Final Submission Boards

Brief 3 / Proposed Extended Range

In one of the crits it was suggested that I extended the range for this brief. It would be quite easy to apply the decorative typography to any type of merchandise to be sold alongside the product, like a t-shirt or tote bag, but then this wouldn't really have a concept. The idea behind the posters and postcards has more of a meaning behind it:

I haven't had time to create the other products, as I wanted my focus to be on the design of the book, but if I did, I would have liked to create:

- A series of posters

- A series of postcards / notecards

- T-shirt & Tote bag

- Notebooks & Sketchbooks

- Pens, Pencils

These are all products that a graphic design student would use daily so the message would continually be on their mind to work hard. These products are quite similar to the ones I have created for my stationery brief.

Brief 3 / Photo shoot

Unfortunately I didn't have this brief finished in time to photograph it in the photo studio, so I had to create my own mini photo studio with a photo tent and lighting. The photos have turned out quite well considering but I could have done with a better hand model to hold the pages open! These are some of the best photos that will be appearing on the boards. 

This brief has been quite different to my others as there is just one product with a lot of content, where in my others there were loads of products. I think that makes this one difficult to photograph, so on the boards I want to include images of the actual quotes to show them off.

Brief 3 / Making the Book

Here are some photographs of the book at different stages as I put it together. One of my targets has been to work on my presentation skills, so its important that this book is perfect!

The pages have been printed as double page spreads a6 size, to be folded to a7. They are printed on to photo paper which gives a nice glossy finish. Its not the best quality paper in the world but does the job, just can't afford to print all off on the gloss paper in digital print.

The back of each page is stuck to the next page kind of like a concertina bind.

Putting the cover together. Need to think of some way to close it together.

A few photographs of the book. I'm so happy with the size and how much content I actually managed to create, as for a bit I was worried it wouldn't get finished.

I wish I had finished this brief a bit earlier so I could have applied some sort of print finish to the cover and also photographed it in the photo studio like I did with my other briefs. I know for next time!!

Brief 3 / Final Book

Got there in the end. Realised I should include a little explanation of the font and colour choices in the book. Originally I was just planning to include this information on the boards, but I think it would be relevant to the person reading the book and interesting to know about the design choices.

Brief 3 / Book Cover

Based on the book folds I experimented with (see blog post), the french folded book will be inside a card cover. I had an original idea based on how the design was looking at the time, but as I have finished my design the cover design has changed.

(OLD idea)

The cover will be printed on to black card. I'm thinking about foiling black on to black. I'm going to use one of the quotes from the book on the cover, so for example it could be called 'Be Unique: The Graphic Design Rulebook'. The foil will appeal to the target audience as designers are interested in stock and print finishes, and will be a simple way of making the book more eye catching. The cover will be then held inside a slip case.

(NEW idea)

The cover will be a wrap around card cover, an idea from the book mock ups I made, to keep the book safe from getting bent and to make it seem a bit more exciting. I realised that for such a small book, a slip case would be a bit pointless anyway so I don't need to do this. Also, I think using black on black will be a bit harsh against the other colours, as I have ended up using an emerald and creamy white colour scheme throughout.

This is the design for the cover, simplistic so all the focus is on the title. Ideally if I had more time I would have liked to apply a print finish or try laser cutting this or something to make it stand out.

Net, to be printed double sided on to white card. It might look a bit random now but will make more sense when wrapped around the final book.

--- After printing this out in digital print, I had a bit of a disaster. First of all the cover accidentally got scaled to fit and then secondly it came out with a black mark on the front, and finally, the green was way out to the green of the inside pages. Also, I didn't allow for how thick the book would actually be once I had made it, so I needed to re-print the cover at home, the only problem being that I don't have an A3 printer! --

 

I have re-arranged the cover design, which I will print in to 3 parts then package together. I've measured out the size of the book so it fits perfectly.

Outside cover

Inside Cover

Net (only one sided, because the book will be stuck to the other side)

Again this might be quite confusing but makes a lot more sense when you see the actual made book. In the end I much prefer this cover, I think the book lots a lot more exciting like this, so it was quite a good mistake to make!

Brief 3 / Book Update

Here are some more screenshots of the progress I have made to the book design. I don't know whether the text works best horizontally or on its side? Might have to ask others opinions. I also need to work out how much of the page it should take up.

Those that I asked suggested that it just makes sense to have them all the right way round. Also, try and get the quote to fill up the same amount of space in each page, so that everything is consistent.

I also played around with where the text should be positioned on page. Should it be at the top, middle or bottom?

I don't think the text looks as good on the black background as the green so I'm just going to keep all the background pages green that aren't white, also, this will add to the consistency, as I think three different background colours would be a bit much.

I'm nearly finished with the design and layout, but I think I need to test it by printing it out and seeing what size things are, and if the colours work together.

I am slowly just making everything simpler in terms of the page designs, as I want everything to work together, where before, a few things like these pages looked a bit random and messy.

A pdf of where I am up to now... nearly done just need to ask for some feedback before I'm ready to print.

Re-Written Final Briefs

Look at these posts to see the development of the briefs. As you can see the fourth brief has changed dramatically, and some are quite different to what I initially thought I would do. These decisions are explained on the relevant blog posts.

Brief Ideas 26/09/12
Briefs to discuss at tutorial 4/10/12
Briefs with Brief 1 added 12/11/12

Brief 1

Competition Brief + Type Skills Brief = Initial Written Brief
Tigerprint Brief
Final Brief

Brief 2

The Internet Initial Statement of Intent
Initial Statement of Intent
Brief Draft 2
Final Written Brief

Brief 3

Initial Statement of Intent
Final Written Brief

Brief 4

Graphic Design Museum Initial Statement of Intent
MGD Brief
Change of Direction
MCD: Final Written Brief 

Brief 5

Mini Brief

Final Briefs 5/12/12

Final Crit

Here are my boards at the stage of the final crit. Unfortunately I didn't give myself enough time as I needed to make these boards, so they are unfinished. But I still have questions that I want answering about my boards. These are:

1. Is the line under the logo needed?

2. Are the images too big or small?

3. Do I write about how the brief was before and include info about development or just final pieces?

4. Does anything seem a bit irrelevant?

5. What do you think about the overall layout style?

BRIEF 1

I didn't realise quite how long it would take to arrange the photos on to my boards. Some of my photos didn't work out as well as I thought they had as well so theres a few that I need to retake.

I also struggled to work out what should be bigger and what should be smaller in terms of images, but found it useful when I printed the boards out to size to work out what was what.

BRIEF 2

I think for this brief the actual icons are better than the final products, so I wanted to make a feature of these. It still needs a bit of tweaking but I have managed to organise the products well in terms of size. The collective group shot of the products didn't turn out so somehow I need to re photograph this.

BRIEF 3

I haven't yet finished, printed or photographed this brief. I am panicking a bit about this, but at least I will just be able to copy the format of the brief from the other boards.

BRIEF 4

These were the first boards I did, and I spent ages on the placement of the images so think they are working quite well, I just need to correct a few mistakes and finish adding the text.

BRIEF 5 

This is a mini brief that I only started the other day, so the boards won't need to be printed. There will probably only be one or two, which will be saved as a pdf on my blog, but these boards will be the same format as the others.

FEEDBACK

For this crit we looked around everyones work individually, then in groups looked round the other peoples work, considering: blog content, blog organisation, presentation boards content and organisation. I had my unfinished boards and all of my final products to get feedback on.

General

- MCD briefs - brilliant/relevant application of branding to promo - especially posters. Range utilised.

- Good photography. Clear range for all briefs. Clear presentation. Great use of stock and different applications to products.

- Really clear boards so far, everything looks really organised. Photos look really professional and clear, communicate well. Good use of different stock with final products - shows you have tried and tested different things to get the most from your briefs.

- The YCN brief is looking good. Internet brief is spot on. Good range of products - well photographed except one image which looks a little dark.

Person 1/

- Are you going to be adding more photos to the 2nd and 4th boards of the card brief? Too much space.

- Love all the imagery for the internet brief, looks amazing. Very well laid out and plenty of good images to show how everything fits together.

- Really clear information, everything so far that you have written is relevant. All work is explained well, with the brief on the boards.

Person 2/

- The lines on the board aren't needed

- You need a range of big and small images depending on what you are trying to communicate within the product shot. So use a variation, but make sure they work consistently across boards.

- Don't include development on boards

- Boards are clear and concise

- Good documentation of all. Design decisions and well evaluated each image posted.

- Well organised. Producing well informed design decisions.

- It is evident that you have clearly related your DC posts to your design practise

- Lots of imagery to convey the products now need to add text to explain the designs

- Think about how you are organising the images, line them up, spacing. 

- Have a vectored image also.

Person 3/

- Briefs are clearly labelled and very well documented.

- Evaluation is sometimes a little brief but is consistent throughout

- Seem to be on top of all your briefs

- Really good break downs on design context of how work relates to each brief

- Development of briefs is evident when scrolling through

- Good balance between image and type

- Maybe relate context blogging of processes to possible ambitions within your briefs

- Really concise descriptions - outlines each brief really well

- Consistent layout across boards

- Photographed really well

- Related header along bottom of page and given print specs

- Board for the branding of each brief?

- Could do with the brief titles on the boards.

- Possibly draw attention to the fact you've developed logos for each swell

- Boards are really easy to navigate and clear. Just finish descriptions and should be ready to print.

PLAN OF ACTION

- Pick up on points in feedback, including:

- Get rid of lines - not needed

- Add text, check grammar and spelling

- Retake a few of the lower quality images

- Add branding to all of boards, and box to put 3d products in to make it clear it is mine

Brief 3 / Final Quotes

After comments in the crits about some of the messages being quite difficult to read, I've removed unneccesary elements and made sure the phrases are easy to read, as obviously, legibility is an important aspect of graphic design. I've also noticed quite a few mistakes in the lines not being of accuracte sizes and things being unequal, so I've neatened everything up so the phrases are ready to have the shadows added to them in photoshop, so I can put them in the book.

The letters are now only joined in one place rather than every link, as it just looked too much before.

____________________________________________

Here is the original message.

A comment I received in feedback was that the h-i-n join really didn't work and made it quite confusing what the word is. I agree because it looks a bit like a u is hidden in there. So heres how I've changed it.

 

Here is the simplified phrase: (I later took out the link between the e and t)

And heres the final quote, with shadows:

____________________________________________

Here is the original message. I've added in lots of extra things like the squares and circles and I'm not really sure what the point was, so I've removed them.

Also I really didn't like this a to c join, so I've changed that. With the new c the gap between c and t looked too big so I've sorted this out. Looking at the kerning of the lettering was something I realised I needed to look at on each phrase.

Here's the simplified message:

With shadows:

____________________________________________

Here is the original message, again, theres too many pointless things in it!

I also really didn't like the look of the word new as it just doesn't fit in with the rest of the message.

So, I've changed it to this:

With shadows:

____________________________________________

Here is the original message.

This one didn't need many changes. 

With shadows:

____________________________________________

Here is the original message.

This was my favourite of the original quotes, but I think it looks a bit silly how I have put in a few capital letters, but only in like one or two messages.

I've made the m and r lower case and simplified the links.

With shadow:

____________________________________________

Here is the original message.

Like with the previous example, I have replaced the capitals. I also don't like the d, as I'm trying to  make the phrases as legible as possible so it needs to be changed.

Simplified:

With shadows:

____________________________________________

Here is the original message.

This one was really easy as not much needed to be altered.

With shadows:

____________________________________________

Here is the original message. This one is far too messy and really difficult to read.

There were some combinations of letters I really didn't like, such as:

The second t here looked a bit like an f so something needed to be done about that.

Simplified:

With shadow:

____________________________________________

This is a new quote I hadn't made a message for before, so was easier to make it simpler in the first place.

Some additions I tried making seemed too much, and I didn't want to fall in to this again.

Linked message:

With shadows:

____________________________________________

Another new message, I thought it would look better if the title was in the same style as the quotes in the book.

When I was joining up the letters, I realised the n here looks too much like a h.

Also, compared to the rest of the messages, the kerning seemed too wide.

Joined message:

With shadows:

____________________________________________

Another new message for at the end of the book, this was quite simple to do. I'd used these o's together in book so just re-created this.

Joined message:

With shadows:

____________________________________________

The next thing I needed to do was re-create these phrases with the colours reversed out, so the emerald green on the white background. Now that I'd already worked out where the shadows needed to go for each piece, this was easier than the original time.

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