With regards to the format of the dissertation, I felt that rather than create the standard and rather lifeless academic form of an A4 document, I have the artistic licence to make an interesting and engaging bound book.
The whole format of the design needs to be considered carefully to gain maximum appeal...
There is an element of a historical feel in my explanation of the relationship between humans and Falcons/falconry, so rather than adopt the conventional fonts usually associated with academic writings, such as Times Roman, or Times New Roman, or perhaps the non-serif styles of Helvetica or Arial, I thought it would be appropriate to find a similar older font.
However, for readability, it would be too fanciful to create the document in a Chancery, Gothic or 'fancy' script style of typeface; this could distract the reader too much, and while I am bending the academic rules a little, it is valid to think that I should constrain myself a little and not bend them too much.
So, after this careful deliberation, I have decided to use the older Caslon type font. William Caslon was a master engraver of London, who between 1692 -1766 (his lifetime), developed much of the foundation for many of the serif style fonts still in use today. (Wikipedia, 2017).
What also makes a beautiful connection to my story, although I've decided to avoid putting this link into the essay text, is that William Caslon's company had a long history with Chiswell Street in London's St Luke's parish, Islington. This street is just off Moorgate / Finsbury Pavement and near to Finsbury square. This was the traditional heartland of the 'new' finance district in the 'City of London', and I spent many years working with the Financial Services Authority (what was), and later, my company head office, between 2010 and 2013 was based at No. 1 South Place, just on the other side of Moorgate from Chiswick Street. My peers, management, and I regularly dined at the Chiswick Street Dining Rooms, and the area was quite well known to me during my last few years with the company. So Chiswick Street, and hence Caslon, is another mysterious connection to my journey overall.
With regards to the book cover, this has prooved to be a more difficult assimilation. The Peregrine must form a striking and yet appealing image to the first view of the book. It's likely that a cropped version of a drawing that I made some time ago will form the frontispiece. I have yet to decide on which one though...
The background might be rather dull if I left it as plain white. A bright colour is likely to be more noticeable, but there must be some connection to the book or my story. This has been a problem to ponder for a while over the last week. - Yellow or Orange are obvious choices initially, but there is little connection still.
Lots of thinking about this have resulted in the conclusion that a bright light blue might be suitable, especially as Huddersfield has an identity with this light cyan colour through it's older football team colours? - Perhaps this is the way froward. A few experiments are called for no doubt.
Conclusions:
- More connections/coincidences are looming and being overturned.
- I'm thoroughly enjoying the rollercoaster ride and looking forwards to what happens next!
- I must be careful to keep the focus on the actual story and journey relevant to the narrative. While I can make references to past events of my career here in my blog, I think it is important not to confuse this with my core narrative of "The Peregrine" and keep the theme of AJ Baker's writings in mind.
References:
Wikipedia, 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caslon
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