Brief 3 - Plant Publication - Final outcome/Evaluation

When designing this magazine I found the content lent itself to the production and my decisions that I had to make, therefore I am glad that I collected and designed the content before deciding on the binding method. The most successful aspect of this magazine in my opinion was the content layout as it successfully achieved my intended aesthetic of sleek and simple, while creating the perfect balance between text and imagery. Another successful aspect of the magazines design was the use of colourful images contrasting with the white background and the black text creating striking spreads. If I had the chance to develop the publication the main change I would make would be to change the paper of the cover form Matt to silk or gloss as the matt paper easily showed up marks and imperfections that would not lend its self to been mass produced. If I was to make another one I would increase the expertise of the tips for example you’d hope that the audience would grow there knowledge with the publications. If the magazines popularity increased substantially there is room to incorporate possible adverts or vouchers to support the reader with the growing of there plants. The final magazine that I created was not as perfect as I intended as the edges are not 100% straight and the cover is marked because of the matt cover, if I had known this before hand I would have invested in paying for the magazine to be professionally printed to eliminate these problems. 

Brief 3 - Plant Publication - Production/Distrobution

The magazine is produced by printing the main content pages on the mac suit printers on 90gsm silk paper, and the front cover on 130gsm matte paper from digital print. I choose to use the mix of weights and finished to add texture to the feel of the magazine to reference the texture and delicate nature of the plants the magazine is talking about. The production of this magazine in this manor cost around £9.50 a copy because to the large amount of pages, but also because of the limited print run. I priced the magazine up to cost around £4 a copy when a mass production of 20 are printed on 130gsm paper for the inner pages and 250gsm silk paper for the cover. The mass production price is almost half the price of a single run for better paper. This justifies that on a larger print run the magazine will cost even less and would be affordable for the audience of students and young professionals as I would intend to price the magazine around £4 and issue. 

When considering where my magazine would be distributed I had to consider my target audience.  As my audience is mainly students i would distribute it to be sold in student union as a lower price than other shops to encourage students to purchase the magazine. I would also distribute the magazine to local book stores in cities that have studies as well as specialist magazine shops. I have also considered selling the magazine on online stores such as esty and foksy as these are websites for hand produced things, and these are also places that sell similar objects of which i promote in the magazine. 

Brief 7 - Modernism look book - Outcome and Evaluation, Production and Distribution

Outcome and Evaluation:

When redesigning this piece I found that production flowed a lot easier as this project was informed by the research I had already done previously for the original brief. The look book redesign was more successful than the original as it has been developed further and a more fitting and sophisticated cover has been added. The look book is now more successful in terms of distribution as it is now part of a collection, similar to other magazines and publications, this lends itself to the look books content as there is only a limited amount of designers featured in each volume. 

If I was to print the cover again I would now choose a satin finish as the matte shows up a lot of marks which will eventual make the publication look dirtier over time. These materials were appropriate as they were cheap but the added thicker cover added a little bit of support as well as upping the overall feel of the finished publication. As the original cover used navy blue I choose to keep this consistent with the redesign to keep the connection between the original and the redesign. 

For volume 2 of the look book I opted for the same style of cover but in red. I chose red as it is a classic colour similar to navy blue but also they have a subtle contrast that complements each other. The most successful part of this redesign was the front cover, as it was simplistic yet had a greater meaning behind it, compared to the original which was a product of development and feedback. I found this project to be successful as it was a continuation of a brief that I had previously enjoy for cop in second year. This benefited the project as it is a interest of mine, as well as lending itself to myself style of design. 

Production:

The whole book was designed around it been cheap to mass produce but at a good quality, my way of achieving this was by designing an a5 sized look book. By printing on a4 paper it drastically reduced the amount of paper that would be used producing a larger sized look book. Having the outer cover was printed on higher gsm paper, which improved the overall ascetic with the publication and made it more appealing to the consumer compared to if the cover was printed on the lower gsm paper because the colours wouldn’t look as vibrant.  Also having standard 90gsm paper for the content pages within the look book also reduces the cost overall because the use of higher gsm paper would increase the cost dramatically. The perfect magazine bind uses pva glue along the bind to attach all the single sheet together, giving a seamless bind and edge for the cover to be glued onto.  With the look book being cheap to mass produce it will allow for it to be easy to distribute to a larger audience as people are more likely to purchase an impulse buy produce if the price is low, this will allow more people to interact with the publication as most people will be able to afford to buy it. 

Distribution:

When considering where my look book will be distributed I had to consider who my target audience was so that I could determine the best placements so that it would be seen. A key location to distribute my look books would be in art book sorts, or general book stores as this will allow the look books to be seen by the appropriate audience. I also found that a good place for me to distribute my look books to was the Salford zine library as it specialises in zines, and is featured on their website. As well as universities and the zine library the look book could be distributed to art galleries as well as distributed through social media by the website Issuu. Having the look book published on Issuu allows there to be no limitation of were the look book can be seen, although the overall aesthetics are not the same as the original the automated turning of the pages allows the experience to be as close to the real thing as possible. 

Brief 7 - Modernism look book - Prototype Development

Saddle stitch booklet

Magazine bind

Once I had redesigned the covers and inside content, I decided to prototype different bindings and folds that I could use. I choose to prototype a saddle stitch booklet and a magazine perfect bind. Once again binding of the look book needed to be simple so that it can be cheaply and easily mass produced. The saddle stitch booklet allows the look book to have an unlimited amount of pages and allows for large double-page spreads that could be used to show off the art work in interesting compositions. This style of look book is not as cost effective as the other methods but the design has one small limitation that is the double pages must be dividable by 4 for the booklet to work, although it allows the work to be shown off in an interesting and modernist design that would reflect the artwork. This is the same style of binding that the original look book was created in, and upon reflection I decided not to use this method in the redesign as publisher do not commonly use this method and I wanted it to be produced in a similar way to how it would be if it was to be mass-produced, because of this I decided to bind the look book with a simple magazine perfect bind were single pages are glued together and a cover added over. This bind was as close as I could make myself to how magazines are mass produced as well as it did not limit the number of pages in any way, unlike the saddle stitch booklet.

Brief 2 - YCN frontier - finals and submission boards

"Our big idea will make frontier stand out as not many lager brands have a dedicated App, we believe this to be beneficial to your brand as frontier lager has a large online presence, but this is mainly on Instagram, and frontier lager is perceived as a social drink, therefore an App is beneficial as consumers can interact with the brand anywhere direct. As your website contains a lot of information of flavour and also it's food pairings we think that it would show the lager in a more appetising way and become their go to drink. As not many lager brands offer food pairings or any other interactive aspects we believe in this generation aiming at the age range of 25-35 years old that this would be successful as almost everyone has a mobile phone so everyone would have access, anywhere at any time." 

Brief 7 - Modernism look book - Development

Above are the front covers for the original modernism look book. I took influences from early Swiss posters for these designers. The design top design was inspired by an original Swiss poster that used simple block shapes, the long rectangle shapes are representative of the books pages on this cover, I also used a san-serif typeface (Helvetica) to stick with the characteristics of Swiss modernism.  I decided to redesign this orginal cover as there was too much going on, and didnt lead itself to true modernist design, as I believe the more simple yet effective a cover can be the more successful it is at modernism.

To create a simpler front cover i decided to use shapes to represent the work/artists in the look book as a group of the shape could be represented as a collection which is what the look book is all about. To represent the coming together of the artists in one publication I decided to overlap the circles to create a small contrast of colour that can be found in most modernist design as they used gradients to add depth to what was a flat 2D image. An imported part when design this cover was to keep the same san serif typefaces as this is a recognisable trait of modernist design. As the original cover used navy blue I choose to keep this consistent with the redesign to keep the connection between the original and the redesign. For volume 2 of the look book, I opted for the same style of cover but in red. I chose red as it is a classic colour similar to navy blue but also they have a subtle contrast that complements each other. 

frame image well, type legible and clear

added colour to the plain background, type is less legible as it is split up

 Above are experiments and developments of the proposed page layouts from the original look book. I experimented with the type position as the type on each page is important as it is the reference for the image and key to giving the artist credit, because of this the type needed to be legible yet not detract from the artwork. I experimented with using a blue line, the same blue as the cover, to break up the blank space around the image and also create a consistent colour scheme throughout the zine. By adding this splash of colour in the form of the blue line I was trying to create a modernist feel that would be consistent throughout and would be noticeable with or without the artwork. I decided to use this layout as when receiving feedback it was said that the other composition detracted from the images and may contrast too much with theartworkk depending of the images colour, they also agreed that the type positioning was the most successful as it clearly indicated who work it was.

Developing these designs further in my second version of the look book I had to consider a similar type placement/size as feedback last time said that it word well. With this in mind I then designed half circles to create a stronger link to the front cover design, the reason I used half circles not full circles like on the cover is to strengthen the representation on unity within the publication of modernist designers work that has been brought together and collected in one easy to view publication. Similar to the front cover I used matching colours to each volumes cover colour to create a flowing design aesthetic.

Brief 8 -Posterize - Final Posters

Throughout all of my posters, I believed that creating the designs all with a similar colour pallet would create an overall successful design range overall. a key design restriction was to design them in a modernist Swiss style which was difficult at times as the subject matter didn’t always lend itself to this design style. From this range, I think the most successful poster was the Tate gallery visit as the composition of the image and type simply and easily represented the gallery and the information was clear and visible. I believe I achieved the intended brief I set myself as I created five posters which all had modernist design elements to them and they all reflected the event/experience. 

Brief 8 - Posterize - Hepworth and You've Got Mail

Hepworth ALINA SZAPOCZNIKOW Poster: 

The first poster I decided to make was from my visit to the Hepworth gallery in Wakefield. While I was there I looked at the exhibition of Alina Szapocznikow work called human landscapes. 

In my poster design I decided to include only the date of the visit to the exhibition and not figure that I saw in the exhibition as I wanted the poster to represent my visit, not the exhibition its self, because of this I thought that a key feature to include on the posters would be a simple shape-based illustration of the building. Black was used in the background to make the grey illustration of the Hepworth building stand out and become the posters main focus.

 In this development version I added the blue block of colour to the bottom of the poster to represent the river of which is situated next to the Hepworth.

Throughout my development I experimented with the positioning of the typography as this was a key part to the design because it is the only reference to the gallery visit/exhibition itself.

When receiving feedback on this poster developments the most successful poster in my peers opinion was the poster with the Hepworth name at the bottom of the page and the exhibition details in the top right corner, they said that this was successful because the most important information was at the top on the page, and the name of the gallery brought your attention down the page to the illustration as I agreed with their opinions I decided that this would be my final poster for my exhibition visit. 

You've Got Mail Posters:

I decided to make a poster for the You’ve Got Mail excessive from ppp as I found it to be very useful and helped me gain a lot of confidence when speaking to professionals. For the poster design, I decided that I would use the content of what I sent out to the studio The Archipelago as the main focus of this design.

I started by experimenting with a diagonal repeat of the front of the box that I sent out and the cactus seed packet design, this created an interesting perspective, but did not allow much room for any added type or information that would add context to the poster.

When further developing this initial design I removed the repeat leaving more space for typography but when adding typography in this space it did not visually improve the design as the angle was distracting.

After further development, I place the images vertically and added typography in the empty space of which the image composition created. My first development included the ‘you’ve got mail’ title as well as the message that was sent to the archipelago studio, this was more successful then the previous designs but still wasn’t as successful as it could be, because of this I decided to ask for feedback on how I could simplify this design. 

It was suggested that I should use just the studio's name instead of the lengthy message that was sent to them as it still informs the viewer on who the mail was sent to. From this feedback, I experimented with the use of the studio's name and created the final design where the ‘you’ve got mail’ title and the archipelago name are both in bold San-serif typefaces using the same green from the imagery.  

Brief 8 - Posterize - Leeds Light Night, The Tate Liverpool, University

Leeds Light Night Poster:

I decided to make a poster for Leeds light night as it was my first time attending the event and it was a great experience walking around visiting each installation through the city. Two of these installations stick in my mind when it came to designing a poster about the event.

my first development was based on the parade of people with glowing umbrellas so I attempted to digitally replicate them using a glow overlay on photoshop. This was not as effective as I imagined it to be and I was unaware of how I could improve the glowing effect to replicate the installation/performance.

My second development was based around the concept of a light bulb representing the theme of the entire event although this was a realistic image of a light bulb and not a representation which is typical of the Swiss style, I decided it was more appropriate as the event was a physical experience and could not be represented purely by shapes. Aswell with this design I experimented with gradients on typography  reflect the essence of light reflecting on the city in the night.

In this design I tried the poster without the gradients on the typography as I felt the gradients make the typography more illegible. 

When receiving feedback on these designs the installation of the large moon was mentioned and suggested that I could incorporate the moon with the light bulb. From this feedback, I experimented with the opacity of the moon overlay on the light bulb which added texture to the image as well as depth all while inferencing an installation from the night, as this was the most successful of my designs I chose this as the final poster for the event.

The Tate Liverpool:

Upon my visit to the Tate in Liverpool originally I wanted to create a poster that represented the building itself similarly to the Hepworth gallery poster but as this would be too similar I decided that I would make the main focus of the poster's design on the interesting neon sign located outside of the building. While I was in the gallery I saw many exhibitions from different artists who's named I wanted to include on the poster.

text big enough that its legible, tate illustraton a little too low makes the poster look cramped

text too big

The main development for this poster was the experimentation with the composition and sizing of the posters components, as they were both as important as each other so getting the right balance was important.

For my final design I positioned the Tate sign illustration at the top of the page and in the bottom left-hand corner, I positioned the list of names of who I saw at the gallery as well as the date that I went. This composition was most successful as the type was clear but not the main focus of the poster.

University Poster: 

I decided to make a poster about myself and my experience at university as it was the biggest influence to my practice then compared to a gallery visit or contact with any professional. For this poster I took influence from my initial research and began experimenting with type composition and shape.

My first design used typography providing the relevant information about my study at university as well as incorporating shapes to make use of space.

I then developed this design into a design inspired from other early research expanding on the information on the poster by using an image of my creative CV. This was relevant as it is something that has developed throughout my time at university as my skills and experience have developed with time.

 I then expanded on this design further representing the inspiration to show the grid that was used in its created as I believe this is more successful in representing the design course which I am on.

In this design, I decided to combine the previous design with my second one because I believed representing the design course through the grid worked successfully and I thought it was important to include the repeat pattern of my self-branding into the poster showcasing a piece of work that I created within the poster.