415 | Designer Bio

Designer Biography Assignment

scenario / process / requirements / design script / schedule

Scenario

Phaidon, an international publisher of art and design books, plans to publish, in conjunction with the Design Museum of London, a new biographical dictionary of important figures in the history of design. They have the completed manuscript (MS) and now need a sensible and effective design for its content. In particular, they want the style of each entry to reflect the style of its subject, the designer. At the same time, they want certain supra-textual and spatial features to run consistently throughout the book, to prevent too chaotic a composition. So the Phaidon editors commission three established information design teams known for their skill and imagination with just this sort of project (i.e., yourselves) to create three sample designs each.

Each team will brainstorm collectively, to review the design conventions for the biographical reference article and reference book genres and to imagine different design strategies.

Then each team member will select a figure from the list and produce a distinct design for that entry.

The text (but not the images) for the entries is available at the Design Museum website.

Recommended designers:

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Design Engineer (1806-1859)
Alvar Aalto
Archigram
Jamie Hewlett
Saul Bass
Isamu Noguchi, Designer + Sculptor (1904-1988)
Tim Berners-Lee
Penguin Books
Cedric Price
Alison + Peter Smithson
R. Buckminster Fuller
Ernö Goldfinger, Architect (1902-1987)

While the textual content has been finalized for this project, the visual content remains contingent on the chosen design. Therefore, each design will need to supply its own images.

The deadline for the final designs is Monday, February 26.

Process

Analyze the rhetorical situation of the project: Who is the book's audience? What is its purpose? What is/are the context(s) in which it will be used?

Research the design and generic conventions of reference books. Explore design possibilities by examining instances of other genres. What features might you adapt to the task at hand? This will involve visiting the the Reference Sections of an RU library or a bookstore as well as actively keeping an eye out for design features in the documents your encounter daily (e.g., in magazines or on-line).

Locate illustrations and other graphic (extra-textual) elements you might use. Online images, such as those to found on the Design Museum website, in most cases will be of inferior quality, given their low resolution. You might do better to scan images whenever you can.

Produce a first "test" draft of the design for next week's class.

Review and the test the design with other members of your team and then revise.

Requirements

You will need to fit the information in 4-8 pages (on 2-4 sheets of 8˝ x 11 paper). But remember that conciseness is a design value in document design.

The Phaidon editors want two or three pull-quotes (where possible), so try to work these into your design.

You will need to find and add visual material as needed.

You will need to add headings and/or use other devices to label and divide the text.

Remember that your design will be a sample or paradigm for all the entries in the book. Thus, you should make whatever supra-textual (book-wide) design decisions you think appropriate (page headers, footers, numbering, etc.).

For instance, the von Neumann text has five numbered notes: should these appear as footnotes? endnotes? sidenotes? Make a reasoned decision.

You may work in black, white, and gray but color is recommended for the more colorful designers.

You may break up (or combine) existing paragraph divisions (as needed).

Follow the CRAP principles of design.

Finally, because your work needs to be accessible in both printed and electronic versions, create a folder called "biobook" inside your "415" folder on Eden for storing your work. Remember to set all permission properties to "755."

Design Script

The editors request that each team member provide a design script detailing the decision-making process behind the design. As with the previous design script, you should draw on the readings to support and clarify your decisions. Quote at least three times each from at least two of the readings.

The design script should include a short MLA style works cited identifying the sources of any visual material used in the design. It should also include materials you drew on for design inspiration (models, etc.)

~Jonathan Bass