Final Statement

My finished book is titled “Above and Under the Skin”, which fits perfectly for my book. The subject matter of my book deals with deformities and the way they affect one with them—not only physically but mentally and emotionally as well. The project was a project of special placing and meticulous placing, cutting, and overall craft, but also had a combination of a little spontaneity.

The final project was a combination of recent project mentioned below in Visual Communication class and part Typography class. First, we composed dot compositions, which were decided from mind mapping and collecting 9 words. Once the compositions were in the making, we started another phase in Typography class. We took the nine words and made compositions from them to display the words. After the long process of copying the type on transparencies, cutting out pages, cutting out dots, and binding the book with a wire o-ring the book was completed.

Mind map routing from the word "Population"

Throughout the process of the book, many principles were involved. For the type and dot compositions, I used principles to communicate and support my concept of deformities for the book. I did this by thinking using motion in my letters and dots to convey the different feelings my words brought. When incorporating images, I stayed in the happy middle of being literal and metaphorical. By communicating both in a literal and metaphorical sense, it brought strength to my dot compositions and ideas which then sparked something and continued to strengthen the communication of my words in the type aspect of my book, as well.

When putting the type and dots together, it pushes the feeling of my words to a whole new level. I could not be more pleased with how spontaneous they turned out and how cohesive they actually were.

Over the course of the project, I incorporated many objectives over the course of the project. I worked through a series of designs, which came about through exploring different process, images, compositions, etc. All of which were developed with purpose and messing around with each compositions. I visually communicated my words with design principles, which was practiced in previous Vis Com assignments. Each composition was strong individually and made even more of an impact when working cohesively together. I learned that the first composition is never the best, nor the one you stick with for a final product. Each composition, and thought, just gets better and better as the process moves a long. I have also learned that there is always room for improvement and that hard work, in the long run, produces a better result than just “trying”.

Everyone knows that nothing is perfect and there is always room for improvement, especially when you’re just starting off. As far as craft is concerned, my cutting skills could have been better. I am not a machine, I am human, and flawless handwork is both stunning and humbling. I could have somehow figured out how to cut my pages better. Also, I had trouble finding images. I couldn’t find anything, with in the time frame allowed, to perfectly display what I was looking for. The images I used were, for about 85%, were pulled from the Internet. I didn’t realize how hard it was to find images online, at high quality, that are exactly what you’re looking for (angle, shot, color, resolution, etc.)

Overall, I am very proud of my book. I didn’t realize how difficult the subject matter would be to look at and image until I started the process. When looking at my book, I hope one gets a feeling of, not disgust, sorrow, or regret, but just a piece of mind for those around them and what’s it’s like to be imperfect. What it’s like to be a human.