Creation of a device to allow everyone to make publications
Project carried out in 2020, during the lockdown of March / April
“Instead of generally accepting the all-identical, standardized tools that the big software distributors sell us, we need to regain the personal relationship we had with our tools. We need to reintroduce some interesting sticking points into our highly optimized software. We have to learn to create tools ourselves. After all, that is the computer: a tool creation tool.” Jonathan Puckey “On Tools” 2011
The objective of the “All graphic designer” project is to offer tools that enable small communities, associations, theater companies, teachers, etc. to be autonomous to create objects and publication posters. These tools should enable them to do this using a low-tech approach that respects the environment.
To carry out this project, I answered to a fictitious request from the “le temps qui il fait” business, a coffee bookstore in Central Brittany. I therefore thought of a way to allow this establishment to publish micro-reproductions related to the activities of the place, the planned meetings, the cultural news of the territory and the texts produced by the authors of the region.
Context analysis
Before developing a specific publishing device, I analyzed the operation of this business using the AEIOU analysis method. This consists in analyzing the activities of the place, its environment, the interactions that take place there, the objects that constitute it and its users.
Scenario creation
Following this analysis, I produced scenarios related to the proposed publishing device. This allowed me to think, present and discuss about this project.
So I ended up with the final script for the project. According to this scenario, each user can create their own publication. They do this with a cover made from recycled paper from old bookstore items. These blankets are provided by the sales manager during blanket workshops, which leave the possibility to those who wish to participate.
This cover is presented as a pocket, resealable by an elastic, within which articles in A5 format can be added or removed.
Those who want can write articles, at home or in the bookstore, for these publications. They layout them on the free software “Scribus”, according to three default layout formats. Then this article is printed on papers of different colors. This color varies depending on the type of article: literary articles are printed in yellow, regional advertisements in blue, bookseller advertisements in green, and other articles in pink. Then each of these documents are placed in the bookstore and each person has the opportunity to help others.
Finally, in the bookstore, there are stamps available for each user, allowing them to intervene on the articles in their publication. These stamps can be created by those who want to during stamp workshops organized by the trade.
Link to the different article formats on Scribus and typographies
Experiments and prototypes of the publication
Experiments and prototypes of the publication