One Day More.

How good is that? The title of this post has a double meaning - there's one more day left until my assignment is due, and it's the name of a fantastic song from the greatest musical ever. Yes people, Les Miserables. It's not secret that I love it. So much. My sister and I saw it in 2010 on the West End, and below you will see pictures from the booklet created for the 25th anniversary year of the show.

Here's the cover spread to the booklet. It's a simple stapled booklet, all printed on a nice glossy stock. The cover uses the well-known symbol of Les Mis, the illustration of Cosette by Émile Bayard. The typeface for the title and other text is one I think was created for the show - it's become the expected sight for Les Mis. The colours of the cover catch the eye, however I'm sure you'll be buying this more because of the content than the cover. The back image is taken from the show - Enjolras waving his French flag during the battle at the barricade (see, told you I love it). As this is for the 25th anniversary, the text at the top in yellow stands out and catches the eye against the smoky-white background. 

Here we have the first pages when you open the booklet, apologies for the glare on the left. The typeface for the title is the same as the front, as is the names of everyone on the left - they're also in all caps. This helps to distinguish the names from their roles for the reader, as well as just making it easy to read. The roles of people are in italics, and in a different, very basic sans-serif. This is surprising given the amount of text on the right side here, and in the pictures below. I do like the use of a column for the text, it doesn't take away from the images and the page, but is still prominent enough as it should be. The white typeface works well on these dark pictures, and it continues throughout without being an issue. The use of the red banner in the background gives stunning colour to the page, while tying it back to the image of Enjolras dead on the barricade. Sad. 

The top says 'Victor Hugo - France's Favourite Son'. So what better picture to accompany him than that of the 'Lovely Ladies' (prostitutes), and Fantine on her deathbed with Valjean. The top picture of those lovely ladies does look fantastic, the red/pink colour comes from the lighting in the show, but beautifully catches the eye. However, my favourite part about this spread is the end of the text on the right. The picture of Valjean and Fantine stretches behind Hugo's life story, which is in columns with a ragged-right edge. But the last column of text has had it's ragged-right adjusted to fit around the two figures, and not covering them up at all. The curved edge catches the eye, and makes the text easier to follow for the reader without affecting the picture. 

I just really loved this image. This is the cast I had the pleasure of seeing (with an incredible understudy for Valjean), and my, it was amazing. I was crying right from the get-go. But to this page. This is one of the only pages I have in the scrapbook that's just an  image spread. The serif typeface in the top left-hand is beautifully simplistic, coming from the song One Day More just before half time. The typeface gives the impression of a song lyric, flowing, easy to read, and a bold statement. All this while the picture underneath gets has some fantastic, uplifting light coming in from the right, and everyone looks amazingly photogenic while still singing. Gee whizz. As I said earlier, I'm sure you'll be picking this booklet up because you know the musical, and this page has a powerful message behind it, if you know what you're looking at.

Last page, and last picture I'll look at from this. Top left corner, another fantastic image with my favourite line in the musical - 'To love another person is to see the face of God'. I'm not religious, in the slightest, but in the context of the musical, and when you see Alfie Boe's face when he sings the line, my heart just melts. But the issue I have with this image and text is the last few words get a bit lost in the white of Cosette and Fantine's white dresses. It's nice that the designer kept the white typeface consistent, but this part lets it down. As for the rest, every image in number with a small white number in the left-hand corner of each picture. These numbers have a corresponding caption at the bottom left-hand side. This page is to acknowledge the past, present, and international productions of Les Mis, which is what each of these pictures show. This spread is busy, however I think the designer has managed to make it work. The reader can still follow it, and if you really want to know what a particular picture it is, it is easily searchable.


I think we can all safely assume I love Les Mis. Apologies for the rant, but it's just so good.


The end is almost here!
K.