The design process during this second fashion collaborative fared differently compared to ‘Michaela Wong’. The short time scale forced quick decisions to be made on the branding’s art direction. The relatively large range of business card designs also demonstrates my familiarity with typographic design. From the experience of working with type and layout, creating those designs came more naturally and it was easier to manipulate variations of type to suit the demands of the client.
It was helpful to the progress of the brief that the client was a student in uni. Compared to the ‘Michaela Wong’ brief, the responses were a lot quicker which helped in the fast turn around.
As compared to ‘Michaela Wong’ having those final images of Monica’s, because our deadlines were slightly similar, worked better when visualising the application of the logo onto her campaign.
Hopefully this practice of working with fashion based clients extend into the future as it would be beneficial to my practice to design within my interests.
Sunday, 13 May 2018
Evaluation
Commercial book cover design still remains to be the hardest area for me to apply an effective and informed treatment of typography. This was the only brief out of the ten where I felt frustrated throughout most of the process. The ideas and compositions produced fall short of the mark and don’t necessarily represent my best ability. This could be due to how wide of an audience book covers have to appeal to. Too specific of a look and it may alienate many from showing interest, reducing the effectiveness of the design and lifespan of it on the shelves.
Furthermore, it was hard to gauge what the judges are looking for in a design that ‘breaks boundaries’ and is ‘timeless’. A timeless piece of design can only be considered timeless when it is looked back upon.
The final design is a step forward from last year’s entry, however the design decisions are not informed strongly enough to warrant its effectiveness in capturing the intention of the book and to have it appeal to new younger audiences.
Furthermore, it was hard to gauge what the judges are looking for in a design that ‘breaks boundaries’ and is ‘timeless’. A timeless piece of design can only be considered timeless when it is looked back upon.
The final design is a step forward from last year’s entry, however the design decisions are not informed strongly enough to warrant its effectiveness in capturing the intention of the book and to have it appeal to new younger audiences.
Evaluation
Collaborating externally with Michaela highlighted the importance of working towards the same deadline. Since we weren’t, it raised problems in terms of being able to fully develop the application of the logo. It was hard to receive her designs to apply the logo onto as we are working with different time scales. My deadline for the brief is much earlier than hers, so professional images of her work are hard to come by as the garments themselves are yet to be fully made.
This had affected the original deliverables of the brief as I was willing to extend the logo into poster ad campaigns, magazine ads, purchase reciepts, business cards and lookbook due to my personal interest in fashion. This brief was a good opportunity in demonstrating this in my portfolio.
However, this shortcoming of the logo’s application is only due to academic deadlines. The brief is still ongoing and since the logo is done, it will make it easier to apply it fully to her content.
It must be said as well that the chosen logo for her brand is partly due to her appreciation for graphic style. The abstract forms that make up the logo are far from the typical fashion branding associations, using type this way is more akin to Museum branding. This gives her brand an almost cultured and refined aesthetic that hopefully attract new audiences. Without her knowledge on graphic design, a less than unique or more typical fashion logo archetype may have been chosen. Therefore working alongside creatives who have similar tastes is beneficial to producing alternative results.
This had affected the original deliverables of the brief as I was willing to extend the logo into poster ad campaigns, magazine ads, purchase reciepts, business cards and lookbook due to my personal interest in fashion. This brief was a good opportunity in demonstrating this in my portfolio.
However, this shortcoming of the logo’s application is only due to academic deadlines. The brief is still ongoing and since the logo is done, it will make it easier to apply it fully to her content.
It must be said as well that the chosen logo for her brand is partly due to her appreciation for graphic style. The abstract forms that make up the logo are far from the typical fashion branding associations, using type this way is more akin to Museum branding. This gives her brand an almost cultured and refined aesthetic that hopefully attract new audiences. Without her knowledge on graphic design, a less than unique or more typical fashion logo archetype may have been chosen. Therefore working alongside creatives who have similar tastes is beneficial to producing alternative results.
Mock up
Having a full scale mock up print allows us to understand how the concept works prior to professional printing.
Unfortunately, the quality of the mock up print itself is less than ideal due to human error. It is more of a demonstration of the concept rather than a representation of the final print quality.
Evolution Print
A meeting with Evolution print, the professional printers producing the publication, outlined the specifications.
350gsm stock for the postcards
300gsm stock for the publication
The thick stock will help retain the structure of the folded publication and feel substantial in the viewers hand.
They suggested a C6 plastic sleeve to hold the postcards in.
The benefit of the publications simple design is that it keeps costs of printing low and makes it easier to produce. The only complication or extra effort needed is to die-cut the publication. This has allowed the publication to keep within budget.
Unfortunately however, the idea to have the postcards correspond to the colours of the multiple disciplines was scrapped as it would take the publication out of budget.
350gsm stock for the postcards
300gsm stock for the publication
The thick stock will help retain the structure of the folded publication and feel substantial in the viewers hand.
They suggested a C6 plastic sleeve to hold the postcards in.
The benefit of the publications simple design is that it keeps costs of printing low and makes it easier to produce. The only complication or extra effort needed is to die-cut the publication. This has allowed the publication to keep within budget.
Unfortunately however, the idea to have the postcards correspond to the colours of the multiple disciplines was scrapped as it would take the publication out of budget.
Saturday, 12 May 2018
Layout changes
The postcards follow the same design treatment as the publication to maintain the identity. A meeting with evolution print has changed the look of the postcards due to concerns over budget. The disciplines of the course will no longer be colour coded.
Friday, 11 May 2018
Evaluation
What was special about the 27 Club Leeds brief was that the design had personal significance so there was more care in the treatment of the design to respect the artist.
The final design is a cover that strays far from typical associations of cover art of this genre, demonstrating how each element has been informed by a unique fact specific to the group. This made the design feel both personal to the artist and designer. The use of typography is unlike the style of my design practice. It was good to break from away my norm and to give my work a new perspective.
The benefit of entering small open competitions like these is the chance to see other peoples entries, which is both exciting and opens up new ways of thinking about design. It also helps in getting exposure for me as a designer. Entering more briefs like these will help in getting my work into public forums, building an identity for my work that people can recognise and get familiar with.
The final design is a cover that strays far from typical associations of cover art of this genre, demonstrating how each element has been informed by a unique fact specific to the group. This made the design feel both personal to the artist and designer. The use of typography is unlike the style of my design practice. It was good to break from away my norm and to give my work a new perspective.
The benefit of entering small open competitions like these is the chance to see other peoples entries, which is both exciting and opens up new ways of thinking about design. It also helps in getting exposure for me as a designer. Entering more briefs like these will help in getting my work into public forums, building an identity for my work that people can recognise and get familiar with.
Evaluation
Designing and producing the Univers publication has been an enjoyable brief to undertake. Due to the nature of the brief there was much freedom to adopt personal expression in compositions. There was no constant worry of communication since there was no specific client in mind and it was about interpreting a functional typeface through more artistic means.
These artistic means of production meant that the publication was mainly made by hand through analog print techniques. The relationship between typography and art is explained by Ruder (Ruder and Schmid, 2017, p.38). The publication was a return to craft, and was a welcome break from the often use of a computer to design my work. Another aspect was that majority of these compositions were designed spontaneously during the process. It was a new way of designing for me that meant taking risks and trusting on your knowledge of ‘what looks right’ to create the compositions.
Having the brief based around analog processes also helped in bringing me away from the usual digital typesetting and digitally printed feel. It was more satisfying in seeing the immediate results of a traditionally printed design and its characteristics that come along with it compared to seeing it come out of a printer. Using the darkroom for typography was the most radical technique used in the publication. It was surprising to see how crisp the reproductions are and the possibilities to create unique effects such as the blurred letterforms.
This is the first brief over the course that I have worked alongside specifically during the design process. The benefit of working collaboratively in a brief like this is the ability to bounce off ideas one another constantly to develop the design. This brings on to how the brief holds an incredible amount of potential to be taken further regarding the use of its processes. Despite the numerous prints included, It feels like we have only scratched the surface in terms of what we can do to create artistic interpretations of Univers.
All in all the publication did set out to achieve the aim of the brief, and that was to see a traditionally functional typeface used for more artistic design. This keeps our perspectives fresh on typography and to see letterforms in a different light from our usual design practice.
These artistic means of production meant that the publication was mainly made by hand through analog print techniques. The relationship between typography and art is explained by Ruder (Ruder and Schmid, 2017, p.38). The publication was a return to craft, and was a welcome break from the often use of a computer to design my work. Another aspect was that majority of these compositions were designed spontaneously during the process. It was a new way of designing for me that meant taking risks and trusting on your knowledge of ‘what looks right’ to create the compositions.
Having the brief based around analog processes also helped in bringing me away from the usual digital typesetting and digitally printed feel. It was more satisfying in seeing the immediate results of a traditionally printed design and its characteristics that come along with it compared to seeing it come out of a printer. Using the darkroom for typography was the most radical technique used in the publication. It was surprising to see how crisp the reproductions are and the possibilities to create unique effects such as the blurred letterforms.
This is the first brief over the course that I have worked alongside specifically during the design process. The benefit of working collaboratively in a brief like this is the ability to bounce off ideas one another constantly to develop the design. This brings on to how the brief holds an incredible amount of potential to be taken further regarding the use of its processes. Despite the numerous prints included, It feels like we have only scratched the surface in terms of what we can do to create artistic interpretations of Univers.
All in all the publication did set out to achieve the aim of the brief, and that was to see a traditionally functional typeface used for more artistic design. This keeps our perspectives fresh on typography and to see letterforms in a different light from our usual design practice.
Publication layout
Due to us working predominantly through manual process and means, the pagination of the publication was not considered until the late stages of the books design.
The pages follow no particular order in terms of showcasing the artistic interpretations of Univers. However what does follow a sequence are the large mono print pages that spell out U N I V E R S as the reader flips through.
This method of pagination reflects our intended personal expression of the typeface and also gives the publication an engaging reading experience.
The size of the publication as well is one of the features that draws readers attention. An A2 sized publication is hardly ever seen, probably because it would drastically increase production costs. However it is the size of the pages that command the readers attention.
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