The book!

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Singapore 2^nd September 2011

This blog is about my (daily) life as a lighting designer and while there are generally many design or lighting related events happening in the day I select one of them as the subject of my blog. As some of you may be aware I am in the final stages of publishing the book version of my 1^st one year of blogging and with a (self-imposed) deadline for going to print looming, I find myself spending more and more time in finalising the details of graphic layouts, illustrations, funding (!), so let me give you an update about how it is going as today I have spent most of my time on this and probably will over the rest of the weekend as well!

The text compositions and editing are more or less completed and we are now putting the final hand in finding the best illustrations to go with each blog, some being from my own or company photo collection, some being from royalty free photo libraries, some graphically created imagery, some my personal hand sketches and so on. There are 365 blog entries so quite a lot to select as my original blogs did not have any pictures. However for the book we wanted to make it visually more attractive by adding the imagery. Not an easy task but I am very happy about the look so far.

Then there is the matter of personal taste. Regarding layout, font types, colours, cover image…Of course in the end the bug stops with me as it is my book, my project, but the insights of professional people in the graphic and publishing world are definitely a valuable input to consider but sometimes throw you off balance. So I guess I have to follow my gut instinct and since it is my book, have it represent what I think it should represent in look, feel and content.

As the deadline approaches and the book really starts getting into its final shape I am getting more and more excited. I am about to follow in the footsteps of my grand-mother who was an architect and writer who published many books. It feels like the last month of a pregnancy and the birth is eminent!

In Light Watch today I have to mention the Night Lights festival currently underway in Singapore. It closes this weekend and I will be going out to have a look. Lighting is gradually becoming a mainstream element for festivals with many of them now being organised around the world. The picture are taken form the Night Lights and Saturday Indesign websites. Some are renderings of the effects to be seen. If I can get some pics myself I will share them later.