In my original Statement of Intent for the Product-Range-Distribution brief, I wanted to create design solutions through the use of typography and layout design to show more depth and direction towards my individual interests. Through producing a set of newspaper supplements with promotional designs for them, I thought it was a great opportunity to explore these interests and work on both my strengths and weaknesses. After having moved on from a collaborative project to a very self directed brief was obviously a complete contrast, but I took a lot from the first half of the module in terms of structure, organisation and always aiming to stay on target with the module outcomes. After writing the brief originally, I haven't had to alter it as I felt the deliverables and restrictions were realistic and achievable and I have put in a lot of effort in terms of project management to write weekly action plans and stick to them. The crits have all been useful, with relevant feedback that often allowed me to open my mind more about possibilities I hadn't always considered.
As well as my organisational skills, I feel that my contextual design research has improved greatly by constantly looking for inspiration and relevant designs that exist in today's industry and frequently blogging my findings. In previous briefs, I have always let myself down in this area by concentrating so much on researching the topic or content of my design that I looked over the opportunity to see what exciting stuff is already being designed in ways similar to my interests. This had definitely helped my design direction over the last 5 weeks and I am pleased that this realisation has come at a time where I can now continue to improve on it and turn a weakness into a strength in preparation for my third year.
In terms of wanting to exhaust all possibilities and design ideas, I feel this is definitely an area of my practice that I still am not meeting my targets in. I know I can do it, yet I continue to produce 10, 20, 30 design variations and go with my strongest idea, instead of hitting 50, 60, even 100 ideas to have a wider variety to work from. I think within the future self directed briefs I am going to be stricter with myself and set numbered targets to aim for so that I am pushing my practice to a place that would allow me to produce much higher quality design.
This brief has also made me realise just how much I want to get out of this degree and how there are so many things that I want to produce. In terms of the brief title, I was really pleased with my overall set of products and the format and layout it took on. I put a lot of effort into the fold-out element of it and tested many ways it could work. I proposed how the design would be delivered digitally and worked on the printed distribution aspect with posters and promotional designs for the newspapers. However, I think spending so much time exploring how the reader would unfold it and what layout would be a fresh and unique take on the idea of a supplement, meant that I didn't explore as deeply into the variation of typography and colour that could have been used. In my mind I covered many more typefaces and colour combinations and ruled them out without testing them which doesn't show my thought process thoroughly enough on paper, letting my development down overall.
In terms of print production and my final resolutions, I am really happy with how the content information and layout designs work together to produce a product that is relevant and realistic to its purpose. I could imagine them in the Sunday edition newspaper even though they look different to all the usual supplements found in there. Referring back to my Rationale, this was an issue that I wanted to address to 'produce designs with worthwhile content within realistic and suitable contexts'; something which I think I have achieved well.
I am now looking forward to taking what I have learnt from this module as a whole and moving forward into the third year of my practice.
[My evaluation for the Collaborative Practice can be found here]
Kutchibok
Kutchibok, a graphic design company based in Cardiff Bay, have produced this beautifully crafted publication that uses a two colour design that even goes into the detail of the binding. With simplicity is how I like to work and is definitely the key here and it works really effectively.
Slice campaign
Manual, a graphic design and branding consultancy based in San Francisco, work across a broad area of design from branding and corporate identity, art direction and exhibitions to packaging, printed matter and illustration. They also work digitally with web design and signage, but I chose to look at their design campaign for Slice:
"Slice collaborates with world-renowned designers such as Yves Behar and Karim Rashid, to create award-winning ceramic cutting tools for the home and office. Manual created an iconic brand identity to illustrate this cutting edge product. We articulated the brand identity across a packaging system, print literature and exhibition graphics to showcase the angular nature of the logo." (manualcreative.com/slice)
However, it was their printed media that really caught my eye:
The combination of the subtle grey and vibrant orange type against the crisp, white stock is the reason why I love simple, limited colour palettes. Not only that, but it is in fitting with my design direction of having a publication that opens up in a creative way to reveal further information as a large poster design.
This design offers the choice of looking through a quick guide in the style of a leaflet, opening up as a concertina style piece, before opening up completely to reveal the full instruction manual:
"Slice collaborates with world-renowned designers such as Yves Behar and Karim Rashid, to create award-winning ceramic cutting tools for the home and office. Manual created an iconic brand identity to illustrate this cutting edge product. We articulated the brand identity across a packaging system, print literature and exhibition graphics to showcase the angular nature of the logo." (manualcreative.com/slice)
However, it was their printed media that really caught my eye:
The combination of the subtle grey and vibrant orange type against the crisp, white stock is the reason why I love simple, limited colour palettes. Not only that, but it is in fitting with my design direction of having a publication that opens up in a creative way to reveal further information as a large poster design.
This design offers the choice of looking through a quick guide in the style of a leaflet, opening up as a concertina style piece, before opening up completely to reveal the full instruction manual:
Diverse Design & Communications
Here is another local possible placement opportunity. Again it is run by a couple who work from home in Wakefield and they cover other aspects of design as well as Graphic Design. This could be a good chance for me to see how a wider skilled design business works. They knew of my interest at the beginning of this second year, but I need to follow this up by contacting them again, something that I am aiming to do very soon.
Typography Module Evaluation
At the end of this 10 week typography module, I would have to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed all 10 sessions and have definitely learned a lot. I now check many things before I begin writing, or laying out a document and even the tiniest of details will annoy me until it is corrected. The strongest sessions, and the most useful to me, were the designing of the business cards and the short press ads tasks. The final longer task of designing two contrasting double page spread designs have also been a useful challenge with end results that I can perhaps use in my portfolio to show the kind of editorial design I enjoy.
The column and leading tasks were interesting and got us working and discussing as a group, but after a while I found it quite difficult to critically decide on what leading and font size worked best on the page and what didn’t work, as it was all starting to blur into one. However, I definitely benefitted from it and will continue to analyse and experiment with text and come out with various printed solutions before deciding which option works best. The grid and colour exercises were fun and I have come away with many little tips to think about when playing with white space and grids.
Experimenting with this optional module was important to me as it has proven that I do want to go down the path of editorial design more and that I have the patience for detail to work with typography. It excites me that there is so much more to learn and that I have only just scratched the surface, so for briefs such as the up and coming design practice 2 whereby I can personalise it and write it to my strengths, I hope to create worthwhile designs out of it to show how much this module has influenced the thought process that now goes into my designing.
The column and leading tasks were interesting and got us working and discussing as a group, but after a while I found it quite difficult to critically decide on what leading and font size worked best on the page and what didn’t work, as it was all starting to blur into one. However, I definitely benefitted from it and will continue to analyse and experiment with text and come out with various printed solutions before deciding which option works best. The grid and colour exercises were fun and I have come away with many little tips to think about when playing with white space and grids.
Experimenting with this optional module was important to me as it has proven that I do want to go down the path of editorial design more and that I have the patience for detail to work with typography. It excites me that there is so much more to learn and that I have only just scratched the surface, so for briefs such as the up and coming design practice 2 whereby I can personalise it and write it to my strengths, I hope to create worthwhile designs out of it to show how much this module has influenced the thought process that now goes into my designing.
Additions to the current portfolio
The resolution boards sent off for the YCN competition brief:
Magazine spread for the typography module:
Magazine spread for the typography module:
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