Full Artifact Book Mockup

Looking over these spreads, I feel that the cohesion strongly comes from the layouts. They are all based on a small, medium, and large set on each page and the whole spread is symmetrical about the center of the spread. I don't think that the highlighted pictures are quite coming together. Many of the pictures have simple backgrounds and a few of the objects don't have colors that really pop. Also, if there is a color that stands out in the spreads, then its red. Since I don't want the book to be dominantly red, it was a little tough making a fully cohesive book. I wanted the number of times colors were highlighted to be even in the book. Green, red, and brown are all highlighted twice in this mock up. This leaves three spreads without any highlight or color. These spreads feel slightly left out. All the black and white imagery in the book help pull these spreads into the cohesiveness of the book, but I don't think its enough. I wanted to try the highlighting parts of pictures, but its hard to do without highlighting the backgrounds or adding something extra to the photos to add the color needed. Because of this difficulty with highlighting images I will possibly pursue spreads with one duotone image per spread. 

The symmetry of the spreads was established to create a strongly noticed gridded structure. The layout and design of the book is intended to imitate a criminal record or police file. The law enforcement of the 1920's and 30's surely had files on most suspected gangsters and other notorious criminals. The layouts are supposed to neatly present information in clearly designated sections. The spacing breaks up the layouts like a police file is broken into boxes of information.

As for the cover, it is certainly getting closer to completion and I feel like this arrangement is far superior to the last, centered and lame, one. A few more arrangements might result in something more engaging, but the basic idea of the cover is done. The imagery and type face will remain the same, as will the text.