Studio Brief 1: One Week Book - Ideas & Development

Ideas

After meeting with my group to find out what they had learnt and recorded on their trip to Kirkgate Market, it was good to see that my research linked closely with the vibe they had got on location.

- A lot of the big stalls inside the main hall were shut/empty and there were a lot of leaks and dilapidation throughout.

- The outdoor stalls had more going on in contrast but it had been hard for the group to engage in conversation with shoppers/traders due to the pressures of busy retail. They felt they couldn't spark up a conversation unless they planned on purchasing from the stall - which is fair enough. This resulted in overheard conversations being recorded instead which helped give an idea of the types of comical people/characters that visit the market.

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Speaking as group and using what we had collectively researched, we decided we wanted our book to focus on the state of the market in modern Leeds and the people that use it/ what goes on there.

The 8 pages of the book would consist of 4 pages dedicated to characters found at the market and 4 pages dedicated to the types of stalls found at the market over its lifetime. Spanning from when the market was at the height of its success to now when stalls are closed and the building rundown.

One member of our group was not present at this stage, therefore to make sure we had enough artwork to fill our book the 4 of us each took on the task of producing 2 pages each of artwork.

I was given the task of the front cover and also producing a page for a stall at present day.
Working from photos and quotes collected from members of my group (and consulting with them for ideas) I was able to come up with the following ideas for my pages:

Book title: "The Council Should Fix This" - This title is based on a man the group observed on their trip to the market. Whilst loudly saying this statement, he proceeded to jump up and down on a broken drain just inside the entrance to the main hall of the market. 

Front cover artwork: An image of a man jumping up and down on a drain (maybe legs only), with the large title type over the top of the image. "A trip to Kirkgate Market" to appear at the bottom of the page under the artwork to set the scene/location.

Stall artwork: A closed stall with its shutters down, dilapidated surroundings/leakages and pigeons...there are always tons of pigeons!


Layout

One sheet of A3 = 8 A6 pages of artwork

Front Cover

Pages 1 & 2

Pages 3 & 4

Back cover

Pages 5 & 6

Once we had the layout of the book sorted and worked out what page was going where, we decided on our colour scheme. We wanted something vibrant and contrasting to help highlight the detail we had in our images, but also reflect the colours of the market itself. Taking into consideration that we were screen printing the final artwork, we decided on a lighter colour: pink and a darker colour: green. As with a lot of screen printing processes, it is beneficial to have a lighter and darker colour to show contrast, especially with such a limited two colour palette.


Sketches

Front cover initial sketches

I have to be honest, I did really struggle with the task of drawing out my designs. I think because I hadn't been there when my group visited the market, it was hard drawing ideas using other peoples information.

I was also trying to keep in mind that the artwork for these pieces cant be too complicated and making things complicated seems to be one of my traits.

Stall initial Sketches

Stall idea 1

Stall idea 3   

Stall idea 2

Chosen compositions

Colour

Now that I had the designs down it was time to think about how the colour scheme was going to work. This was difficult because there are so many options and variations. I wanted to optimise the contrast of the colours and make it aesthetically pleasing whilst still keeping all the separate detail aspects visible.

 Using a light box, I was able to trace my final designs onto several pieces of layout paper so that I could play with colour and composition. The limited colour palette meant that I had to think about block shape and line. We had also decided as a group to try and incorporate texture into the artwork.

Final colour composition for stall page

Final colour composition for front cover

I am really happy with these choices. I think they make the most of the colour we have chosen as a group and the detail should hopefully stand out in the final product. It is good to have an idea of what the final pages could look like with the full colour, as the next stage is about to get a whole lot more complicated!


Prepping for screen print

In order for the screen print process to work, you have to have screen print positives. These are what will be exposed onto the screen for the colour paint to be pushed through at printing stage. This meant that I had to split my designs up so that I had a screen print positive for each colour on each design, but each separate colour needed to be in black so that the screen would expose properly.

Again I used the light box for this and traced each design, making sure I split the colours. On one page I would only trace the areas of pink, and the other page I would only trace the areas of green. When assembled they would make up the whole image.

Front cover:
Red page detail & Green page detail

Stall: Green page detail (I lost the red page)

Transfer to coda trace

The next stage of the process was the fun part for me. I love inking up! 

Using the coda trace was great as it has such a nice surface for the pens I was using. The rest of my group had already finished their designs and inking by the time I came to doing it so this made my life a lot easier. 2 pieces of A3+ coda trace were used for our designs (one for the pink details in our designs and one for the green details) and each page was lightly marked up using pencil. Each area for the artwork was arranged and measured as per our original layout page, so that everything would be in the right place when we came to print.

A3 coda trace layout - Inking up

I positioned my layout paper split colour designs under the area left for me to ink. I had to make sure that I had the correct page for the respective colour and also that I had lined up the area perfectly so that when it came to folding the book, the artwork would be in line with the artwork created by the other members of my group. I enjoy fiddly things like this - its always a challenge!

Laying the pink/red detailing coda trace sheet over the top of the green coda trace sheet made it clear to see how this design was going to work. Each sheet represents a screen for a different colour so once combined and printed - our artwork and book should come to life!

* Now to screen print! *