I began the process by conducting research in many areas including expressive typography, conveying emotion visually, typography and emotional associations, Shakespeare, teenagers and reading habits, magazines directed to teenagers, books that resonate with teenagers, Shakespeare adaptations, radio plays, comic books, textbook design for teens, directing stage performances and watching and listening to film adaptations of Hamlet as well as audio versions.

Before beginning the prototype, I was assigned to make square images that are either entirely type or entirely image based, expressing ideas of my general topic. 

Over the reading week, I took to taking act one of Hamlet, my favourite Shakespeare script as a teen, and transforming it by visualizing it in different ways. This allowed me to see the difference images and expressive typography take and consider multiple modes of expression.

After delving into research, I discovered the face is one of the most universal expressors of emotion through its expression. From that discovery, I wanted to involve the face, and visually express conversation. Thinking about my research, I felt it could be effective to have each scene be a single cheap papered disposable booklet so it would not daunt the adolescent reader. I also considered taking the Shakespearean text and placing it on a stage that would be the booklet, thinking about blocking and conversation in acting.

I then printed off various sizes until I was happy with the size in my hands. I wanted the book to be able to be portable, not too large and difficult to handle, and comfortable. I ended up with a dimension of 2.75”x5.5” for each page, so that when the book was configured it would create a square cover, not to be confused with a traditional book. My initial concept was to have two books within one, but I realized this idea didn't make sense with conversations that had to be sequential and couldn't be rearranged. 

Next, I took to photographing people I had access to in my household bubble. I had them stand in profile, and directed them to show certain emotions by prompting them with phrases like “you are now very scared, there’s a ghost!” or “you recognize someone but ask who’s there” to capture their interpretations of facial expressions that meet the scenario in act one of Hamlet. I then had a lot of images to choose from when I went on to the book creation. Because of a lack of male friends and a past experience in high school where I was cast as Hamlet which originally I was upset about, yet ended up being a confidence booster, I decided to use makeup to apply male features and use my own face as a model as well.

I tested out the first few spreads to bring to my peers in class. Using Indesign for the layout, and Photoshop for the inverting and image effects, I created 4 spreads of the size I had established.  During class group discussions, I was given very helpful resources and suggestions to move forward, which I looked into next. I was pleased that people were able to recognize my proposed idea’s similarity to both a comic book and a stage presentation.

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I took to refining and developing my spreads, after also deciding it would not make sense to have two separate flipped pages after each comment. New spreads had a focus on colour-red as anger, yellow as warm joy, after it was recommended I add colour to interest teens, like the saturated colouring of teen magazines. 

After I had rendered all of the spreads of the scene, I created a tiny mockup to get a sense of the compositions, pacing, and interactive flaps. I wasn't too pleased with the book yet, I found it repetitive and large chunks of text were difficult to digest. 

Upon showing these spreads to peers in class, I was told to add more depth and shadows to the faces, and many thought it was necessary to include translations of the old English to make it more understandable. I proceeded to design transparent sheets with black ink which could be discovered when a light paper was placed underneath the clear paper, revealing translations. This idea was soon thrown out, however, when I spoke to my high school English Teacher, of which you can read the interview in the "Interview with a high school teacher" menu tab. In this iteration I also decided to use lines and a strict grid system to distinguish who was saying which line, which turned out to make the pages less expressive, and more repetitive and boring.

It was after my interview with my past English teacher that I abandoned my efforts to translate the script and sought to honour the original text. I had a meeting with Isabel who suggested I make a consistent system of representing certain emotions, play more with the faces, and use the space less rigidly to use the space expressively. These were just the ideas I needed to hear, and I took them and rolled with them into the next iteration, which I was much more pleased with. I also was suggested to think of the experience of theatre and apply that to the book, so I began with black spreads which fade to the setting, and also had soliloquies as separated chunks of text which see the previous words faded softly in the background, like the echo of a voice on the stage. 

The Delivered Prototype

After getting more positive reactions from the last iteration, I proceeded to set it up for printing, and had it printed, then cut and bound it myself. I watched many versions of Hamlet and took note of some of the tones, sounds, and actions I hadn't considered when creating my version, and took some time to add in those elements. I was also suggested by peers to add elements of responsive interaction, so added a notepad with a prompt inspired by my English teacher's activities, which could be written on and placed in the pocket and read by other students. 

When delivered to peers, it was noted that the book could use more variation of flaps and interactive pieces. With this in mind, I researched children's books and pop-up books to get some inspiration for ways I could heighten the book's excitement. I then looked at each spread I had made, and sketched an interactive version to plan how I could push the book creatively. Next, I made mini mock-ups to test out the pull tabs and pop-ups, which you can see below. 

It was then suggested I take a systematic approach to the placement of pop-ups, pull-tabs and flaps, with some exceptions. The system I used can be found below, and I again took to refining and creating consistency among the spreads, focusing on transitions, backgrounds, and interactive pieces. I abandoned many of my experimentory pull-tabs and pop-ups to avoid seeming too childish to teen readers, and to purposefully decide where these features should go.

I was receiving different views on the inclusion of a notebook that corresponds to the book. Some peers believed it would take the reader out of the immersive space, while others like to have the option to reflect and remove themselves from the story. After speaking with the professor, I was suggested the idea of creating transparent pages that match up to the spreads which contain prompts that can be laid over the pages and removed for subsequent note-taking. This struck me as a great idea that was a compromise between the two opposing opinions. 

I was also suggested to create a system of sounds so as to not overdo pull-tabs to make the book less exciting or repetitive. This caused me to change my system; the sounds that are abrupt with a start and end would have tabs, and those which lingered would be printed on the page. With these suggestions, I continued to iterate. Here, you can see the designed cover with a folder on the inner last page, and the book pages with their corresponding transparent sheets. Red colours of the imagery (inspired by a screen printed layer) indicate the sheets are extra, or supplemental to the original book.

At the end of the semester, after printing and binding the book, I had finished designing Hamlet's act one scene one. Below, see images taken of the final book.

While Hamlet was dark, dramatic, and intense, I wanted Romeo and Juliet to have a soft, lighter ambience, as the scene I chose to express was the infamous balcony scene, one of the most romantic and passionate parts of the play.

Like Hamlet, I began by sending prompts to friends to direct their facial expressions according to how the characters felt in the scene.

The first iteration began by establishing a deep purple background to convey a mood of both passion/love and sadness/frustration. Purple, being a colour that is made of a combination of red (with associations of power, passion, tragedy) and blue (with associations of calmness, happiness or sadness) conveyed the tone of the impossible love that Romeo and Juliet holds. It has a balance of both positive and negative, like the joys of their love but frustration of their separation.  I began with softer baselines than hamlet. This was in effort to set a softer tone to Hamlet's harsh angles. By using curved baselines, I set a system of the characters expressing their love for eachother almost in song-like waves, softly flowing from their mouths. 

The next iteration focused on adding pop-outs, flaps, echos and pull-tabs. Along with these additions, I also looked over each composition to refine the spreads further. I also added an establishing spread which features a flap that lifts from above to reveal the height of Juliet's balcony in comparison to Romeo's ground level to set the scene. 

I still felt it important to include reflection questions in the form of vellum sheets after doing a pros and cons list and weighing the options. I proceeded to create the pages with prompts of study questions.

After speaking with my previous graphic design professor Keith Rushton, I was given further suggestions and inspiration for my upcoming books. Some notable feedback included playing with lighting and background variation, being selective with interactive pieces so as to avoid a gimmicky feeling and to be strategic about where meaning is derived, and not making the entire book in purple, as the scene's emotions varied.

From Keith's feedback, I was able to push my spreads further, including a deep red that faded to purple to indicate whether a scene held the emotions of passion and love vs. anger and frustration. 

From presenting my most recent iteration of the scene to my peers, I was given additional feedback that helped to push the project even more. Some of the feedback included: thinking about including blacks and more gradients into the background to separate the emotional parts from the neutral parts of the scene, playing more with type, examining the background on its own and then with other elements, and potentially adding splashes of watercolour to represent intense splashes of emotion on the pages. I was also told to think about negative space, and how it is used meaningfully. Finally, I was told that when exercise books or workbooks are used alongside a textbook, it can be interesting if it is not only text. This made me consider limiting my use of vellum sheets to strategic circumstances and adding a playful, expressive and visual workbook to supplement the book itself.

I decided to experiment with watercolour splattering just to play around with bursts of emotion and see if it fit into my system. After seeing the accents in the spreads, however, I felt it took away from the maturity of the style and did not want teens to feel it seemed too much like a school art project.

Because of the class feedback, I took my focus and placed it on backgrounds. I was suggested to bring the bright hues up, and the contrast up. I was also given the pointer to include blacks for those neutral moments when emotions are not high.

After considering the pros and cons of vellum note sheets and a separate practice book, I decided upon a mixture of both methods of learning for this iteration. Choosing three vellum sheets that were the most important to the scene, I felt a limited number of the sheets could playfully interact with the reader but would not be easily lost or too confusing if it was only in a set of three. I then worked on a rough idea of a practice or workbook that approached learning differently than a traditional textbook-workbook duo.

Because of the system changes made in iterations, I went back to my systems chart that I had established for Hamlet, and updated the changes to it. 

After group feedback, I was given further suggestions for improvement. Firstly, the spreads with Romeo were noted to not be as fluid and organic as those with Juliet. Because of this, I went back and revised each spread with Romeo's lines. I also was directed to make the workbook more playful and less serious or boring, so as not to repel students from reflection. I decided to select three vellum sheets that were scene-specific and made the most sense when in their spot in the scene, and saved the broad questions for the workbook. I also made the workbook into a vertical format to resemble a notepad and maintain the directions of each character. 

The following images show some of the newly edited Romeo spreads, followed by the newly revised workbook.

The doodles were enjoyed by the class as a solution to the otherwise serious-looking workbook I had shown previously. I was suggested to doodle even more, adding to the inside cover to really encourage a friendly, playful experience. Also, it was suggested that students be able to remove their worksheets in case of sharing with others or pinning on blackboards in classrooms. I added perforated lines to allow for this use. Over the week I set up the files for printing and sent them to the print shop.

After printing, hand cutting and binding, the Romeo and Juliet scene was complete. Take a look at the photographs and see the final spreads in the links below.

I had saved probably the most difficult genre for last: comedy. Watch as I design the scene where the chaos and hilarity ensues when Puck mistakenly uses the love potion on the wrong character.

Like both of the previous books, this draft began with photographs of the characters. When directing the expressions, I noted the importance of exaggeration, as it was meant to be comedic.

As I had worked on Romeo & Juliet over the beginning of the semester, I had also layed out a rough plan of the spreads  and edited the photos into the scene. Here is what that looked like. Keep in mind, this was made before I had refined the system to involve gradient rather than solid backgrounds. 

As the semester went on, and Romeo and Juliet was refined, I took another look at A Midsummer Night's dream and changed it quite a bit. I had researched Monty Python as suggested by Keith Rushton, and was inspired to play with scale, changing Puck's hand to a surreal, large-scale entity in the scene. I also payed more attention to pacing. Take a look at some of the spreads as they looked mid-february, with type now included.

I then decided to focus on background colours, pop-ups and interactions over the week. Using yellow for joy and love and blue for anger or sadness, I applied a similar gradient background system as Romeo and Juliet to this scene. I also decided to use some pop-ups for moments of surprise, when characters unexpectedly see a sleeping character below them. I also decided a neat interaction could be to use a pull tab to show the flower’s love potion being dropped in action as the tab is pulled. With the new backgrounds, I was enjoying the way the gradients gave the scene a magical, fairy-like ambience.

I then took some time to prepare comprehension questions to be used in the workbook and the three scene-specific vellum sheets. I began creating these two components.

As the class reflected on my Romeo and Juliet book, I applied those changes to both a Midsummer Night's Dream and Hamlet. These changes included making the entrances and exits of the characters not duplicated images on either side of flaps to avoid misprinting, and allowing the workbook cover to also fall over the tabs.  

I was also suggested to think about a colophon, acknowledging my work and the faces of my book as well as Shakespeare’s script. The back cover and inside cover could also be used rather than solid coloured blank pages. 

At this point, I had been limiting myself to two colours; yellow and blue. When speaking with my professor, it was noted that a comedy is colourful and bright, and this scene did have many emotions in exaggerated ways. Because of this, I worked to refine the colour system, adopting colours that had been used in Romeo and Juliet (red and purple) and applying them to moments where they made sense in the scene. 

I also spoke to my father and showed him the latest draft of the book. I asked him how I could make it funnier, and he had some great suggestions. 

He wanted more of a cartoon look for the hand to remind the reader that it was surreal and unrealistic. He also had ideas about putting sheep images in the page with the sleeping “Z”s, and even incorporating Simon & Garfunkel’s album cover for “The Sound of Silence” onto othe page with the crickets. While I was worried that teens wouldnt get the reference, I had a good laugh out of it, and my father told me not to underestimate teens in the age of the internet!

I also came up with an idea randomly: if a character was given a potion, I would change the typeface! This will surprise the reader and remind them of the change of mindset! 

After receiving more professor feedback, I took to editing the margins of each book to ensure no words are cut off in the spine or edges. Next, the workbooks needed quite a few adjustments. First of all, the tear line had to be clear and give enough space for each page to rip out. Then, I needed to consider how these sheets would be stored when they are torn out, otherwise the book would be empty at the end. I decided to make the dividers with tabs into folders as well, that would store the loose pages AND keep them organized by scene. I edited all three workbooks to meet these changes.

It was brought up that it may not make sense to use Helvetica in the prompts for the workbook and vellum sheets. Because this was my voice, outside of the story, it made sense to have a different typeface representing the voice. I decided the most logical way to use an additional typeface would be to use it anywhere OUTSIDE OF THE STORY. For words that describe the story’s events, it makes sense for them to remain Helvetica, as they are part of Shakespeare’s voice and story.

For my own voice, I wanted a typeface that both complimented and contrasted Helvetica. Opting for a serif, I selected Garamond. I had debated using my own handwriting, but felt it would be too amateur looking, and Garamond was based off of handwritten letters, giving it a human feel, yet still has the evenness and sophistication of a typeface.

After looking back at Hamlet and comparing it to Romeo and Juliet as well as a Midsummer Night's Dream, I thought my version may be too soft and ambient to represent a comedy. The gradients seemed too harmonious and light. I wanted to try a new type of shading to achieve more of a punchy, colourful look. I tried a halftone version, where the colours are delivered like a comic book, in bold, bright dots. This is how that looked. 

After showing the professor, it was highlighted that halftones at the size I had them would impair legibility, and could be shrunk down. The colours also could be bolder and brighter, which I originally avoided to be consistent with previous books.  Because of this suggestion, I created a collage-like setting with the moon large in scale to indicate night. The halftone use of shading was enjoyed by my peers, but it was suggested that I use the size of the halftone dots to add another layer of representation of emotion intensity, so I used a system of small, medium and large halftone patterns to reflect scene emotions and intensities. 

In addition, it was recommended I consider solid shapes to replace the previously used glow around certain lines of type that contrasted their backgrounds. 

With the halftone backgrounds, some of the type became very difficult to make out. To resolve this, I took to applying a very subtle blur on the patterns. This not only made it easier to distinguish the sharp letters from the soft backgrounds, but also added a sense of depth.

After having a conversation with Isabel and the OCAD Print shop, I decided I needed to resize my books to be able to print on letter sized paper to avoid extra costs. I also learned very useful tips and tricks for improving perfect-binding by hand which I planned to use for the final books. 

I took to re-sizing all standard pages to 5.5”x 5.15” to account for bleed on letter sized pages as spreads. This took a long time to shift elements around and ensure the sizing was consistent for all text block and covers.

In class, I showed my peers the latest version of a Midsummer Night's Dream. They found the blocks of colour and variations of scale of the halftone patterns to work, and the next step was to try to make legibility stronger due to the difficulty in some areas where the text seemed to get lost. To resolve this issue, I applied a very slight blur to the halftone patterns. This separated the sharp foreground of type and characters with the softer background of halftones. Next, I tried to incorporate more gradients to make the backgrounds of type more solid and avoid difficulty reading.  I then also included slight drop shadows when type was on light backgrounds to separate foreground and background and to increase contrast.

After showing the class all three PDFs of the book spreads, my professor caught many little mistakes I had missed, which I went on to fix before printing. 

After fixing each book, I then sent Hamlet off to printing. Because of the high cost of printing on a thicker paper and in colour, I only printed Hamlet, and planned to print the best spreads of the other two books and their covers to create mock-up type books for the final photographs and video.

Using red curtains, a tripod and lights, it took some trial and error to set up a photographing shoot. I then spent a lot of time taking pictures of the spreads, features, and books to try and showcase them in the best light possible.