Design Principles - Studio Brief 02 - What is a book?

Today we looked at what a book is in less of an analytical sense and more of a deeper sense. We looked at what the limits of a book can be, such as a MacBook, a restaurant menu, Facebook and more. We also looked at how a book is constructed from the physical creation to the writing of an author. We then proceeded to look at the purpose of a book, and the loosest definition of a book we could find. The end result was: Something. I learnt that a book can be anything that communicates. We can define a website as a book or even a travelcard as these are all things that hold information and communicate ideas to another. I found this really interesting as it helped me to understand not to always look at the smaller picture but expand my thoughts and think more outside the box when trying to solve problems in briefs. Below are some interpretations of what a book could be perceieved as.

My definition of a book - A book is something with the intent to share knowledge in some form.

Facebook

Facebook is a social media website launched in February, 2004. The premise of the website was to connect friends and family through the internet, introducing another level of connection never implemented before. I believe this fits the definition of a book, being 'something with the intent to share knowledge in some form' as Facebook shares people's lives with eachother, and people can also share news articles, music, and even their daily lives. Facebook was built to learn from eachother.

Menus in my opinion are also books. The purpose of a menu is to inform the audience of a product being sold. Even a restaurant menu is a book, as it is still a source of knowledge. Menus will commonly be used in establishments to do with food and drink, as the customer will often like a choice of what they would like to purchase. This exchange of knowledge is very important as to persuade an audience to purchase a product. These are just examples of some perceptions of a book.

By looking analytically into the definition of a book you are able to percieve a book in a different light, and expands your own knowledge of what a book is.

The most successful books vary in production:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar was a children's book produced for education and entertainment of young readers. The book was extremely simple and completely fictitious, which makes you pose the question of "does this book actually contain knowledge?" Yes. This book is a collection of events from an author with the intent to entertain. The concept of the book is simple which is a story aimed at children using simple vocabulary and a clear meaning. Because of this, the book was very successful as it was aimed at a very wide audience.

Wikipedia is a website dedicated to the definitions of words and concepts. The website is crowd-funded (funded by donations) and describes itself as "the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit". This website has no target audience, its' only premise being to educate. There are definitions ranging from a Cat to Nuclear Fission and it is completely open to the public. This website has become a staple of the internet, providing free information to all that was only provided in physical books that had to be bought individually before it, and the books had numerous editions to keep up with new definitions, whereas Wikipedia is being updated daily in numerous languages.

The London Underground ticket system works very well, it gives ticket inspectors enough information to read quickly and highlights the key information such as validity and the route booked. This is a good example of a book that you wouldn't think was a book without deeper thinking.

Here are some pictures I took of the books we brought in for the task: