philosophy started with a lot of research on the subject and ended with a quest to create the word “Prägnanz 1924” two characters at a time using the laws of Gestalt Philosophy.

Accessibility Spreads

Accessibility across languages, technologies and disabilities has interested me for quite some time. Since I’ve had an interest in web design and front-end development since I was in high school, it only seemed natural that I pick up an interest inaccessibility and usability. This article is about the problem we have online with accessibility. There exists this issue because the user base that is effected is so small in comparison. Larger companies do not feel the need to accommodate these types of accessibility issues. I would encourage you to read the article.

Gestalt Philosophy Spreads

Gestalt Philosophy is another subject I’ve become more and more interested in over the years. I have always liked playing with people’s perception of the world. Modifying it just a little to make them second guess their own eyes. That’s where Gestalt Philosophy comes into play. It is the study of how the mind naturally organizes the world around it so it can make sense of its surroundings. This article goes into depth about the component parts of Gestalt Philosophy and why it exists.

Table of Contents

The final part of the project was to come up with a way of marking the different sections by author. It needed to link the book together since the articles and designs of each section were so different every 4 pages. My design drew upon a secret element to generate the size of the color bar. The subsequent section dividers would gradually fill up with the specified color according to the position in the book. The closer the section divider was to the back of the book the more color and the less space the text would take up. The second image above would be near the front of the book while the third image would be closer to the rear.