Compose two styles
Rather than blending two styles into a middle, this assigns them roles: one carries the structure, the other appears as an accent. Where the two fight, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Photo Essay: One dominant image per spread and never equal sizes
- Type
- Set in Photo Essay's manner (Write captions in a voice apart from the body text), and let Photobook's lettering (Gather the writing at the front or back, keeping captions out of the flow.) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Photo Essay's material (Full-page frames open and close, denser pages between); bring in exactly one thing from Photobook (Choose paper weight and tone, format, and how flat the binding opens.).
- Colour
- Build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #e8e4da, #857d70, #242321.
Where they fight
- Both belong to Publishing and Editing, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
- Roughly 1917 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.
Caution
- Photo Essay Good pictures get lined up without a sequence being designed, every spread arrives at the same pitch, and the reader loses any reason to turn the page.
- Photobook Selecting good photographs without working the order gives a stack and no arc, and readers stop halfway. Design how the time of turning pages and the paper and format change the meaning.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Photo Essay (Layout, 1936–1972) and its accent from Photobook (Layout, 19th century–). Structural cues: Sequenced narrative arcs; Size contrast across spreads; The full-page key image; Captions that narrate. Accent cues, used sparingly: Photographic sequence; Spreads; Repetition and pause; The book as matter. Composition: One dominant image per spread and never equal sizes. Type and lettering: Write captions in a voice apart from the body text. Let one material quality come from the second style: Choose paper weight and tone, format, and how flat the binding opens.. Mood: Intimacy, Exhilaration, Trust, Calm, Luxury. Color: build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 with a single accent drawn from #e8e4da, #857d70, #242321. Constraints: do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. Produce an original composition in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Photo Essay 1936–1972 / Layout / Publishing and Editing
The page form LIFE perfected: photographs edited into narrative arcs. Spread-scale contrasts, opening and closing images and the voice of captions gave photography a story grammar.
- Photobook 19th century– / Layout / Publishing and Editing
Builds its visual narrative across the whole book rather than in single photographs, working with sequence, spreads, margins, text, paper and format.
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