OUGD403: Module Evaluation

OUGD403: Studio Brief 3 - Message and Delivery (Post Crit)

Following the group crit, I've begun to make alterations to my mail shot, below is an extract from my post-crit analysis on my PPP Blog, which you can see here.

"Firstly, most importantly, is adjusting the variables to fit the brief, the sizing of the mail shots is wrong, it should be 220x110mm, mine is not. The original document in Illustrator is the correct size, however, due to the printer size adjustments and the crop marks being squeezed on the page, the mail shot as reduced by around 1-2cm, which I didn't notice. I'm pleased this was pointed out in the crit, otherwise I would have not met the criteria asked. Another error which was pointed out is the colour balance, in the illustrator file, I use two different shades of blue, and their half tones.  However, due to a printing error, again, some of the colours appear purple or grey, not looking like a half tone of one of the original blues, so, I must make this more clear in the improved mail shots. Another adjustment which needs to be made involves the sonar wheel, which can be found inside the leaflet, although I think this is a nice concept, It is hard to achieve, and it didn't work effectively. It was flimsy and it made some of the text hard to read, I also had difficultly obtaining appropriate split pins, so the ones I ended up with had a glittery texture, which do not fit the theme of the mail shot, so I'm going to remove it and only use the text under the sonar wheel.
Another dilema, I'm not longer able to access the digital print room, which means I'm limited to A3 paper only, so, I'm going to have to alter the fold of the page, so it fits on A3, rather than having a vertical crease, so it folds out horizontally which would exceed the page size, I'm going to have to have an horizontal crease, so the page folds vertically."

So, i've begun by sketching some new layouts for the altered design of my mail shot, in which I've accounted for limitation in size for the print.

I've decided that the bottom design would work better, as the top one looks rather basic, and it layed out in a rather odd manner.

The first alteration I've made is the composition of the mail shot, you can now see that it folds vertically now rather than horizontally, so this means it will fit on A3 to print. I've also decided to remove the sonar wheel, which spun on a flimsy split pin, as it distracted and confused whoever read it. It also added a bump in-between the two sheets of paper which were stuck together, so it felt bizarre to hold. It also tore in one of the mail shots. So, the text which was inside the wheel is now displayed in three columns on the bottom half of the page, for those who would like to read on.

I'm keeping the main heading a subheadings on  the inside of the mail shot, as from the crit we've established these worked rather well, so I'm going to use them within this design, and I've decided to place them on the top half of the mail shot.

OUGD403: Studio Brief 3 - Message and Delivery: Distribution

From this, 10+ quick sketches were made, these gave me some initial ideas, and a starting point to progress from.

I also established my target Audience, aiming at people who had an intrest in Marine life, so I would make my piece quite formal and engaging.

From these initial ideas, I went on to develop two of them, and form a new idea based on a combination of the ones above, as seen at the bottom of the image below. The top two are based on two of my initial  ideas, which I've enlarged and tidied up and labeled properly, so I can communicate my ideas effectively.

Below, you can see the outside of the mailshots, based on the top design in the image above, the logo and headline, which clearly communicate negative effects of sonar, on the right, you see the addresses of the recipients, which are also indicated on the mail shot, jump to the bottom of the post to see the mailshot, you can also see a small grey area for the stamp to be placed. 

Below, you can see the inside sections of the mail shots. Above the sonar-circle on the right, there is a cut out of the sonar graph, as stated above in the layouts, which I've used a split pin to make the designs spin, as you can see in the animation below the mail shots.

On the right, you can see the assembled mail shots, along with the mailing list to the left.

OUGD403: Message and Delivery

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OUGD403: Message and Delivery - Posters (Final)

The above are my final designs for the group crit tomorrow, from left to right, image only, image and text, and finally, text only.

I'm happy with the way these have turned out, and I've enjoyed working on them. You can see some of my development work and ideas which has lead me to create these by clicking here

These images were created on adobe illustrator CS6. Using a variation of methods, such as strokes, which I recently learnt in a Illustrator Tutorial, click here, I also used various images of whales which I traced from the internet, to avoid copyright. 

OUGD403: Studio Brief 3 - Alphabet Soup - Illustrator

For this brief we were asked to pick one of the ten letter forms which communicated out chosen word, mine being layer, and from this, I've decided to base my typeface on the K letterform, which I completed in my Alphabet Soup project. 

Which can be seen here

I then began to sketch out some letters in my layout pad, so I could get an idea of what the letter forms would look like, and the difficulty it would be to create them.

See my Times New Roman letter form research here

To trace the images on my layout pad, to create the negative-look font with two layered letterforms I traced the outline of one of the letterforms, moved the image slightly up and two the left, and repeated. Following this I went to shade certain sections of the overlapped letter forms, to create the above.

I then went on the do something similar in Adobe Illustrator CS6. I created two letter, layered them and only made the strokes of the image visible, and I used this as a starting point to trace my letter forms. Locking the layer, and creating a new one overlaying it, I began to fill in various parts of the letter, using the pen tool, to gain the desired effect.

-Twenty-six letters later-

The Finished Typeface, which has been printed.

OUGD403: Message and Delivery - Layouts

Illustrator Workshop

As part of our development as Graphic Designers, we've had Illustrator workshops to enhance our abilities in Adobe Illustrator, to a professional level of expertise. Below, you can see some examples of the techniques which we tried.

Print Room Work

OUGD403: Applying the font to a product

We were asked to use out typeface to brand a product, so to speak. I've decided to use the Persil washing brand as my product, to which I'd add my font.

I like the way it's turned out, I think it would fit well.

OUGD403: Tracing the Letters/Name Badge

Following the illustrator tracings, which I did from the drawn designs, I've now come to the final stages of this part of the brief. I've enlarged the images substantially to A1 size. The quality is contained as the letter forms are all Vector format. The letters were laid out in Illustrator, I came across a few clashing ascenders and descenders, however, a few adjustments, and it seems to look good. Sadly, I've had to print out the letters on many sheets of A3 and stick them together, but this wasn't a major issue.

Image of the letter forms printed out on A3, assembled together into an almost A1 size sheet of paper. Which I then layered a sheet of A1 tracing paper on-top  secured, and began tracing the letters, as you can see below.

The image tracing was a lengthy task, taking the best part of 4 hours to make sure the stokes around the tricky curves and spirals were as accurate as possible. I also had to use a very fine nib of pen to accurately navigate the lines around the shapes of the spirals in the letterforms. 

Finally, we had to design a name badge as part of the brief. Click here to see the name badge research. I designed it on Adobe Illustrator, and printed on textured brown card, which I reenforced with white card on the back.

OUGD403: Tracing the Letters on Ai

Following the finalised designs you've seen in my previous posts, I've not traced the letter forms on Adobe Illustrator CS6, to give the below.

Using the new techniques I learnt in the Illustrator workshop, I was able to subtract the spiral shape which I designed from the letters, as I designed. Rather than keeping the font simple.

I will soon commense in laying the letter forms and glyphs out on A1, for print, so I can then trace them onto the tracing paper, which we must present our final work on.

OUGD403 Design Skills: Alphabet Soup (Task 2)

Following the group crit, where I presented my near final design to the tutors and my peers within the crit, see the below, I've begun working on the final touches for my letterforms.

Feedback from the crit advised that I work on including more of Noma Bar (Lizzy's favourite designers)'s style into the letter forms, but this, they meant try to include the 'shapes within shapes' into the letter forms in the style of Noma Bar. So I've decided to pick up on one of her other points, her super-power; time travel. 

Now, I want to keep the shape within the letter forms fairly simple, so instead of tracing the impossible shape of  a victorian time machine, I've decide to use shapes which correlate to time travel. I've turned towards some motifs from the 1958 film Vertigo, by the genius Alfred Hitchcock. Click here to see the Design Context Post. Hitchcock uses the spiral within this film to represent the past, and how the protagonist is trapped in it, almost like time travel. I've also recalled seeing many sci-fi-esque films which incude a spiral to show the journey through time. So I'm going to implement this into my designs.

As you can see above, I've implemented the basic shapes of the Vertigo-Time-Travel-Spiral into the letterforms.

OUGD403 Design Skills: Alphabet Soup (Task 2)

The Brief

The Questionnaire

Initial Ideas

Research into her artist, Noma Bar (see Design Context page here) and attempt to implement his style into the font, also try to find a fond similar to Noma Bar's style of work. (11.10.12 Update: Bubleboddy chosen) 

The phrase which she over-uses the most is "so", which is an emphasis. So I thought i'd emphasise, and exaggerate the ascenders and descenders from the characters in the font, trying to implement characteristics of her personality into the font.

12/10/12 Update

After experimenting with Bubbleboddy i've decided that it isn't a suitable typeface to base my work from, as it is too thick to work with, and very informal, the stumpy ascenders and descenders are hardly suitable to work with. So instead I've decided, after browsing FontBook, to use Neville Brody's Industria Solid.