Book Series:
Lines as the Underlying Theme
For the books, I used lines to construct the theme, building the structure for the design piece in a tight manner. Each book has its own unique line structure, but all three books share the same working structure, demonstrating the concept of hybridity with words.
The margin for the book “The Report” is different from the other two books. It uses the Van de Graaf Canon (Secret Canon) grid for the page layout. This layout is the best for legibility. With “The Report” being a text-heavy book, it would be easier for the reader to focus on the content.
For the book “The Theory,” the lines from the theory are used as the background of the book, explaining my findings and my theory.
The book “The Research” used lines from its baseline grid, representing that this book is the foundation of the whole design project, giving it a sense of direction for building.
The book covers are line art of the baseline grid with fluctuation to mimic the appearance of landscapes. As a book cover, it hints at the baseline grid to the reader while being a piece to be looked at as well.
Coptic book binding method was used to expose the spine of the book. This is employed as I wish to bring in as much lines to the surface as possible, noting that lines are the common theme among the books, while each one of them have their own culture, creating a hybridity in the whole piece.
The book's colouring uses (in CMYK) Green (74, 46, 100, 48), Red (29, 91, 100, 34), and Purple (77, 100, 21, 11). I chose these colours because they are the colours I will use to paint the 3D-printed artefacts, and they have been adjusted for legibility.
The paper stock I used is 90 gsm calligraphy paper. As I engaged in multiple writing and mark-making experiments throughout the “Thinking Through Craft” phase, calligraphy paper would fit the scene.
I chose two book font families: Trajan for titles and Brill for text. The Trajan font family is a Roman font that influenced most European calligraphy in medieval times, fostering cultural hybridity during the Middle Ages. The modern revival of this font brings out the anthropological side of relevance to this project. The Brill font family is an academic publishing font, as there will be two books heavily relying on texts to communicate message, I prioritise legibility and harmony. This font are mostly used in anthropological academic reports.
Artifact:
Hong Kong Post Box
Originally a symbol of British colonialism, the post box became part of Hong Kong’s cultural heritage. It was something that the local population grew up with and integrated into their sense of place and identity. After the rebranding of the Hong Kong Post Office following the 1997 handover, some of these post boxes were repainted green and purple. For some, these postboxes were reminders of foreign rule, leading
to calls for their removal or modification to signify Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty. Others argued that these postboxes should be preserved in the city’s colonial history.
Three postboxes are placed alongside the books as a side piece, actualising the theory by providing a real-life example. The three postboxes are of different heights, with the modern Hong Kong postbox being the tallest and the colonial red postbox being the shortest, reflecting the slope on the diagram I used to demonstrate my findings.
