Page Layout Ideas

Primary Design Stages

Getting it down on paper

After extensive research into existing publication design and time spent organising my content, I made the decision to start trying out page layouts for my final design. This is so I can gage how many pages I will be working with as well as the best and most effective ways of organising and setting out the content.

For my final designs, I will be using grids throughout the publication to organise the content, however in these primary stages, I have decided to experiment more first without the use of grids so I have more freedom to play around.

My thoughts on how it should be laid out were based around having the Katakana character as the main focal point of each page and having the translation as the next main focus. I also wanted to try and fit in one or more of my images as well as body text (topic of text undecided so far).

I want to keep the spreads very minimalist and tidy to correspond with what I think Japanese design stands for. This means having only a few components to each page.

My next design decision was based on one of my previous decisions to include playful design typical of Japan. To do this I manipulated the Katakana character by adding shading and lighting to resonate that of my previous research. 

As well as being playful, I also want by book to include plenty of colour. However, I do not want the colour to distract the reader and confuse them so I had to find the right balance between white and colour.

As an idea, I also added a writing exercise at the bottom where users can practice writing Japanese characters. This will engage the reader and allow them to make the book their own.

Through extensive playing around and rearranging, I came up with the layout on the left.

I have placed the large Katakana character right in the centre of the page so that the readers attention is drawn straight to it as they find the page. The reader can then see the translation straight away by looking just to the right of it. This makes translating the character quick and simple.

I have changed the font from a sans serif one to Baskerville (serif). This is because I want the book to have the status that a dictionary has to convince the reader the info is trustworthy and reliable.

I have used minimal colour influenced by the design of Monocle guide books. Without being too confusing or over the top, they use only an accent of colour here and there. This sets it apart from the ordinary guide books as they are usually very bland and have a very limited use of colour.

Each of the pages shown here would act as the category dividers as each category will include pronunciations characters that end in each of the vowels.