Prior to todays meeting with the Surface Pattern tutors we had a meeting to organise our group with roles and to discuss anything we would need to mention in our first meeting.
First things first... we wanted to set out our roles within the group. As Ian had made printer contacts in our initial pitch he is our point of contact when dealing with printers. I will be in charge of correspondence with the Surface Pattern tutors and organising / confirming things before and after meetings, making sure everyone is singing from the same page. Charlotte is in charge of keeping time and keeping track of scheduling meetings and events on our calender. All important jobs that will help the project move forward smoothly.
Once our roles had been agreed upon we thought of some questions for the initial meeting.
1. Main contact for the course + contact details?
2. How many students and quantity of books?
3. Budget?
4. In addition to working with tutors, will there be a student committee?
5. How has the photography been done in previous years?
6. Does the course have any themes / ideas in mind for the yearbook?
Great to meet the Surface Pattern course team (Julie, Paul and Julie). We were told that our main point of contact would be Paul (course leader), so I noted down his email etc.
When asked about their initial feelings of the book a word that was bounded around lots was 'Dynamic'. They are clear that they want something above ordinary, perhaps experimental but we informed them that there was a fixed format of 210 x 210mm this year and the inside stock would be the same throughout all yearbooks. They though this was a good idea because it will help reduce cost (the point of doing it) and enable the cover to have a special process with the money saved. We explained to them that although it will be a fixed format the use of a grid, photography and cover design will be used to make it distinctive and 'dynamic.'
They confirmed that their budget was £2500 and that 1000 books will need to be produced.
The total number of students is 65 so the issue of space will need to be addressed. DPS or single page for the students?
Over previous years the staff and students have provided their own photography, they in fact asked us if we would be doing it, to which we said we were hesitant because of the amount of time it would take. I think I will email the photography admin person Aaron Chady asking him to forward my email my request for a photographer.
When discussing the content of the book it became apparent that the book is less about the graduates and more about the promotion of the course, as such they want to showcase the space, workshops and processes etc. The emphasis will be on the craft of the course as much as the graduates. I brought along a copy of Pulp-Paper by Kent Lyons to the meeting to demonstrate paper stocks etc. When looking through it it became clear that they were big fans of the macro, abstract photography. Using a similar approach will help to break up our yearbook as well as make it more 'dynamic' through the imagery. Just by way of example here are some images from Pulp-Paper (think I'll attach them to my photographer request email too):
The Surface Pattern staff are interested in using a theme or keyword as an overarching concept for the book and have agreed to come up with one before our next meeting (Wed 2nd March), so we can build upon it in our design. In addition to this they are thinking about our idea of organising a selection of students for us to work with and will let us know if this is going ahead at our next meeting. Right now I'm going to try and find us a decent photographer for the macro / workspace shots!
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