He had a very clear idea of what he wanted, a play on words with his last name, the 'Book of Monkman', presenting his work in a bible like setting. He sent me an image of something he would like the double page spreads to appear similar to.
After Will sent me this image, I spoke to him about a few concerns I had with creating something similar, the main issue being that I felt that amount of background detail could distract from the actual work and draw attention away from it. At the same time I thought that A more simple typeface, with less emphasis on the words would lend itself to the layout as the work should mostly speak for itself.
Will agreed with much of the problems I was seeing, and agreed that a toned down and simplified version of this would be much more appropriate as a portfolio. However, there were some areas he was keen to maintain. He felt the text was one of the main aspects that ensures it looked quite like a bible, and similarly was keen on having some sort of decorative illustration, although again, a simpler idea. Since this was going to be sent out as a pdf, Will scanned in something similar to parchment paper to use as the background, and did the same with a leathery texture for the 'cover'. After he send it to me I started working on some illustrations and layouts.
I had little time for any visual research as Will wanted this finished over the next day or two, so I moved straight to the design elements.
I started off by making the illustrations gold, lending an air of importance to the 'bible', and initially tried out a simple layout for double page spread and sent it to will to see if I was on the right lines.
Will liked the illustration but wanted to incorporate more colour into it, similar to that of the example he showed me. Similarly he still maintained that he wanted to keep the text in boxes set up like that of the example he sent me.
So I went on to play around with the type and try and find something that fit both medieval and easily readable criteria. Will had expressed an interest in using the type Cloister Black or Olde English, which I thought might be difficult to read and so tried some alternatives as well:
I started by trying a simple serif typeface called Dimond, and showed this to Will alongside the change in colour and text box that fit his discription:
Will was still not as keen on the type so I went on to change it to one of the previous ones he chose. He had also decided that he would like to include a gold cross on the front page of the book. I had some concerns about this appearing blasphemes or disrespectful towards religion, however, Will was adamant that it was important to include it as it tied together the concept.
I outlined a few different styles of cross for him to choose from, he chose either the first or second, depending on how each looks in context:
After some further thought, Will had also decided to eliminate the pattern from the inside pages, keeping it restricted to the front cover and opening and closing pages, and had also decided to revert back to gold for those pages.
Below is the final version will chose to use, and would put his own work and captions into the file:
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