The Play and Pause of a Blurb Book
Before I layout my book, Eject, using the Blurb plugin for Adobe InDesign CC, there are a couple of steps I need to complete with my artwork and some decisions to make about the look and feel. First the artwork:
1. Create two separate files. I save my work files and also create final art files in Adobe Illustrator CC. I keep my work files in the Creative Cloud. That way I can see the images on my iPhone during the day with a different perspective. This helps me work things out in my head to fix a certain aspect of a drawing. I can revisit and knock it right out later. If everything is cool, then I will save as the final Illustrator CC files.
2. Prepping the files. I create my final vector files in Illustrator CC and bring them in as linkable files to InDesign CC. If I make any tiny adjustments to the Illustrator final files, I will click save and it will update to the InDesign layout file later.
3. The work order. I use yellow Post-it notes to stay organized and visualize how the sequence of art might go to tell the story. This helps me place things and I can move them around on the wall of my work cubicle to play with the order.
The organizing principle or chapters on the Post-its notes reflect the Hip-Hop artists I’m featuring in the book. They fall in three categories: Play, Mixed Tapes, and Lost Tapes. For Play, the artists are ones that I listened to in the late 1980s and early 1990s that inspired me. Mixed Tapes are mixed groups such as DJs/producers or other multiple artists groups like DJ Premiere. And of course the Lost Tapes are folks that we have lost from the Hip-Hop world. For these the ends of polyester cassette tape will swirl and float upward from the artists portraits for guys like Heavy D, Jam Master Jay, and Run-D.M.C. who have passed.
Select the book size. After I install and open the Blurb plugin for InDesign CC, I select “Blurb Book Creator” at the bottom of the File menu. Here I can start and name a New Project and select a Book Size in the pop-up window within InDesign. I chose the 8×10 format, which is rectangular and the closest size to a cassette tape. This will also work well for the portrait orientation for the sketches.
Paper choice is another big decision. The look and feel of this project already existed in my head and I knew I wanted a matte paper like ProLine Uncoated, a 100# paper. With matte the ink won’t sit on the top of the page in the same way as glossy. It will sink and became part of the fibers of the paper. I wanted that tactile feel on the page. It activates more senses, not just visual, but also touch. The more senses you activate the better the experience.
Typography. I hope that readers will not only feel the page and see the artists, but also hear their music as the look at each portrait. So for typography, I have a couple of goals in mind to put auditory in the book. In the old days with cassette tapes, we use to press pause and play on a tape player over and over, listening to a particular song in short bursts to get all the lyrics written down.
5-8 snap quotes have been rolling around in my head about cassettes from that era. One quote is by the Notorious B.I.G., “I let my tape rock ‘til my tape pops.” That refers to the play and pause method until you broke the tape. These visual cues set in InDesign CC with a nice san serif font are simple and clean and will help you hear the lyrics to these sounds. For some people it will resonate in their head, they will hear the beat, and that will pull them in a bit more.
I work first on the interior layout of the book with InDesign, placing art, creating type, and other elements on the pages, saving the cover for last.
That way, I will know the page length of the book and the width of the spine will be correct the first time. Plus I may have a few more changes to the cover after I finished the layout anyway.
Stay tuned as I wrap up this project and share some final thoughts on making a Blurb book. #ArtistWorkflow
Robert Generette III is an illustrator, teacher, and vector art monster based in Maryland. He is sharing his workflow to create and build a Blurb book, Eject.
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