To kick off this year’s Baseline Shift sessions, we welcomed highly acclaimed book cover designer Micaela Alcaino.

 

A little on Micaela

Micaela started her journey at Penguin Random House and HarperCollins UK, before making the big shift in 2019 to freelance work. Alongside balancing up to thirty design projects at once, Micaela still makes time for archery, the gym, and spending time with her family and dog. It is no surprise that we received the comment “I want to be her” from one of our part two students.

Research

One of the key stages of her design process that Micaela focussed on, was the research stage. Our speaker goes above and beyond to ensure that she has immersed herself in the culture, traditions and artistic style that relates to the content of the book that she is designing for. When Micaela cannot visit a place or get access to tactile objects that relate to the book, she finds much of her inspiration through scouring Pinterest. It is important to note here that, instead of looking at other book covers for ideas, Micaela advocates for “seeking inspiration outside of your design sphere”.

 

Blank canvas

Starting with a blank canvas containing only the key information that will be included on the cover before tackling any of the actual ‘design’ elements, is something that many will have taken away from this talk. It was great to see Micaela posing the same questions here that are often asked on our course – “What is my hierarchy? What fonts work well for the genre? What are the important visual elements in the book?”.

Sketches

A lesson that Micaela has learnt herself and has now passed onto us is not to take first round sketches to the point of completion as it will become impossible to stay on track with your time management. The helpful restriction Micaela places on herself is to “treat the first-round sketches like a colouring book”. This way, the placement of colour can still be considered but does not need to be achieved at the early stages of design.

Revisions

Something that many of us resonated with in the talk is the emphasis on the first draft not being the final piece. We were shown a case study of Micaela’s cover design for ‘Ariadne’ which went through several stages of revision. Each iteration had the smallest of changes, and out of the seven revisions we were shown in the presentation, we were told that this was just a fraction! It’s great to see that iteration in the design process is not something only contained within education but is something that follows us into the real world of design.

The book as a 3D object

Something to remember when working with any project that involves a three-dimensional product, is to consider each visible face. Micaela highlighted the importance of spine design, describing it as “essential” to a successful cover. Some helpful advice was to consider how the user will interact with the product, for example most novels will end up at one point with their spine facing out on a bookshelf – hence why spine design is so crucial.

Real world advice

One of the highlights of the talk was the section on business, contracts, and networking. Micaela made it clear that whichever path of design you choose to follow, you must “READ YOUR CONTRACTS”. We were shown examples of ways in which employers can take advantage of designers if we do not take responsibility and look after our rights both as designers and individuals. Students wrote that “this is the kind of thing that you normally only find out when it’s too late” and “I never even considered that before this talk”. This is the reason that Baseline Shift exists – to allow students a look into what design is like in the real world and to cover topics and subjects that are beyond the scope of the syllabus. We are truly grateful to Micaela for giving this insightful talk and look forward to the next Baseline Shift session!

Our key takeaways! 

• To track your favourite typefaces, you can create a spreadsheet categorising what each of your favourites is appropriate for. This also stops you overusing particular fonts.
• If you work in print design, in Photoshop colour picker you can use cmd + shift+ y to grey out the colours that don’t print in CMYK.
• Be online and be consistent across all platforms, maximising the use of the platform that is most relevant to your career.
• Read your contracts and know your rights!
• Especially important if you are freelance – Track your projects, and your expenses.
• Apps like Speechify can help to streamline the process by reading out manuscripts / text files in the background while you work.

 

Useful links

Business

Wise – Digital bank that allows for accounts in multiple currencies – helpful for business across different countries.

FreeAgent – Tracks all your invoices and expenses (connects with Wise) – helpful for having multiple projects on at one time.

 

Cultural awareness

Creative review – Great place to learn what’s happening in the creative industry

Its Nice that – Great place to learn what’s happening in the creative industry

The Bookseller – All the latest news in Publishing UK

Creative Market – Great place to find cool new fonts, templates, graphics and more

Society of Young Publishers – Great place to learn from industry professionals and connect

Design Publishing Inclusivity – mentorship programme for under-represented creatives

 

– Written by Tommy Molnar

– Photography by Oscar Dudley

Greg Bunbury, Josefina Bravo and James Lloyd joined together for Week 9 of Spring term provide their feedback and tips on students current projects, Real Jobs and personal work, offering advice on how to improve and enhance designs for upcoming deadlines and submissions.

 

American Revolution, Legal History and Politics

Matt from Part 2 shared his current project for the Design Practice module where he is designing a ‘collection’ of books taken from The Oxford University Press’ A Very Short Introduction. With 700 titles to choose from, Matt selected American Revolution, American Legal History and American Politics. His very distinctive focal points, connected all books together with the torn documents treated in the same way in terms of placements and size. He received feedback on this link and tutors questioned whether they need to be handled in the same way or if they can still be impactful with slight differences so that they are all not so uniform. James then showed examples of existing book covers with visually similar designs that are also different. He was advised of the potential ethical issues of ‘tearing up’ historical documents – however this was counter argued for the visually aesthetic look of the piece which was made more of a statement than a solid document and was therefore offered a variety of ways to still hold this effect, such as rolled up or folded paper. Matt was praised for his strong ‘American’ colour scheme and legibility of all three sleeves but was warned of an odd title placement which is quite close to the margin.

Film, World and Early Music

Also preparing for the submission of the same project, Jasmine showed her book jackets for her selection of Film music, World Music and Early Music. Tutors and students enjoyed the connection between the elements of Jasmines designs, however Greg offered a suggestion to standardise angles of the instruments to create uniformity between the set and so text can sit in the same yet legible way. James suggested that the piano works best and advised Jasmine to consider different instruments which work in the same way as the piano and designed with the same dimensions and the design for World Music appears more realistic than the others. Josefina commented on how the client details were positioned well, such as the barcode and how each page works well when stood alone.

Planets, Stars and the Black Hole

Again, with the same project, Tristan showed his book sleeves for Planets, Stars and the Black Hole to create his collection. Josefina stated how there was good visual impact in the three and how it was interesting to add all three on the inside flap. Greg offered advice to separate the authors name from the publisher as it could appear as misleading being too close to each other and James suggested editing methods within Photoshop to create further definition.

The Village Florist

Next was Part 1, Jony who showed his mobile web design for the Integrated Design module which required two working features using a prototype for an existing website that needs upgrading. Jony chose the The Village Florist and went through the pages of his file explaining how the features would work. Tutors enjoyed the way there was many ways to navigate to one place from a variety of different points such as the burger menu, links and actual clickable images but suggested how the website needs to look more like a website rather than an app in terms of placements and layout. Jony learnt how to connect an element to a certain part of the page instead of just to the top.

The Washbox

Similarly, Mathew showed his website prototype, for The Washbox, a laundry service in Reading, and had features of collection and delivery as well as a walk in facility. Mathew explained the navigation of a user on his website well and was advised by Josefina of the cluttering of elements on his homepage and how to prioritise entry points for different pages with methods such as colour. James suggested the use of alternative imagery to grab the users attention instead of the existing one.

Conclusion

Drawing the session to a close, students expressed their gratitude for tutors who offered advice on ways to improve their current work.

‘I liked seeing other students work to gain inspiration!’

‘Feedback from different people with different experiences; a chance to show the tutors the work I wanted feedback on but might not have shown otherwise.’

‘Greg, Josefina and James’ advice was really helpful as they’re not all tutors I would usually see.’

‘It is very valuable getting feedback on my word as well as hearing feedback on others!’

Feedback Jam is a great way to gain different perspectives on both professional and personal work and is extremely valuable to being open to constructive criticism and and considering tips on how to progress.

Autumn term Feedback Jam, hosted in Week 7 of term with tutors Sara Chapman, Josefina Bravo and Geoff Wyeth was put in place to assist students with upcoming deadlines towards the end of term. A valuable Baseline Shift to obtain extra advice along with tips and tricks on how to improve before final submissions!

Part 3 Students

The session kicked off with Part 3 student, Mia, showing her Publishing Platform module work of her magazine spreads and covers for the chosen topic of surfing for women. This brief was to create spreads for three different articles, as well as interview, contents, and full sleeve cover – for a self-chosen topic. Tutors appreciated the handcrafted typography used for quotes however suggested the width of the stroke may not fit the overall aesthetic a surfing magazine might aim for. Linking to this, Mia was advised to ‘have more fun’ with layout and placements so that it doesn’t appear as linear and is more fit for surfing itself.

 

‘Experiment, rough it up a bit more!’ 

‘Be bold!’ 

 

Similarly, Part 3 student Ben presented his magazine spreads for the same project with his topic of graphic novels. Based on the layouts of graphic novels themselves, Ben’s cover incorporates this idea of how image is split to create a more interesting visual element. Both students and staff praised the connection between type and imagery, however felt the grid to feel quite forced and looking like something wanted to fill in every gap. Peers also noticed how the same character was shown in three spreads and and questioned if this was necessary. Geoff enforced the importance of production concerns when placing graphic elements over the centre of spreads which could be lost due to the binding and therefore lead to misalignment, perhaps even causing issues with how information is communicated.

‘White space is so important!’

‘You want it to be serious but not the same.’ 

 

Part 2 Students

Second year student, Finn presented his posters for feedback working on a campaign project for sustainable development goals. Using wood type lettering, Finn was advised to consider the spacing between words, as the sentence was read differently than he intended. It showed the importance of hierarchy when placing text on a page.

‘Create a link between concept and message’.

 

Matthew also presented his work for the same project and received feedback on his image and how effective it is in communicating the message – It risked overpowering or competing with the type. Tutors also suggested the call for action could be amended to exploit the space more, and to visually match the content and what it communicates.

 

Part 1 Students

Finally, first year Ethan showed his work for a book design project where the brief was to format text in either a modern or traditional style and compliment this with a foreword, table of contents and end matter. Discussing indents and spacing, Ethan learned about italics and how this can be used to differentiate between hierarchy of text, for example a letter in which he was presenting within the main body of text. 

 

Conclusion 

It is so important to gain insight into your work from a different perspective outside the regular classes. Sometimes we can be biased towards our own design or be too hard on ourselves. Fresh insights go a long way. As a designer, we should always be willing to receive new opinions and advice to enhance our current and future projects.

’The session is so helpful!’

‘Even though I didn’t show my work, it’s always great seeing my peers and using similar advice for my own work.’

In week 3 of Autumn term, we were joined by editorial designer and co-founder of Senet magazine, James Hunter. In this session, James talked about his editorial design industry experience as well as his decision to co-found the magazine, based on his passion for boardgames.

Graduation and early career

After graduating from Falmouth University in 2010 with a degree in Graphic Design, James was adamant about not wanting to work for a traditional branding agency. Instead, he began working at the Guardian newspaper where he loved the “buzz of the newsroom”. Later in his career, James worked as an editorial designer for the Times newspaper, where the majority of his work revolved around designing early prototypes of the newspaper’s app, editorial design  work for print, and their magazine. During his time at there, he found the daily deadlines of work exciting, reminding him of his time at university, and motivating him to work consistently – a work ethic that all students could use! This work for daily newspapers inspired him to create his own magazine based on his passion for boardgames. James brought SENET magazine to life, after collaborating with many other like-minded people together to conceptualise the magazine.

‘Make a magazine about something you love, treat it like a magazine, not a business’ – James Hunter

 40 thoughts

 

The highlight of James’s lecture was his 40 thoughts behind making a magazine. There were many important points that students took with them to apply to their current projects; especially for the third year students who were working on a magazine design project. Point 21 advised students that the design of a magazine should be a response to the content that is being presented for audiences. This directly linked to point 22 which encouraged reading the the copy many times. This is because as an editorial designer the visuals and overall design needs to suit what has been written, therefore reading the copy is integral in helping make content and visuals compliment each other. Another point he emphasised was to ‘approach your magazine with a beginner’s mind, to keep it fresh’, telling students to design with an open mind when making an issue of a magazine as it would create new avenues to explore when designing instead of creating new concepts based on previous work.

SENET is a collaborative project made by James and his other colleagues who help to produce, design and sell the magazine. It is focused on boardgames and the fantasy genre, the aim of the magazine is to appeal to those who already have a passion for boardgames, while also inviting a new audience by producing appealing magazine designs.

SENET has enjoyed a growing circulation.

‘I’ve always loved magazines and always read them’ – James Hunter

Conclusion

Students were given valued advice from James’ talk for developing their projects further as the term progresses. Third year students especially benefitted hearing the 40 thoughts of designing a magazine, providing guidance to improve  their current magazine designs, as well as being able to apply James’ principles to their own work.

‘I really enjoyed how James established his work and career and then transitioned into how that informed Senet magazine. I also liked the level of detail he went into about the magazine that has to do not just with the design but all the logistical, financial, and business sides of self publishing.’ – MA student

‘It was inspiring to hear James’ insight into magazine design,  his talk has been really helpful for the upcoming magazine project.’ – Part 3 student

In week 2 of Autumn term, we were joined by typeface designer, Toshi Omagari. In this session, Toshi presented a wide range of enthralling videogame typefaces showing how they function to immerse users, along with providing students guidance on how to expertly produce typography for different projects. Followed by an 8×8 pixel type workshop and a fun retro arcade style party!

Arcade typography

Toshi presented many retro arcade typefaces, explaining the evolution of how type was designed since the start of videogames, emphasising the importance of type’s legibility and its interactive elements. His passion for arcade game typography came from Toshi being surrounded by arcade games in Japan whilst growing up. The wide variety of gaming’s colourful and animated type strongly influenced Toshi’s existing interest for fonts fonts and the characteristics of typefaces. This love for typography and videogames inspired him to research and write his book on Arcade Game Typography. The book contains a plethora of arcade game typefaces that Toshi researched to show how type in videogames interact digitally and how type is designed to present messages to audiences on screen.

Arcade Game Typography by Toshi Omagari.

Students were interested in how type has developed over time with the evolution from black and white to a wide array of colours and the introduction of drop-shadows, gradients and the progression of multi-lingual type. Toshi explained that ‘these fonts have been with us the whole time, but there was no comprehensive effort to document them. Maybe because it was not considered a serious subject by professional typographers, or maybe too technically demanding.’ But as he had shown students, there is no subject too broad or niche to explore when researching graphic design, which is comforting information for the part three students writing their dissertations. 

Toshi Omagari analysing pixel typography and how type interacts with the videogame on screen.

Pixel workshop & pixel party

 

Students were engaged in various pixel typography exercises.

The department held workshops lead by tutors after Toshi’s lecture. Students practiced colourful Lego letter-pressing pixel styled letters, as well as creating fonts using post-it notes where students won some great prizes!

After the typeface workshops, the dance-mats and arcade games came out for a fun night of music, food and drink in the department. From games like Pac-man, Streetfighter and Mortal Kombat, students had an array of games to play while socialising with their course-mates. To conclude, all students and lecturers had an exciting day learning about retro typography and having the opportunity to play some classic arcade games.

Students loved playing all the retro-arcade games!

Conclusion

From arcade game typography to the pixel party, students adored this week’s Baseline shift. Students gained a lot of insight into producing typography along with the fun of playing against their classmates in retro arcade games.

‘His presentation was so intriguing and the passion behind Toshi’s work was incredible! ’ – Part 1 student

‘This Baseline shift was very interesting! I loved it.’ – Part 3 student