Brief 1: Finalised PDFs of all Publications to send to print

I have sent off the publications to Duffields to be printed, they sent me back a pdf to check and there were a few small changes that I needed to make. Hopefully I should be able to print them up on Monday.

I am very happy with how all three publications have come together. I think the portfolio is the most successful out of all them in terms of layout and content. It is very different from the original idea and Bella came to me with; originally she wanted to have smaller images that were centrally placed on the pages, and the front cover to have a large white background. I have sent the pdf proof to Bella and she is very happy with the result and loves the layout, which is fantastic news.

When I saved the PDF's I saved them as spreads instead of pages, so you are shown two spreads at the same time (4 pages). I tried to re upload them to issue as a pdf as pages but for some reason it wouldn't upload.

Publication 1 // Pure Imagination

Publication 2 // Fashion Look Book

Publication 3 // Bella Rae's Portfolio

Brief 1: Publication 3 // Portfolio Mock UP

3. Bellas Portfolio by Emily Fairbank

Brief 1: Publication 2 // Fashion Look Book // Mock Up

1. Flick Book Mock Up by Emily Fairbank

Brief 1: Publication 1 // Pure Imagination // Mock Up

PDF of the Publication ready to be sent to print


1. Pure Imagination by Emily Fairbank

Brief 1: Portfolio Publication // Finalised New pages layout

These are just a couple of screenshots highlighting the finalised layouts for the new image spreads. 

I adopted a similar layout for this spread as I did for the first spread of Caiti's collection displaying the garments in the overgrown shrubbery. Bella had not given me a specific order for the photographs, only that the image on the spread above on the left side had to be on the front page. I paired up the other photographs in order of similarity. 

This is another spread I had a bit of trouble with originally because the image on the left side is much narrower than all the other portrait photographs I have used, making the placement of the text a little more tricky, but this is the layout I have gone with, I wanted to have the focus on the right hand image. 

This is the last spread of the portfoilo. I chose this to be last because it is the most colourful and very different from the rest of the photographs included, I wanted the publication to end with a very colourful image and this was very appropriate, it isn't an image the viewer will forget and it is one that you can spend time looking at closely to see what it actually is because of all the abstract shapes which the lighting creates. I used the same layout for this spread as the 'Constrain't spread, to have some similarity between the cover layouts. 

Brief 1: New Images for the 3rd publication // Bella's Portfolio

These are the last set of images I have been waiting for to be able to finish the publication. It is a series of 6 images featuring Caiti's (fashion designer) full collection for her Final Major Project. The spread below is the cover page. I could not apply the same cover page rule to this spread as I had done before because all the photographs are portrait not landscape so I had to use the rule for the other spreads to make this page work. 

Final Project.

I suggested to Bella that she needed to have her final piece for her third year, or at least some examples of what she was going to do, as it was the culmination of her degree, this was her portfolio so it is arguably the most important project and it needed to be included. I was sent four images and I only had space in the book to use two, which fitted well so I chose two photographs that contrasted in colour.

This was another of the images I was sent as part of her final piece development but I decided against using this as it wasn't as visually strong and 'finished' like the other images and photographs in the book.

Working the Layout.

I had to write a short bit of information about these final images, and luckily because this was the last project to include, I knew enough information about Bella's work and her ideas to be able to write something she was happy with.

Final Spread.

I had a bit of trouble arranging the text for this spread but I have managed to move around the images and adjust them so it fits with the rest of the publication and on the spread.

There is a strong diagonal focus of this image so I thought it would balance out the spread well if the text and title of the project was fitted around one of the corners.

Brief 1: Last set of images for the portfolio

Brief 1: Portfolio // Design development so far

I am still waiting for a couple more photographs and write ups from Bella but this is the overall design so far.

Bellas portfolio development.pdf by Emily Fairbank

Brief 1: Portfolio // Front Cover

I used the same format for the front and back cover for the 'Pure Imagination' publication by having a full bleed image. I think this is the strongest image from the whole project but it didn't fit well with the other images because it is very zoomed in and focuses more on the model's face rather than the clothing. It was perfect for the front cover, the main issue was that it is portrait orientation so it wouldn't spread well over the back cover. I didn't want to use a different image for the back cover as there would be too much contrast so I just vertically flipped it.

I wanted to have the logo quite large because it was going to be the only piece of text on the front cover. In an earlier discussion with Bella about the front cover, she wanted to have the word 'portfolio' written on the front, just like the cover of 'Oh Comley Magazane' has it, but I didn't think this was necessary and thought the logo provided enough information about the publication.

I wanted to get a balance between having a large logo, without it being too large that it covered the and drew they away away from the photograph.

Bella originally wanted to have a whole spread on me, my work and as a designer because this portfolio is a three way collaboration, however I felt that it was more appropriate to focus on her work and Caiti's clothes, so instead I have just placed my details on the back cover.

I wanted to have the text in white to match the logo but it wasn't clear enough and didn't work when aligned on the right side of the back cover. 

Chosen alignment - left and in black. 

Brief 1: Portfolio // Design Development

Format; I want to keep a form of consistency between the three publications so I used the same set of rules for the type layout as I did for the 'Pure Imagination' publication. 

Bellas initial idea for the design was the she wanted to have the images centralised and have a fair amount of white boarder surrounind it (like in the On Comley magazine). However I thought that the design would look better if the photographs alternated in size, placement etc. The new rule is that the photograph has to touch one side of the page that it is on, no less, no more.

This project is a three way collaboration and Because Caiti has a selection on her fashion designs, Bella said that she wanted to include a spread featuring my design work which I am a little bit hesitant about because this publication is about her work and her concepts. I will see how the pagination turns out and if I can negotiate some other way of including my name in the publication rather than having a whole spread! Anyhow, the spread above it the proposed photograph I was going to use for my page, and I would overlay a white logo, just like I did on the business cards. The right hand page would be a short pice of information about my work and maybe another piece of design relating to this brief with Bella.

Rule; Each new section that is over two spreads long has to have a landscape cover image. I felt that this was the strongest landscape image out of the shoot and a good introductory photograph to the new section. At the moment the names of each section are just ideas and have not been finalised...I thought of 'Into the fields' a play on the film 'into the wild' which closely connects to both Bella's and Caiti's project concepts.

One of the rules at the moment is that one of the images on the spread has to be larger than the other, this is so the eye is directed to the stronger image. This is just a preliminary layout which needs to be changed because the left photograph is touching two sides of the page. 

This is an incredibly powerful image and contrasts well with the cover of the previous section and the white of the page. There are going to be more pages in this section but I still need to select the images.

New Section; Range of Bella's

When Bella and I first discussed this publication, she originally just wanted three projects that focus on Caiti's collection. I suggested that because she was going to be using this as her portfolio for interview and part of her Final Major Project, that she includes some of her other photography from this year.

I went through the very large collection of images which Bella has take this year, and had a look at some of her best images from her blog and started trying to place them on the spread. This spread would be at the front of the book, before the other projects, and have a paragraph about Bella and her work to contextualise this publications.

As you can see there was a lot of trial and error, moving, deleting and enlarging for this spread. I wanted to show as many images on this spread as possible but the main issue was that the variation in colour and subject of the images was making the spread far too busy.

I adopted the text format from the "Pure Imagination" publication, Helvetica Neue but had it in 9pt with 14 ledding, and kept the grey page numbers as I think this format works very well. 

New Spread:

Many of the new images that I selected from Bella's third year work are just single images rather than two or three, so for situations like this I am just adopting the cover page rule and that all landscape images should be spread over 2/3rd of the entire spread, leaving enough space to write a blurb about the project / photograph.

Content Page:

The image on this page is one of Bella's favourites so I felt it was appropriate to use it on the first spread in the publication. It also meant that one of the photographs that I was trying to fit on the page about Bella's work, can be removed from that page and making it less cluttered. 

This is one of my favourite images from Bella's third year collection because of the huge contrasts in colour of the clothes and the background so I thought it was an ideal image to use for the page about Bella. After a lot of trouble with the images previously on this spread, I decided to make a new rule that would help me keep the layout simpler...only two images per spread.

Caiti's Collection.

This is the first of the projects which Bella collaborated on where she photographed the third year Fashion designers collection in a rural, overgrown area.

Section Two:

I changed the name to because I thought that the previous one was too long and it was catching too much attention the focus was been drawn away from the photograph.

New Wilderness Spread;

I have enlarged the right hand image, it is still smaller than the left image but the balance of the impact is more equal now, I think this is a really strong spread.

Section 3:

I named this section 'constraint', a reflection of the shoot concept which was a demonstration of the limitations of contemporary urban cities.

These are the two photographs which I chose from the shoot that are the strongest. I originally didn't want to use the right hand image because the green light has caught Helena's eye and makes it look green. However when I placed it on the spread it complimented the left image very well.

The next few spreads feature a range of photographs I selected that Bella took in her final year on her course which demonstrate her interest in fashion and portrait photography.

This spread below I was hesitant about including as I didn't think the images were as strong as some of the other work, but Bella mentioned that this was a documentary shoot and the point of these images was that they are meant to be informal and untouched. In the end I thought it was best to include them as it demonstrates another area of photography that Bella is interested in.