Updated 60's Interactive Book

This blog post is an update on my ibook, as last post I just had 7 pages and there was a lot of changes that I still wanted to make. For example I have now added lots of moving GIFS, a video from Youtube and various hyperlinks to different pages. All of which makes my book a lot more interactive and therefore more interesting to the audience.

I have also changed a few of the pictures and fonts, to fit in better with my theme and so that it all ties in together. I tried to make the layouts and colours reminiscent of what was used in the 60's, as well as being similar to what 60's book covers looked like.

Below are my 10 final pages of my 60's inspired interactive book:

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.

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.

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.