Infographic Design

MASTERMIND
ART DIRECTION, FASHION STYLING
AND VISIONARY PHOTOGRAPHY
EDITED & PUBLISHED BY 
VICTION:ARY 

Spine, dimensions. 

When looking for a book on a shelf, you're introduced to a variety of spines; a range of thickness, heights, materials, typefaces and colours. The spine is the initial most important part of book design as this is what continues the cover image, in order to inform the viewer on the contents of the book - to encourage you to pull it out, and into your hands. Spines need to jump out of the bookshelf, as this is the only means of identifying the book. 

The height and width (190 x 255mm) of Mastermind affects the spine width as each measurement works in correlation with each other. For one, the size of the book is usually dependent on the extent - how much text is there? How many photographs? 
Touching briefly on this point, Viction:ary have chosen the following internal format for this book: Preface (double spread), contents and abbreviation key (double spread), story board of introductory images and a quote (verso), a double-sided two-page 'inner book' bound to the gutter (180 x 130mm), interview text (recto) and then double pages of complimentary works (photographs). 
Due to this repetitive layout and voice, the dimensions of the book needed to be adapted in order to follow this layout of content, in order to achieve the desired number of words and photographs per page; thus, resulting in the width of Mastermind's spine. 

Due to the book being fairly tall and wide, this allows for a medium width spine. In comparison to other neighbouring books on the shelf, Mastermind isn't the largest book, but does dominate some smaller ones, making it stand out. 

The juxtaposition of the smooth texture vs. The grainy texture, along with the reflective appearance vs. Matte materials also strengthens the book's design, as the metallic, reflective card is more eye catching against duller books as it feels luxurious, new, modern and generally interesting; while the neutral, earthy, uncoated card is more economical, grounded and practical as it could be recycled card which resulted in cutting costs, in order to have the budget for a cropped gold sheet. 

The spine lettering runs downwards, in a traditional English fashion. The titles are vertical as the spine is not thick enough to accommodate horizontal type.
The chosen typeface for the title and subtitle is suitable for the subject of the book and the nature of the text. A Didone typeface with aspects of both continental and British taste (modern face) has been used as the gradual to abrupt contrast between thick and thin strokes is recognisable within the fashion industry e.g Vogue's didot typeface. 
Other characteristics of this typeface includes:
Vertical curves of the axis; 
the serifs of the ascenders of the lowercase are horizontal; 
double storey 'a' and 'g', 
horizontal cross bar, 
'f' sits on the baseline, 
single storey 'g' with open tail, 
pointed apex, 
and uppercase 'G' has a vertical spur.  
However, the title it's self has additional graphic characteristics, to resemble script types due to the cursive decoration. The letterforms are modular as they have been made up of separate elements. This has most likely been done in order to accessorise the type, making it more appropriate for the fashion-nature of the book. 

The spine is divided in 3 rows, the first row accommodates the figures (when concealed), the middle accommodates the title, and the bottom row accommodates the publishers logo. The height of the reflective, gold card has been perfectly cropped so that the title Mastermind fits directly in the center of the spine, despite being on the adapted book jacket. This gate-fold (more on this later) that overlaps the cardboard cover, conceals numbers that run horizontally down the spine. These numbers are horizontal as the spine has been divided into 3 columns, where the numbers inhabit the middle, central column, and accommodates the horizontal type. This is an interesting quirk to the design, as it contrasts against the vertical type on the gate-fold. 

Cover, gate folds, interaction. 

Masterminds uses multiple gate-folds to create the cover. Gate-folds are often used to display wider images, but in this case, they have been used to create layers of materials, textures and to peak interest by concealing information. According to notes of book design by Derek Birdsall, they should "always been wrapped around or bound to the center of a section". A wide image has been divided into three sections. The right section of the gate-fold, inside the book, has been bound to the fly-leaf, while the left section has been folded in half to wrap around the cardboard cover. 
The second gate-fold overlaps the first gate-fold, creating a layered effect and is bound to the spine to then wrap around the back cover. 
Where the two gate-folds overlap, in order to keep them flat and in place to prevent damage, a fastening has been attached to the right over the first section of both gate-folds. The colour of the fastening compliments the blue hue of the photograph on the first gate-fold, while being aligned with the text. By having this fastening, it peaks interest and encourages you to unwrap the cover, to reveal the concealed text beneath on the card. The fastening is also relevant to the fashion nature of the content. 

On the cover/gate-fold, particular attention has been paid to the hierarchy and disposition of headings, particularly through the use of font pt and line breaks. The increased leading for these few lines breaks up the unity, causing each piece of information to appear independent. 

The title Mastermind is again in the didone font with graphic characteristics. This appears to function like a logo for the book and is repeated in the same style throughout. Uppercase font has been used for aesthetics, and to also mimic the capitalisation of fashion magazine titles. By having this information ranged right, this could be considered to be potentially difficult for the eye to find as it hinders the reading process; however as this is only a short passage and the gate-fold has been cropped before it reaches the foredge, this almost centers the right aligned text, making its deficiencies less noticeable. 
By increasing the tracking between the capital letters of the book title, it prevents the type from appearing too crowded, thus an increased tracking makes it appear more elegant.
The same didone font (sans the graphic elements) has been capitalized and used for the subtitle as it's a smaller pt size, hence the caps for visibility and readability.
For the content lowest in importance (publishing company name) the type appears to be lineale geometric, constructed on geometric shapes, sans-serif and again in uppercase for clearer visibility. This style typeface appears neutral and so can be repeated throughout all of their works, regardless of content or nature of the book. 

The typeface for the cover page and fly-leaf is a graphic type, as the characters suggest that they have been drawn with lines rather than written. This reflects creativity, artistic elements while also being clear to read. All of the text written this way is in uppercase with equal x-height and pt size, in order the communicate equal importance, which is essential when depicting the creatives names and creative fields. An altered style has been used for the '+' character. The double line characteristic has been dropped as it appears that the double lines have been filled. The x and y axis of the '+' are equal lengths, making it appear geometric.
The horizontal numbers on the spine are also in this font and has the same base line as the corresponding creatives name. This gives the information dimension and movement as it flows around the spine and onto the cover. A horizontal line has been used in between the figures to separate them and to also add a sophisticated element. 

On the reverse of the first gate-fold, justified text has been used. The information has been composed with a variety of pt sizes used systematically, in order to prevent hyphenation. Horizontal lines are used as extended hyphens between the quote and the creative practitioner's name, this appears to be a fashionable solution to unsightly rivers that often occur with justified text. 

On the second gate-fold inside the book, bound to the fly leaf, the information echos the second gate-fold information in a clearer format. The black on a non-reflective surface with more contrast is clearer to read. It's punchier and more visible, while contrasting the darker photograph. 

Weight, binding.
Mastermind isn't very well balanced in the hand when held open, due to the weight and that fact that the binding doesn't allow for the pages to lie flat or to stay open on a particular page, unless forced. Due to this, the book is to be rested on a surface, and for your hand to turn the pages while holding the verso down. When forcing the pages to lie flat, the binding feels weak - this is due to the perfect binding. This method of binding is often used for magazines as they have a shorter shelf life and isn't very durable. However for Masterminds the pages haven't been glued individually, but as signatures with high strength, flexable adhesive so that it's more durable. This method of binding is a cheaper alternative to others. It's quick and easy as no sewing is required, so it's suitable for multiple publications. Viction:ary possibly chose to use a paper back cover as it appears that they like to reduce costs where possible so that the budget can be spent on higher quality paper inside for the photographs, as well as ink and the gate folds. 

Page layout, alignment 

The point size of the content internally is quite small in order to fit on one page. However in order to fit all of the content on the recto the size of the book has needed to be increased. The size of the book could fit in a handbag, but not in your pocket. Therefore this book isn't something that you read on-the-go, especially as it's more than likely needs to be placed on a surface. 

The alignment of text throughout the book ranges from ranged left, ranged right, centered and justified. The alignment appears to be selected based on fashion, as opposed to a particular reason. However the quotes that are placed over the storyboard photographs appear to be aligned based on a balanced composition and for increased and more appropriate visibility. 

The text inside of the book has been arranged in 3 columns. This makes large amounts of information more approachable and thus, easier to read. There is also a hierarchy for this content, which has been displayed through the use of underlines and capital letters. 

The use of a computer during book design, allows the gutter margins to have a matching number of "x-heights" to a given millimetre depth. Often, trial and error methods are used to determine the perfect design, in order to achieve the desired number of words per page. This includes: number of lines, type size and line spacing (leading). 

Colour, photographs 

Mastermind combines luxurious colours that are often associated with wealth, along with neutral, earthy tones. Gold and blue are the luxury colours that juxtapose the white and the un-coated, cardboard brown. 

Inside of Mastermind, there is a white gutter margin, and a warm toned grey-beige background. This is a nicer alternative to a white background, as the contrast against the black text is softer and less harsh. The same effect is created on the first inner gate fold, as navy blue text has been used on white - again, less harsh than black on white. 

Photographs have followed the fashion nature of the book, as they have been displayed to resemble a collage/story board. The images have a range of scale, different orientations, and some bleed up to the head or foot of the page, overlapping the gutter margin. This gives it a more unique, fun and interesting appearance, as it's more spontaneous that a simple grid layout. Referring to the double page photographic spreads, some of the images even overlap the hinge, however these have been carefully placed so that the focus point of the image, is off centre and not disturbed by the hinge itself. The photographs have also been categorised, not only by photographer, but also colour schemes. This helps to make the pages more aesthetically pleasing, while also maintaining some structure so that the images compliment each other.