Whilst studying for my BA honors in graphic design (and before you ask, of course genius here got a first!), I started to get increasingly interested in using my skills to develop a one-off piece of work dedicated to the free and simple things in life.
The story begins when I was growing up on Orkney, an island with a beach right in front of our house, and all of the natural elements, such as the sea and sky, constantly reminded me of the beauty and power that nature had to offer, in its un-spoilt form.
The ideas for the book came to me in my final year, when the tutors briefed the class on the penultimate project. Not only did the brief have to be written from scratch, we also had to use the final months to show we had been paying attention in lectures, rather than just downing snakebite and black at the Student Union bar.
Right from the start the book needed to be simple, clutter free and easy to digest.
With great design, only small amounts of copy are needed and if the graphics and imagery are first class they alone should transmit the message.
Photography played a huge role in translating my vision onto the pages. I had previously looked at photography techniques for intense images. I needed the kind of photography where you could almost smell or touch what you where looking at. I had to capture this emotive quality if the book was to look how I had imagined it in my mind.
The ‘how to’ guide was made up of a simple family of graphics. These had to represent the different sections within the book. They consisted of Sound, Smell, Activities and Visual. Within these sections were information graphics, which told the user how to complete a simple ‘pleasure’ and mark the pleasure out of ten.
I wanted to inject a sense of fun and purpose, while also breaking down exactly what the reader would obtain from each pleasure. A san serif font was used, keeping the book modern and simple.
The paper stock had to be fun and tactile, so a pearlescent finish was used to bring out the sparkling nature of water. Textured stocks were used for skimming stones and snow related activities.
The book was finally bound in a velvet type stock, which was very soft and warm to hold – a bit like a comfort blanket (but obviously I wouldn’t know about one of those!)
The outcome generated a lot of interest and recognition, cumulating with it being awarded a place at the D&AD New Blood exhibition in London’s Fish quay.