Book Blueprint

About the Book

Originally I wanted to make an unconventional travel guide with random illustrations of each country’s local scene that might seem weird and unordinary for foreigners who are visiting. However, as I researched further on the topic, I realized it would be better to also promote the idea of backpacking around the world. Most people nowadays think of traveling as luxury in life, because when we think of the word “travel” we tend to picture plane tickets, fancy hotels and restaurants. Many students are concerned about their budget that they will suppress their desire to go abroad until they have enough money. I really wish to change these people’s mind with my book, because I strongly believe that traveling around the world gives you a better overview of how the world is, makes you open minded, and gives you time to think about where you are rooted at, and where you want to go from there. So I have decided that I wanted to add the whole backpacking tips for each country as well. Because I plan to cover multiple countries per continent, the manuscript won’t be in depth, but it will give the readers a better sense of what backpacking experience will be like and give them information about some minor tourist attractions that are fascinating but often overlooked.

Key Words

messy, rough, free flowing, fun, warm

ContentS
+ I found some resources that cover most of the information I need, which will be a basis of my manuscript. I will be editing the length of the text and do some more research for visual elements.
+ For each country there will be at least two to three illustrations. Because my target audience is younger generation, there will be a lot of white space, and the style of writing will be very casual.
+ I have a rough idea of how to package the books together since I will have three books in a series each containing information on America, Asia and Europe as mentioned in my earlier proposal.
+ Since the illustrations will be just made of line sketches, messy and free flowing, I won’t be using many different colours. The books will be in monotone except for point colours to accentuate certain parts of the books.

+This is the drawing style I’m hoping to achieve. (fig. 1, 2 by Frank Ghery, 3 by Frank Lloyd Wright)

Book size and binding

Since there are three books, I want to put them in a box that resembles a parcel with stamps from all over the world – the concept being traveling tips sent to you from all over the world. The size of the book will be 7” by 5”, so they would be small enough to carry around, but each volume will be thick enough to make parcel shape when stacked together. I haven’t decided how I want to bind the books yet, but I’m leaning towards having a hard cover for the books. The paper stock will be thin enough that the pages won’t be stiff when the reader flips through.

+ Parcel images

 

Timeline

Oct. 27
- final manuscript
- work on illustrations
- visual theme of the book

Nov. 3
- page layouts set
- decide which binding will be used

Nov. 10
- cover design, box design
- proofread text

Nov. 17
- finish building the box
- make a mock-up book

Nov. 24
- final copy printed

Dec. 1
- binding and book completed

Random helpful links

Tahir's Europe Backpacking Trip: http://www.mytripjournal.com/tirtis
Backpacking travel advice -Southern Asia: http://www.travelindependent.info/asia-southern.htm
Stuff Korean Moms Like: http://stuffkoreanmomslike.blogspot.com
Latourex: http://www.latourex.org/latourex_en.html
Why we travel: http://www.salon.com/travel/feature/2000/03/18/why

Book Case Study

Cover
Width: 5 3/4 “
Height: 8 1/8”
Spine: 3/4”
Material used: hard board covered with fabric
Thickness of the page: 1/32”

Inside Pages
Width: 5 1/2"
Height: 8”
Material used: white paper with warm tint

 

Cover
The cover is made out of a thick board and is attached separately from the outside.
Custom hand-written display typography
Half page title
American typewriter typeface
Full page title
Credits
Table of contents
Custom hand-written typography
Chapter
divided into four chapters named Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
A spread of illustration and the chapter title indicates when a new chapter starts.
American typewriter uppercase and underlined specifies a sub heading on each page,
and normal setting of American typewriter is used for body text. 
The body text is mostly set flush left and occasionally centered.
Thank you note
End pages
Simple collage on a fabric-like texture paper

Conventional
This is a standard novel sized personal instruction manual for fashion.
This book does not have page numbers on each page, however this does not affect navigating the book since the book is made of series of short articles that is only a spread long. There is no specific grid system and the text is placed randomly throughout the book. This book contains lot of collage style illustrations rather than text. It could be considered an art book. The artwork always relates to what the text says and you can see what the story is about by just a glance.

Connected
This book has a unique theme – a fashion forecast. The author uses sarcasm and humor to explain what to wear and what not to wear in different seasons. It differs from fashion magazines since this is not about promoting certain products but to share author’s personal opinion and humor with the readers. This book is exclusive in a sense because only the readers who have basic knowledge in fashion will be able to understand the content of the book. Having a limited number of readers is this book’s weakness.

Book Proposal

 *True Travel is just a filler title of the book for now.

True Travel is a unique book that will be loved by travelers around the world. What is the true purpose of traveling? Most tourists these days go abroad to briefly sightsee famous historical buildings and take photographs in front of it rather than experiencing the unkonwn. Therefore most of tour guidebooks usually consist of introduction to must-see places, five star hotels and restaurants. However, True Travel will be a different type of guidebook. For people who want to really experience the culture and interact with the locals, this book will provide them with small and insignificant, but interesting scenes around the world. These random scenes that are considered normal and everyday life for the locals will fascinate foreign readers. For those who have visited some places prior to reading this book might be able to identify few events they have experienced before. There will be a set of three books, each for countries in Asia, Europe and America. Most of the pages will be filled with a visual content such as illustrations and collages and a small amount of text explaining each scene. The writing will be informal and fun to read as the target audience is open-minded travelers. It could both be an entertaining one time read or an important guide to help you in certain places.