After some thinking, I decided to create a booklet all about the LV14 SULA which could be placed on the boat - as a kind of souvenir - once people visit the boat for their stay to learn a bit about the boat and to appreciate the small details, the history of the boat.
The first thing I did was began sketching ideas for pages and ideas for pages within this booklet. I also came up with including a few postcards within this booklet at the end of the book for people staying on the boat to send back home.
From my sketches - I wanted the name of the boat to be on the front cover. Using my typography experiments, I decided to use this one as seen below. This would work very well as it was the name of the lightboat with a light shinning onto it as if it's a lighthouse light.
I wasn't too keen on this outcome and so I tried the same edit again with a slightly different image.
I was happier with this outcome compared to the previous one. Applying a red colour to it - made perfect sense as one of the stand out features of the lightboat was its choice of colour - covering the entire boat in a red.
My final touch would be adding the light onto the image using the blending layers.
For a double page spread - I used another experimental type which was printed on aceton and then washed away frame by frame by spraying water. I chose an image that the text all washed out but created interesting waves.
Using Photoshop curves - I was able to make the image much darker to capture the light within the water rather than just the white background.
I then made the image red to stick with the theme of red-ness from the lightboat colour.
Using Photoshop layering styles - I was able to display another image of the type above it which blended in nicely with the previous image above to create the interesting ink droplets of water along with the word "Lightboat".
I tried the image in black and white however I feel like this made the typographic double page spread more boring and flat so I chose to stick with the red version instead.
For my next double page spread - I decided to use primary source photographs from my trip to the lightboat. I used images of the Fresnel lens which I found incredibly fascinating as through these images - I was able to capture the rainbows and colours on the lens.
I combined this image with a few others to create this effect using the Photoshop layer styles. This made the double page spread more vibrant and complex to show the complexity of the lens as well as show the importantance of how many glass pieces made up the lens.
To create an interesting typographic element on within this double page, I used the Liquify tool and moved the letters to create an effect like the lens do with colour.
For my next double page spread - I used styrofoam to create the effect of choppy seas where the LV14 was based when it was active.
I then zoomed in and made the image darker to use as the background which I would then layer on top of.
I found the numbers on the light switches that I saw during my visit cool and so I using water and a projector I was able to create an effect which is seen below. This was then layered in with the background image.
I also had a blueprint of the ship which was also projected on foil. This was also added into the double page design and I used the Photoshop layering style to be able to make the effect blend in with the other typographic elements.
I finally added noise and changed the colour slightly to make it easier on the eyes and it made this double page look very good.
Using my primary source images of the original engine, I managed to make another double page spread, using the same style of layer blending.
To finish off this double page - I decided to add a photograph I took of one of the logbooks that was from 60+ years ago which was used to record the time, dates, weather, temperature and other important information of the conditions to keep a record while the boat was out serving its purpose to warn other boats.
Overlaying this with the blending options in layers made this picture more complex and made it even more interesting along with all the controls of the engine.
Looking back - I did not fully like my front cover and so I decided to remake it. This time including the back cover with the design so it would have some kind of consistency. So I began making it again from scratch - using some inspiration from the previous front cover design I did.
The right side would be the front cover and the left side would the back cover and so, again using Photoshop layering style, I applied more images on top to make the image more complex and interesting,
As from my previous front cover attempt. I used a typography experiment I did with light and used that as the title of the boat on the front cover.
Another thing I did was experiment with the lightboat blueprint with a projector and water tank and so I attempted to add this to the front cover however it did not look as good and so I decided to use the actual picture of the blueprint instead which I then put over the entire cover.
This looked much better and I was happier with this blueprint rather than the experimental one I tried before.
The final touch was to add another primary source image I had taken while onboard the lightship which was the 3 light switches to control the lights - I then added this to the back cover. I also adjusted the title of the boat to fit and look better on the front cover. I was much happier with this outcome of the front cover and it look better than the previous front cover I had created in my opinion.
My final page to make for the booklet was to make an inside cover as shown in my previous sketches when coming up for the plan of the book.
I also wanted to create a few postcards that would be placed inside the booklet as to my previous sketch ideas. These are displayed below.