JEZWORLD

For my final brief of this year, I kind of want to revert back to the first brief of this course, ‘Reportage’, with the final product being a book. I want to use the knowledge I have gained through practice this year, to create a much more stylised version of my book which was about The Brudenell Social Club, But this time using firmer sources of artistic influence in which I am confident in and also basing the book on my recent trip to Japan.
The practitioners, that are influencing this book, I have most probably mentioned throughout this blog since the reportage project. Juergen Teller, a German fashion photographer has a style I regard as a key influence and aspiration. Especially his photo look books (soft back books that I mention in ‘MY FIRST WEBSITE’) which for one of them he based on a trip to Japan, using only black and white snap shots to document his time spent there.
I have also become a keen admirer of the french magazine ‘Purple Fashion’ and its occasional 'Purple Journal' supplement.
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The journal reports on different happenings in cultures around the world, showcasing new writers and photographers. In this issue there are quite a few featuring Japan. Some were just photos, such as this double page…
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This product is so pleasing to hold with it's soft back and thick matte paper. The use of layout and typography is cleverly thought out also, and these are both things I want to focus on in my project.
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A book with similar characteristics I came across by a small Glasgow based art collective called TUTU in a very surprising little art shop in the Merrion Centre in Leeds has inspired me. Although I have a feeling the book is a few years old, and the idea of the collective has been and gone, they had some pretty awesome layout ideas, which were reminiscent of Yokoland (but no where near as awesome)…
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-front cover-

-colour photos-

-a single page of colour helps the illustration-

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Since returning from Japan I have come across a few illustrators which have lead me away from my all time faves Kozyndan, these are:

Marcel Dzama


And Rachell Sumpter



They draw their figures with imperfection, but it gets the message across, and in a very stylish way.

Another Illustrator which caught my attention is British Gemma Correll
Whose travel diaries are perfect influences…

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In regards to the content of MY book, I aim for a mixture of published blog entries I made throughout the trip, observations, through illustration (I kept a sketchbook) and digital photography and also the more stylised 35mm photographs, particularly those taken on the Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim.










A few aspects I need to consider, along with my layout are things such as:

What will the ratio of Photos to Illustrations be?
Do I want to use a whole range of processes, or keep it simple?
Will I edit my photos/illustrations (if so, how?)
Will I mix illustration with my photos?
Interesting areas? (Pullouts, colour pages, blank pages, stencil cut outs, open the japanese way (back to front)?)

To help with my layout I have gathered all of the interesting flyers and found objects into a folder, and I hope to use these to influence the process.
This brief is very exciting to me and I'm looking forward to consolidating and arranging my trip into a book =^_^=