Studio Brief 1 / Page Development / Naming

20 / 3 / 14

OUGD505 / STUDIO BREIF 1
DEVELOPMENT OF CONTENT.
RESEARCH PUBLICATION.


Through the research I had completed to then move into this brief I found out about the origins of chocolate and how it was first established in the south american countries. I decided to take this knowledge and try to come up with a name for my publication.

Because the whole concept of the book is to show what is behind the product we know so well, I looked at how the work 'beginning' would be translated into Meso-american spanish/latin.

From the word beginning and others like it and mean the same thing I found that the word Empezar means to start or begin. I thought that this word was interesting and almost sounded like Emperor which is a kind of sign of royalty. I like that using this name will stick to the roots of the tradition and origin in which chocolate came from. 

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Once I had the layout for the first page being the pod section, i then started to use this as a template for the rest of the pages and their specific content.

The next page I concentrated on was the one that showed how the beans look once they are removed from the pods and the membrane that originally coats them. I wanted to do this in a similar way to the pod page. I looked for images that would be suitable.

I love this image of the brand with part of the shell coming off. The size of it mess it is viable to use as part of my publication. The only issue with this is that I need an image of the brand with the shell completely removed however the ones I found were to small.

I found this image that was very large and thought that it may be possible to cut out one of the beans an make it into a single image.

I singled out the light coloured bean because it laid on the top of the others meaning that its outline was not hindered by the surrounding beans.

I managed to cut away this bean so it looked like a single image, I also adjusted the colour so it looked like the bean with the shell on to give the illusion that they were the sam item.

I applied these images in the same layout as the previous page.

'ROASTING

On arrival at a chocolate manufacturing facility, the cocoa beans are roasted in specialised, rotating ovens that heat large numbers of the bean for around two hours. This then causes the shell of the bean to become blackened and brittle.

SHELLING

Each bean is the peeled from its shell which is discarded. What remains from this is called the chocolate nib. This nib is made up of around 54% cocoa butter which is the natural fat of the bean.'

Im really happy with how this looks and I feel that it remains consistent with the previous page helping the information to for and remain informative but not in an overwhelming sense.

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On the first page, i realised that I had not mentioned the different types of cocoa pod an I feel that this is an integral part of understanding the origins of the product in showing there are multiple beginnings and flavours rather than being all form the same produce.

I found multiple images that I felt could be used as they were big enough to go over  full double page spread.

I added this to the pages on Indesign and applied some text boxes in the same layout as the previous pages.

 I liked this image because of the sheer amount of pods thats in it as well as the colours and vibrance of the image.

'CRIOLLO / FORASTERO / TRINITARIO

The cocoa tree is a native of the Amazon basin and other tropical areas of South and Central America, There are 3 main types of cocoa bean. Forastero is the most common and widely used as it has a higher yield than others as well as a higher tolerance to harsh weathers and diseases. Criollo is the rarer from of cocoa pod and has a lower yeild and a lower resistance to disease which means it is very unlikely to be used with in the mass production circuit. The Trinitario cocoa pod is a hybrid of both the common Forastero fruit and rare Criollo fruit and is also used in the mass production circuit but not to the same as the Forastero pod.'

To keep up consistency I made sure that the body copy was at the same hight in the page as the other pages created previously.

Once I finished this page, I really like the effect that it gave. I also felt that a pattern could be formed here. During research I had found images of large numbers of brand in a similar way to how the pods are displayed above. I felt that this would be a very good way to show how the amount and scale of the produce that is taken and then made into chocolate.

I found a couple of images or hundreds of coco beans but these two were my favourite. i thought it would be better to go with the image that was a direct birds eye view as it resembles the full double page spread images used on the pod page.

I tried the type going across the top of the page to shop up the layouts a little more making the pages a little different and to add to the flow, hover I felt that this had the opposite effect.

I  greatly preferred this layout and feel it was better to keep the pages similar in layout considering tip and body copy.

These are the pages I have so far and I am really liking the way in which they are starting to work together. I love that they are mainly image based and how the photographs that I have found are so workable and self explanatory when paired with the descriptive type.


The nest page I have to complete is the stage that sees the beans get ground up. t match the layouts that I already have., I needed to find bug pictures in order to show the methods I had found in my research called 'conching' and 'smoothing'.

 I found multiple images for grinding.

These are images of the ground coco pods that have then been smoothed / conched.

'GRINDING

As the nibs are ground, cocoa butter is released, transforming the solid nibs into the free-flowing substance known as chocolate liquor. Chocolate liquor (not alcoholic, just liquid) is the essence of all real chocolate products.

SMOOTHING / CONCHING

The chocolate liquor is passed through huge presses to remove a desired amount of the cocoa butter to be used later. Cocoa butter is an amazing vegetable fat that resists rancidity and oxidation and can be kept for years without spoiling. A small amount of

cocoa butter is sold to the cosmetics industry.'

I applied these images in a way that resemble the previous double page spread.Even though these images are two different images rather than one large one like used before. I feel that they still work well in demonstrating the textures that are achieved through these processes. 

The different consistency are easy to see even though the colours in each images are very similar, enhancing the understanding of the information being given.


The next stage of the process is the extraction of the cocoa butter and the blacks of pure chocolate which is then sent off to the individual chocolate manufacturers. To go with the layouts i had been using previously i need these images to work as single images.

I found a couple of images that could be used to show the pure chocolate as well as the cocoa butter extraction.

'COCOA BUTTER

After the cocoa butter is removed, a pressed cake is left. This is the cocoa powder. The cocoa powder can still contain up to 10% of cocoa butter and will be sold bulk or as an ingredient for bakers, along with chocolatiers.

RAW CHOCOLATE

Solid chocolate is made by adding back together the different parts -cocoa butter, cocoa power – and other ingredients - sugar, perhaps milk and vanilla - to achieve the individual manufacturer’s desired finished taste.'

I felt that these two images worked the best as single images. i had to cut them from their backgrounds in order to make the images transparent before adding them to the indesign file.

The final double page spread is based on the fact that chocolate is utilised in so many different ways. i wanted to show this bay have loads of different types of chocolate in one image.

 At first I liked this image because it shows up close the different types of chocolate the colours and texture, however I felt there wasn't enough present to really get across the massive amount that we consume.

I found these images band felt that they were perfect to portray the information on brands and independent manufacturers. The colours really give a sense of mass and all of the brands in and between are recognisable off the shelves in food stores.

'CHOCOLATE TYPES

Much of the chocolate consumed today is in the form of sweet chocolate, combining chocolate with sugar. White chocolate is formed from a mixture of sugar, cocoa butter and milk solids. Although its texture is similar to that of milk and dark chocolate, it does not contain any cocoa solids. Because of this, many countries do not consider white chocolate as chocolate at all. European rules specify a minimum of 35% cocoa solids. Dark chocolate, with its high cocoa content are thought to possess cardio-protective properties. Dark chocolate has also been said to reduce the possibility of a heart attack when consumed regularly in small amounts.'

This is the double page spread that i created using this image from the internet. I really like th colours that are present and how the layout of the page brings an order to the chaos.