Consideration of Accessibility

Accessibility is creating and designing materials that are suitable and therefore accessible for people with disabilities. For example if someone is colour blind or has dyslexia, may find it difficult to follow certain texts.

In my 60's fashion project I have showed consideration for those who struggle with a disability like the ones I have listed above. This is because I have not used green or red text on top of each other, as this could be very difficult for someone with colour blindness to read. I have also not wrote any technical words or phrases for someone with dyslexia or limited vocabulary might not understand. Along with this I have included an index at the back of the book, so if there is a word that the reader does not understand, it will be explained here.

Also I have used lots of visual elements to my book including; images, moving gifs, links and even Youtube videos. This could really help someone to understand and interpret the text and the information I am trying to get across. As well a being actually interactive and fun!

I have previously wrote a short essay on accessibility on Google docs, click here to read more.

60's Interactive Book

I have decided to make this blog post to present my 60's Fashion Style Interactive book prototype so far. This is to show my progression throughout this production process. I have not yet wrote the actual article content, however I have made a decision on the topics I want to cover within my book.

Here are some screen shots from my EPub export. (This is not finished, as I need to add content and change some design elements.)

I have tried to stick to the typical characteristic of a 60's publication, by not lining things up perfectly and by using a lot of black and white, old images. I have also added some 1960 advertisements that relate to the fashion topic of this book, also to make it look more realistic. As far as the interactive element of the book, I want to include short clips of Twiggy's lashes blinking and use hyperlinks when relating to a topic.

I want to change the layout slightly of a few different pages within this book, for example the 'The Designers' page, as I think this looks too modern. I would separate the images and text a bit more and maybe change the photos as well, to overall make is more reminiscent of the 60's.

SWOT Analysis of Previous Projects

The first project that I have chosen to analyse is my FMP last year. This was my high end fashion magazine and here are some screenshots below from this project:

SWOT No.1-

 Strengths:

• Overall looks professional
• Lots of vibrant and good quality images
• Fits with the high end theme

Weaknesses:

• Include more detailed articles- more variety
• Only a 16 page magazine

Opportunities:

• Also can read magazine on a digital format
• Target audience interested in new trends
• Can present in end of year show

Threats:

• Competitors have a series of issues already
• Could have problems with the printing process due to expenses

The second piece of work I have chosen to analyse is my perfume website project. Here are some screenshots below: 

 SWOT No.2-

 Strengths:

• Overall looks professional
• Has both desktop and mobile version
• Includes hover states for good user experience

Weaknesses:

• Mobile version is a little bit small
• Product page looks better than homepage
• Top panel too simple

Opportunities:

• Can be used on two platforms
• Can present in end of year show

Threats:

• Competitors have a more interactive website with videos etc
• Technical issues could occur

60's Typography Research

I have added to my research by looking into 1960's typography. I managed to find a website which has an article that shows 1960 fonts actually in use, this is a screenshot and a link to where I got this information: https://fontsinuse.com/tags/301/1960s 

Below I put together a mood board of my own. I included lots of different 60's typeface examples including psychedelic fonts, bubbled type and more simple typography that are still used today. I decided to display my research in a creative way and therefore came up with this mood board idea, using a mixture of 50% and 100% opacity, for an interesting effect.

Cover Design Update

Yesterday's design layouts that I created wasn't quite what I wanted my cover to look like, so I decided to give it another go and try some more possible options. This is a link to my old trial designs to see what I started with: http://lucyashby.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/page-layout-design.html

Below is a screenshot of all of the designs again and the new ones that I have created:

Here is a closer look at the ones I added:

I think my favourite layouts are the top two Twiggy covers. This is because it actually relates to the 60's, as Twiggy is a very recognisable model and instantly represents the 60's era. She was also considered a fashion icon of the day, which also relates greatly to the topic of my book.

I also quite like the last design as it does almost look like it was actually made in the 60's and does look old fashioned, whereas the others look a little bit more modern. I would however, try a few more colour options with this design, as I think it could look better in a different colour palette.

Target Audience for 60's Interactive Book

I have done some research on target audience for my 60's interactive book. When I went to the 60's revolution exhibition at the V&A Museum, I found that the two types of people that were there, were either older generations or young students like me. The older generations that attended were people who actually lived during that time and therefore reminiscing about the 60's era. As for the younger students, these were most likely there because they are interested and wanting to learn what it was like in the 60's!

After finding this information out, this is probably the same two types of people that would be interested in my book. However because it is a fashion related book, this could narrow down the audience to mostly women, because stereotypically females are more interested in fashion. On the other hand, this may not be the case as men still could be interested just from the fact that it is the 60's.

Page Layout Design

I started off by researching some 60's book covers, to see what style and rules that they seem to stick to. I found that a lot of them were either fairly simple, or completely packed with pattern, colour and font. Here are some examples that I found:

Next, I created some of my own designs on Adobe Illustrator. These are all potential covers for my interactive 60's fashion book:

I used 60's inspired patterns and bright, bold colours. I also drew some 60's clothing silhouettes, to represent some of the fashion that was popular in this day. These are only trial covers, as I don't particularly like any of them for my book. This is because I think you can tell that the background is actually modern and therefore does not look like it would of in the 60's. I also think that the 'Fashion' font isn't quite right.

Indesign Trial Layout

I have put together a very simple layout design on Adobe Indesign, I mostly did this to learn a bit more about the software and how to use the paragraph styles tab. Here is an image below of what I created:

I started a new digital publishing document, designed for an Ipad landscape. I increased the size of the margins, as it is an app and also added columns and guide lines.

I then pressed the window drop down menu and clicked styles- paragraph styles and this box came up:

As you can see, I have created a few layers with slightly different characteristics according to he text type. I adjusted these paragraph styles by double clicking the layer.

The image above shows where I chose font, type size, kerning, leading, etc. I also made sure that hyphenating was off on each section.

These paragraph styles were created because it is a lot easier to click that specific style, according to what section you are writing throughout the production process. It means that you don't need to keep recreating the same styles when writing more in the same theme. For example when writing the main body text, this should be the same throughout the whole book so it looks more professional and put together, this is made a lot easier using this method.

Vintage Effect on Photoshop

I have researched and looked into creating a vintage effect on an image in Adobe Photoshop. I found a website that had clear step by step instructions on how to do this. Here is the link: http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/tutorials/photoshop/vintage-effects-photos/#10

It gives the effect that a newly taken photo, was taken back in the 60's without looking too processed. Here is the image I took off the website above, demonstrating this effect:

Although this looks like an old photo, there is an Iphone in the image which proves this was actually taken fairly recently!

I decided that I would like to give this ago myself, so I chose a new image and tried my own example. Here is the before photo below:

This is the after result from all the effects that I added:

I used many different adjustment layers including; lens correction, noise, high pass, hue/saturation, curves, levels and contrast. These all create a vintage effect and makes the image look a lot older and therefore not as good quality, as this would be correct at this time.

60's Fashion Research

The theme of this project is 'The 60's'! I have chosen to especially look at 60's fashion, and also magazine covers of this time. Below I have a screenshot of my sketchbook, which shows some fashions and outfits that were popular in this day. For example I have included coloured tights, shift dresses, mini skirts, pointed shoes, bold patterns and flowey sleeves.

On the image below I have put together a mood board of many different 60's magazine covers. I have included models such as Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton, who were very popular supermodels in this time. In many of the images it also shows the dress code, style and makeup that was favoured in the 60's and how it is presented on the magazine covers.

London Museum Trip

Yesterday, our publishing group travelled to London to visit the Victoria and Albert museum, specifically to see the 60's Revolution exhibition. This started at around 2, so had some time before and after to explore other London museums, for example I also went to the Natural History Museum, as well as the Science Museum. Here are some pictures that I took during the day:

I really enjoyed the 60's Revolution exhibition because I like the music and especially the festival section within the exhibit. It was created so it felt like you were in a 60's festival, with live music and bean bags on the floor. It was also interesting seeing the different outfits that 60's stars wore and the scandals that happened during that time as well.

I also thought the Natural History Museum was fascinating, seeing all the dinosaur and extinct animals/mammals skeletons that use to live on earth.

Business Side of Publishing

There are three main stages in the book production process;

• Copy-editing- this involves reviewing the manuscript for grammar, spelling mistakes and consistency.

• Book page design and layout- this is where an overall design direction for the book is created and a prototype is printed.

• Book printing, binding and shipping- books are printed and stapled or bound, then books are packed and shipped.

The potential set backs that I could come across during this process would be either a spelling mistake or a grammar issue in the first stages of production, however this can easily be resolved and sent back with the corrections made. Also when a prototype is made, there could be a problem with the design element of the book, or a layout error where the printer cuts off the sides. This again can be corrected by having another sample copy made, until I am happy with the final book.

I have researched that it is best to publish a book under your publishing company rather than under your name. This is because it grants you legal and financial protection and this means that money cannot be taken from you personally and instead your company if anything goes wrong.

Ways you can get your book sold in a well-known book store;

Pay a substantial amount of money to have your book on their shelves.

^ Taken from another blog linked here.

Although, you can register to have your book on an online book shop like Amazon. However a lot of actual book shops do now request to go through their head office. Below I have another screenshot form a website linked here.

This shows my research on the process of getting your book into a well known book shop.

Other ways I can get my book out there are on online shops and having simple advertising on social media sites and maybe a video ad on youtube for the promotion of my book. This would also spread the word and eventually if people buy the book online, they can write reviews.