OUGD503 evaluation

The live briefs in responsive was something that I enjoyed and invested a lot of my time and enthusiasm into because it gave the work for a deadline context. Designing for a client was challenging as there were a lot of mandatory requirements guidelines to consider when generating ideas. I found the meetings and chances to share what I had been working on a rewarding part of working with a client and particularly useful if they had suggestions for changes that would improve the design personally for them. Working towards a competition brief was something that allowed me to explore more and concentrate on directions that maybe would have been more restricted when working or a client.

Studio brief 2 collaboration tested organisation, time management and communication skills. I found this studio brief much more challenging because I had to start it later than expected due to the reliance on the collaborative partner being in Bali taking the images that we needed. It was very rewarding and interesting to work with someone in Photography as a lot of the design decisions I would choose to make for aesthetic reasons, they would challenge with a conceptual reason and how it could be further developed. This is a skill that I feel I have developed during this studio brief.

In terms of production, it was more challenging in Studio brief 2 rather than 1 because the outcome for Studio brief 2 was a 60-page photo book and a 16-page zine. The production stage really tested what I had learnt in 1^st year in terms of book binding and also having the common sense to speak to as many people as possible to see if there were any approaches that would be better than others. The advice I was given was supported by a lot of research conducted by myself both online and also finding physical examples of the binding method to see how it would work. The major issue encountered in this production process was being informed that there were not the right facilities for the type of binding that I had planned to do, meaning I had to react to this and instantly figure out an alternative binding method. It was overcome and the photo book is completed to a standard I am happy with, just different to how it was first planned to be.

During this module I was able to develop my skills on software’s such as Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro, both software’s that I will use in the future to ensure that all outcomes are as professional as possible. It was also the first big collaboration that I have been part of so it has taught me a lot about how the process changes, the communication that is needed and that the reliance on each other is very high.

Overall it has been a very rewarding module in terms of learning lots of new skills, but also very challenging in terms of time management. The running of OUGD505 alongside this module has left a lot of people finding it hard to focus on the one brief at a time. This is a problem as it prevents full absorption into a concept and development, leaving everything a bit confusing and overwhelming. I overcame this problem as much as I could by making lots of timetables, personal deadlines and to do list as regularly as I could.

Art Fund: YCN submission boards

Art Fund: Designs in context

Art Fund: Final outcomes

Print designs

Web designs

Collaboration: Photo book production + final outcome

The photo book was designed so that it would be printed as signatures that would be individually bound and then as a group be perfect bound. This would then be placed within a hard back cover with a wrap around matte image as the front cover. 

PRODUCTION PROBLEM
Once all of the book had been printed I went to the traditional print room to speak to one of the workshop technicians to get some advice on the steps that I would need to take in order to complete the photo book to the standard that I was aiming for. I was informed that I would need a 2.5 hour induction on how to do the hard back process and then style of stitching that was needed is not even taught within university because it is too complicated. 

PRODUCTION SOLUTION
I was advised to change the way in which the book would be bound so that I could complete it to a higher standard as it was something that I had been inducted to do once before. The solution to this production problem would be to bind each of the pages individually, by cutting down the centre crop mark and then rearranging each of the pages individually into the correct order. 
In terms of the front cover, it was suggested that a good solution would be to use the printed front cover as a wrap around, stuck onto a card so that there would still be some support and structure to the photo book and to hold all of the pages within.

Production process

Once the pages had been cut down the centre using the crop marks I then had to order all of the pages so that they could be perfect bound. In order to do this accurately I used the pdf of the photo book as a reference to ensure that the exact order was achieved. 

The perfect binding was then able to take place, clamping the book so that the page edges were held in place with as little movement as possible. The edges were scored using a scalpel and then pva glue was applied and left over night to dry. 

The next part of the process was the same, glue being applied a few more time letting it dry after each application This will increase the strength of the bind and decrease the chance of pages falling out of the publication. Once it had dried over night I scored the spine with a scalpel and did another layer of pva glue so that the pages that were a little looser in the middle could be attached in a more secure manner.

Once this had dried, I cut a long strip of scrim to stick to the spine of the pages also using pva to reinforce the strength once again. 

To complete the front cover, I took the image that had been printed on digi paper rather than tyvek because it is more absorbent of glue, making it less likely to peel away from the card. I started by flattening it out using some weights because it had been stored within a tube to keep it safe. Taking a sheet of A2 card and spraying spray mount evenly all over it, the front cover image was then stuck to this, using a ruler to ensure that there were no air bubbles when sticking. I then measured the spine of the pages which was 0.5cm scored the centre of the image and then again 0.5cm to the left of this to create the width of the spine. 

To attach the pages to the front cover double sided sticky tape was used either side of the spine, sticking the back cover down first and then the front. I then used the bone folder to flatten the edges and ensure that they were squared off in the way that a perfect bind should be. 

Once it was all folded and attached together, the laser guillotine needed to be used so that all of the edges will sit accurately together. The crop marks on the prints will be used as a guide when cutting as they all match up. I inserted the book in the laser guillotine and ensured that the laser matched up to the crop marks, covered the page with a spare sheet of paper to minimise the dirt left on the page and then cut the pages. It worked really well and as a final book it is neat and to a professional level. 

Collaboration: Zine production

Matte 200gsm vs. glossy 180gsm
The majority of zines are published on a matte stock as the aim is to keep them as low budget as possible, increasing the amount that can be distributed. We were worried that the large amount of black within the portraits would soak into the matte paper and would not appear with the darkness that it is meant to. Another worry we had was if we chose to print it on glossy paper, the front cover may look too bright in comparison to the rest of the zine. To overcome this problem we decided that the best option would be to do some tests prints on both the matte paper and the glossy paper. 

The matte image did work well, but because the glossy paper also worked very well this was our preference so it was the stock that we decided to use. This will work well because it is slightly thinner so it will fold much easier and the user will be able to interact with it in a much more positive way.

The zine was printed on 4 double sided pieces of A3 paper with the setting of 2-up saddle stitch. 

The zine was to be bound through the use of thread and a sewing machine, using red thread to compliment the other colours on the cover. With the help of 3rd year Fashion students the spine was stitched using a machine, which on the first attempt did not work because the tension was too loose. This was overcome on the second attempt and it looked really visually effective. 

The zine was then folded in half and cut using the laser guillotine to ensure that each of the page edges were cut in line with each other.

Art Fund: Final developments

- following the guidelines with the grid etc.
- adding text to the designs

The development process started in Adobe Illustrator as the prints will be a higher quality if drawn in vectors rather than the pixels on Adobe Photoshop. The branding guidelines are very specific so the most appropriate software to use would be Adobe InDesign which I will transfer the designs into once I have drawn them out roughly in Adobe Illustrator. The margins that are needed were roughly mapped out in Adobe Illustrator to ensure that the design ideas would work when designed for context. 

Print
Following on from the previous developments, the quote has now been finalised and the tagline is 'moments _with Art Fund' so the development is now focused on how this can be visually communicated to the target audience. 

fig. 1

fig. 2

Without any colour, these designs explore the details and how attention to detail creates a moment. It then leads to the idea of picking out a section (fig.1, right design) that visually represents the moment itself, directing the attention to that part of the image only. Figure 2 shows a quick experimentation looking at how one of the larger horizontal banners could be designed to show all of the illustrations and then each of the other parts of the campaign could then focus on them as individuals. 

fig. 3

The use of the window (fig. 3) within the design was something from the Art Fund guidelines that could be good to represent the concept that was trying to be communicated to this campaign. 

fig. 4

The window can capture parts of the image in a number of ways, ensuring that the audiences attention is directed to focus on that 'moment'. The experimentation looked at the ways in which the window could be used as part of the campaign. 4), starting by being a filled white window with the image spilling out of the edges. This works well to shows how the bigger picture can be reduced to a small moment of attention, visually communicating the chosen quote. the use of clipping masks was then experimented with to see if removing the whole image from the campaign would make more of an impact. It started by removing all elements of white and limiting the colour palette so that the artwork was just white outlines. In terms of making an impact and best communicating the concept, leaving the full image as part of the design worked the best. 

fig. 5

fig. 6

Removing the white lines (fig. 5) was tested to see if the one block of colour could work effectively on its own for the campaign. This worked well but to act as a comparison, just some parts of the image were filled with the colour (fig. 6). This did work well, but from a distance, it did not grab attention visually with as much impact as the fuller and darker image. 

Following the colour guidelines, mindfulness seemed to best be represented by a pale background with a darker colour for the image in order for it to stand out. The colour palette could be built up to have a number of pale colours that could be paired with each of the darker ones, allowing for the combinations to be applied in different ways.

Exploring the ways in which the quote could be applied to the design varied from the large bold text overlaying the image within the constraints of the box. This looked effective and had a large impact, but it did not specify on the branding guidelines if this would be allowed or not. The text was then placed at the bottom of the page, aligned to the left margin to see if this worked effectively. This visually looked very well organised, something that may best reflect mindfulness as a state of mind and part of life. 

Using the experimentation with the layout, composition and colour application, the developments lead to the use of the white outlining around the filled shape as this worked best visually. 

The screen shots above show the process of designing for print, applying the design style in a variety of ways to each of the different size outputs. I started by keeping the shape of the window the same for each of the different paper sizes, but soon realised that this would not allow for the best use of space so decided to vary it depending on the page size and content that I wanted to include. 

Web

I then had to design the web outcomes in a separate document so that the colours could be set to RGB instead of CMYK ensuring that the colours would remain consistent throughout all of the designs. The art board size of the web designs are extremely different to the print ones, so at first, it was hard to apply the same design style to them. The window was used consistently throughout all of the designs and experimentation with it expanding off of the page took place to see if this would work well for the very restricted amount of space on some of the outcomes. 

Research into the existing Art Fund campaigns showed that a large number of them use the actual plastic membership card as a way to very clearly show what the campaign is trying to sell and what as the audience you would get when paying the £5. I vectorised one of the cards that the Art Fund provide as part of the design pack and then coloured it to fit the colour scheme that I was working too and then opened it up in Adobe Photoshop in order to add a drop shadow to the card. 

fig. 7

The 595x105 pixels artboard was the hardest size to try and continue with the chosen design format. The best way to still include the window design was to have it stretched across the width of the artboard but only the top part of it included as the final design. All of the designs had to be tested in order to see which one worked best as a final outcome and then I presented them to a group of peers to get help deciding which one worked the best and effectively showed off as much of the image as possible. 

Mandatory text placement

The Art Fund campaign designs need to include certain pieces of information in order to fulfil the brief and requirements. 

To include:

•The name of the pass (Student Art Pass)

•Reference to the price (£5)

•A “call to action”. I.e. where can students find out more or buy a pass? For example, this could be the web address (www.artfund.org/student) or a search suggestion, like “search Student Art Pass”.

•Important: this campaign must treat the Student Art Pass as a stand-alone product, and should not draw any comparisons to the price of the National Art Pass.

You might also want to use a visual of the Student Art Pass (provided), but this is not essential.

To ensure that there is a variety within the campaign (as well as consistency), the use of the actual Student Art Pass seemed liek a good addition to the posters and online designs. For one of the print designs, the addition of the card was placed at the bottom of the page, underneath the window. Initially, it was placed fairly central and large with the word search and an arrow placed at the top left of the card. This worked well but in terms of placement, it did not sit very well with the window on the page. The card was then reduced in size and moved to the bottom left of the poster, in line with the text. The extra pieces of information about how to get a card were placed to the top right of the card and then the website directly underneath, centralised. The quote was then moved down and placed below the card and this worked better in terms of composition with the window. 

The text in relation to the card didn't appear to be part of it and just floated to the side of it, so something needed to be developed to ensure that there was a clear relationship between the two elements. 

Once again it was the text placement in relation to the window that was proving difficult to compose theoretically and visually. The branding guidelines state that the text must be left aligned against the margins of the page, so it was placed there and the sizing was experimented with so that it worked in relation to the window. 

As an experimentation to see if the window could be made clearer, the white outlines of the illustration were removed. Visually it does work to make the window stand out effectively, but the illustration loses the detail needed for it to represent the concept and aim for it to be based on the mindful colouring books. Now that it has been tested, the designs will go back to how there were before as this worked better conceptually.

In an attempt to emphasise the concept of the window is symbolic of capturing a moment, the window was dramatically reduced in size so that this would illustrate the concept much more effectively. Rather than having the illustration within the margins, it was expanded and pushed off the art board area to further emphasise the concept. The positioning and size were experimented with until an outcome worked in the most effective way. The chosen positioning and size of the illustration allowed one of the eyes of the female figure to be included on the page which was important to ensure recognition of the piece of art. The illustration is placed to the right of the page so that the text can be placed on the left without it being covered by the illustration, ensuring consistency throughout all of the designs. 

The placement of the text at the bottom left of the design needed to be designed to fit with the illustration on the page, but also to follow the Art Fund branding guidelines. The text is left aligned to match the rest of the designs but it is the spacing and the placement of the web address that has been experimented with. 

It worked well to have the web address placed along the left side of the window but unfortunately, this does not fit with the brand guidelines for the brief. 

This placement mimics the curve of the illustration that it is placed to the left of, working well in terms of composition and harmony on the page. 

For this design, I experimented with the size of the window in order to best explore the concept in a visual manner. I started by reducing the size of the window so that it captures only a small amount of the image, capturing that particular section of detail as a moment. This conceptually worked well, but the increased size of the window with it placed off the edge of the right side of the page works in a more visually successful way. (the colours are different becasue the first was faded so that the guides could easily be seen)

I used the view to actual size setting on Adobe Indesign for all of the designs to ensure that all of the content will be legible from a distance and also to make sure that the composition and sizing of each of the elements is in proportion. I reduced the size of the illustration slightly and then increased the size of the Student Art Pass card and now it works much better as a final design. 

I also had to follow the same process with this design so that the writing to support the plastic card is big enough for the page size.