OUGD504 - Design for Print - Bond Street Brand Directory Evaluation and Collateral Photographs

The Bond Street Brand Directory is a publication in celebration and commemoration of London’s acclaimed haven for gracious living, revered throughout the world for its wealth of elegant stores, exclusive brands, designer fashion, luxury goods, fine jewels, art and antiques. 

A brand directory featuring the likes of Asprey, Burberry, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Mulberry, Ralph Lauren and Tiffany, the publication collectively provides location specific information on the street with an unrivalled mix of history, traditional elegance and modern luxury. A point of reference supplied via addresses and location information, the book is enhanced via strong photographic content and brief historic context of the street and its foundation - all of which is showcased through a point of delivery that appropriately reinforces the distinction and luxury intentions of the brands/stores that it features within.

The target of the publication is those familiar with the street who wish to join in celebrating it and all that it offers to the luxury retail industry in London. A publication for those with an interest in London and this luxury retail destination and location within the city, it provides both photographic and typographic reference, with a high-end finish making for a desirable item in its own right to be owned by the high-class clientele of these stores.

Though I myself have produced only one edition of the publication, commercially - as a luxury book needing to appeal to the wealthy high-class clientele of Bond Street - a limited print run of 200 books would be carried out, ensuring a sense of exclusivity and enhancing target attraction and appeal; The elite of London and beyond are always in search of what others do not own. 

In terms of cost and print process, the singular publication was digitally printed and cost around £30, however commercially an offset printing process would be more appropriate to the project as it would be more cost effective (the more copies printed, the cheaper the job) and would offer print finishes (foiling) and greater print quality and therefore would retail for around £50-£60. The publication would be available to purchase from luxury department stores such as Harrods and Liberty in London, as well as featured in suites of the city's most prestigious hotels.

In creating a publication with appeal to the high-class Bond Street clientele and this target's perpetual endeavour to own the most exclusive of products, the book's format, shape and size is unique, grand and ostentatious. With perhaps the highest density of haute couture stores anywhere in the world, the long and thin shape of the book takes inspiration from Bond Street itself, which is around 0.5 miles (0.8 km) long with many of the shop frontages less than 20 feet (6 m) wide. The 18cm x 42 cm size represents this and the books content and context. When open, the publication measures an impressive 18cm x 84cm - almost a meter long - ensuring the perception of extravagance and impression of formidable luxury.

The layout of the publication shows double page spreads featuring full-bleed photographic content aligned to the outside margin on each page of the spread. This allows for typographic content, sitting within the 12.7mm margins, to be featured alongside each image towards the 1.75 inch inside margin. This composition allows for all information to be viewed functionally within an engaging format. Pages are able to be viewed individually due to the additional white space supplied via the larger inside margin, however appear harmonious in balance when viewed as a double page spread. The composition created allows the photographic content to boldly showcase Bond Street store signage up to the edge of the page, with typographic content supplying a pause in imagery in the centre of the spread, enhancing distinction and gaze engagement from all the way left - to all the way right. This layout amplifies the publications wide format via points of focus being showcased at either side of the spread creating additional/increased grandeur. Clean, clear and captivating - this compositional arrangement allows for the Bond Street Brand Directory's high-class aesthetic to explored with enjoyable ease.

After analysing the amount of stores using serif typefaces in comparison to those using sans-serif typefaces featured in the publication, I found out of the 30 stores featured in the publication, 19 stores (over half) used serif typefaces. Serif typefaces have long been considered representative of style, sophistication and elegance as a result of their ability to connote historic foundations whilst  also having the ability to appear modern, making many considered as timeless - such as Baskerville.
Designed in Birmingham, England in 1754 by John Baskerville, the typeface is most known for its crisp edges, high contrast and generous proportions. Categorised as a transitional typeface in-between classical typefaces and the high contrast modern faces, it effortlessly represents the craftsmanship of the featured stores and the diversity of their beginnings through its transitional properties, crisp edges and character formations. Elegant, soft and yet strong and distinct - Baskerville signifies and aids realisation of the publications luxury intensions. Further reinforcement for the choice of this typeface comes from its date of creation in the 1700's (1754), during which time Bond Street was being created.

Type throughout the publication is aligned flush-left, optically kerned and black in colour to ensure maximum readability is experienced by the gaze of the reader. This puts to use Massimo Vignelli's theory that flush left type is the easiest formatting to read as the gaze has one starting point and clear, distinct line-ends due to the un-justified rag line. The store name, set in Baskerville semi-bold 42pt, is all upper case to reflect the importance, distinction and strength of the brands that call Bond Street home. The capitalisation of brand name was also a consistency found throughout the photographic content during the trip reflection and therefore reinforces the publication content/contexts as a whole.

All other typographic information is set at half the size of the store name, 12pt, following Massimo Vignelli's modernist principle of using only two point-sizes of type on a page, most notably one large point size followed by half of the original point size for ordering information and establishing a clear visual hierarchy. The point size of 12 is also the most commonly used for purposes of commercial print matter. Information set in semi-bold Baskerville regular is that which is deemed of the most importance and/or for the purpose of creating distinction between information via a structured visual hierarchy.

In contrast to Jan Tschichold's opinion that 'White, and even stark white, paper are highly unpleasant for the eyes and an offence against the health of the population. Slight toning (ivory and darker, but never crème), never obtrusive, is usually best,' the publication's stock is a matte pure white 200gsm stock. As a photographically-focussed publication, this stock maintains the high contrast vibrant impact of the images, something that toned stocks diminished, while  providing a costly feel and enhanced luxury tactility. Toned stocks also create and aged aesthetic that on one hand may have been appropriate in communication of the street's history, however on the other hand completely neglected the innovation, forward thinking and modern objectives of the haute couture fashion houses that stand on the street and the collections that they create. The high contrast between the black type and white stock not only supplies a distinct, high-end aesthetic - but also creates a visual energy via the human eyes' inability to simultaneously view the two tones. Typographic information on the pages is also limited, meaning the strong contrast does not provide excess strain to vision. The use of a matte stock in the publication reflects the current trend within the creative industry for matte products, reinforcing the publications heavy fashion content, as well as being representative of the brands' and street's history/establishment in 1700 - which would not appropriately be communicated via gloss.

In order for the publication to appeal to the high-class clientele of Bond Street and make for a desirable product in its own right, the publication bears a hardcover in order to provide strength, durability and rigidity to the long, thin pages representative of the street to protect them and provide structure to what would otherwise be a very flexible, yielding resolution. The cover features multiple layers, being back buckram, Leather-embossed Ebony Colorplan paper from G. F. Smith and a gold foiled title on top of/around grey board.

The  Leather-embossed Ebony Colorplan paper from G. F. Smith reflects the publication content and creates further appeal to the high-class target as a result of many of the featured stores within the Bond Street Brand Directory being manufactures of leather goods and the expensive connotation of genuine leather as a material. The gold foiling immediately supplies a luxury connotation to the publication due to the semiotic field surrounding the precious metal. The aesthetic of delicacy, fine decoration and expense created via foiled matter provides a distinctive high-end finish amplifying desirability to the target who aspire to luxury goods ownership. The finish reinforces and visually enhances the publication content/contexts by establishing luxury connotation and mimicking the strategy (metallic signage/brand identity) used by many of the Bond Street stores to ensure visual identities representative of grandeur and the wealthy clientele they serve. This black and gold hard-back scheme, inspired by Leeds' very own Victoria Quarter/Gate, creates a luxurious, strong and unyielding resolution that reinforces, supports and enhances not only target desirability but the publications content and contexts also through the drama, distinction and ostentation it creates. 

The gold foiled publication title, 'Bond Street Brand Directory,' mimics an ornately shaped Bond Street street sign, immediately and authentically providing a luxury, high-end feel via the decorative edges and an older, more archaic aesthetic relevant to the publications information regarding Bond Street's establishment in the 1700s. The design feature's the publications selected typeface, Baskerville, using optical kerning and subtly increased tracking for enhanced perception of character clarity and dignity. Set in upper-case at a point size of 42, the title exudes importance and strength - appropriate in reflecting and referencing the demeanour of the stores featured within the book. In addition to the street name title is the tagline 'Brand Directory,' necessary in clearly communicating the publication content to the target. This type is set instead in upper-case Gill Sans to establish contrast and clear distinction between the typographic information on the cover. Further distinction is made via the ordered visual hierarchy created by setting this type at half the point size, 21pt, of the main title - a practice recommend by Massimo Vignelli in his book The Vignelli Canon. The combination of Baskerville and Gill Sans on the publication cover also aptly represent the diversity of the featured stores and typestyles they use. Tracking has also been increased here to mimic the width of the main title for purposes of harmony, balance and visual luxury through expansive distinction.

At the back of the Bond Street Brand Directory, tear out cards that feature the directory details of each of the Bond Street stores are featured. Although the publication features the store names, addresses and telephone numbers as content throughout, these cards provide the target with extended usage and experience by supplying a more convenient point of delivery of information once they book has been viewed. This addition makes for a greater level of interactivity. Furthermore, it challenges and combats the normal circumstance of books becoming redundant once they have been read - put aside or on a shelf where it would stay indefinitely. Set within a perforated grid that allows cards to be torn out without affecting each and every page of the publication as would be the case otherwise, this structured, clean and functional feature brings together all location information in one section of the book, aiding the target with enhanced usage, reader experience and functionality. The cards are spread over two double-sided pages, featuring the store name/brand word mark on the front and the location information on the back. They follow on from a glossary page of all the stores featured in the publication for point of reference. Each of the store/brand word marks visually establish, represent and enhance their luxury connotations and therefore the publication context through the application of gold foiling generating further target appeal.

For enhanced  luxury connotation, gilded page edges were applied to the Bond Street Brand Directory publication using a spray paint method for even coverage. The result is much more subtle than that achieved using commercial industry standard machinery, which would be the selected process if the publication was commercially produced. Although the results accomplished by myself are not as distinct or clearly evident, the finish supplies the publication with an additional element of finesse and amplified content representation.

The publication, in celebration of the revered craftsmanship of the stores that it features - such as the hand-made chocolates of Charbonnel et Walker or a hand-sewn Hermes Birkin hand-bag - is bound using a Japanese Stab- Stitch method. This exposed binding, while strong and structured, reflects the practices of the stores and their contribution to the respective industries they serve through craftsmanship and manufacture and provides commemorative visual representation.