BRIEF EIGHT - DESIGN PUBLICATION - PUBLICATION CRITIQUE

Earlier today I attended a criticism reviewing our current progress with the design publication brief. Something that I felt was needed as I hadn't yet talked about my concept in detail in front of people and was unsure as to whether it made coherent sense. 

In preparation for the criticism creates notes that broke down the project into subsections, subsequently helping me to explain the concept in a simple, understandable fashion. 

Notes and feedback from the criticism can be seen below;

IMPORTANT POINTS; 

• The concept makes sense and answers the brief.
• Support the book with a written document explaining the concept to the reader. 
• I have made good progress with the brief so far and need to ensure I continue with my efforts to get the project finished in time for the submission.

BRIEF ONE - NATURA - PROJECT RESHOOT

After reviewing the images showcasing the outcomes at a large size I realised that a lot of the photographs did not capture the colour or individual elements in a clear, effective way. Images seem pixelated and the details that help to make the project so effective have been lost. Furthermore, if these problems can be seen on screen, they will only be accentuated once printed.

The project will form a definitive part of my overall submission due to its size and the timescale spent completing it. Therefore it is essential that I get a set of quality images, both for the end of year submission and for my personal portfolio. 

To surpass the problem there was only one viable option, reshoot the whole project using a better camera and lighting. 


ART DIRECTION 

As well as deciding to reshooting the project, I also decided to dedicate time planning the art direction for the shoot, a process that was not completed for the last set of images. 

When planning the art direction considerations were given to;

• Background colour.
• Contextual elements.
• Shot composition. 

The final decisions for the final shoot can be seen below; 

FINAL IMAGES  

A photography studio, consisting of a lighting kit, coloured background and Cannon 7d camera was set up in my kitchen when taking the shots, allowing me to surpass the problems encountered on the last shoot whilst simultaneously providing me with more time to compose and take the shots.

The set of final, edited images can be seen below; 

WATER FOR ALL - GROUP MEETING

Today, me and Laura had another group meeting in which we showed our focused research and any additional ideas we had developed.

While talking through the specifics of our ideas and discussing their feasibility and relevance to the brief, we decided that continuing with the project was going to be counter productive as we could be focusing our efforts on briefs with more relevance to our practice.  

Therefore, during meeting came to a decision to not continue with the brief any further, the final deadlines are fast approaching, the brief is not specifically relevant to graphic design and is essentially asking us to reinvent an existing product. 

BRIEF TWELVE - BAPT - YEARBOOK - STUDENT PAGE LAYOUTS

While we were concluding our group meeting with Duncan we outlined a number of dates to help get the project moving towards completion. In the session we defined the ideal completion time for the design of the publication in early May, as all group members want to submit the project as part of the extended practice module. To meet this deadline, it is essential that we start 

One of the dates we defined during the meeting related to when the students will be contacted with the body of information they need to choose and submit their selection of project images. The date was set at the end of this week, so to ensure the students have the information needed to submit their project images we needed to define the final dimensions for the publication and develop a series of layouts for the student project images. 

PUBLICATION DIMENSIONS

We progressed with the project be defining the dimensions for the publication. Initially, this process was started by measuring the yearbook produced for the previous year of Printed Textiles as we found its size to be inline with the aesthetic and feel we want to create for the publication. 

I assumed, by looking at the previous years publication, that its dimensions were that of a B5 paper size. However, upon measuring the book I found out that it measured 190 x 250, a size that I found does not fit any existing paper dimensions from either A or B variations.  

The discovery that the publication was printed at a custom size created a lot of questions that can only be answered by a member of Evolution Print, therefore, we made a list of questions that are documented below.

For the mean time, we decided to use a B5 paper size for the pages of our publication as using a custom page size could potentially raise the cost of the print job. 

We decided to created a physical version of the publication to help us get an idea of the page size once the size of the inside margin has been increased to compensate for the binding method. 

EVOLUTION PRINT QUESTIONS 

While creating the layouts we ended up coming across aspects of the print job that we needed to 

• Publication size - Chosen B5 size is different from previous year, did they use a custom size? And did this cost extra to print?
• Size of binding screws.
• Size of gutter needed to compensate for binding method. 
• Style of binding screws available.
• What GF Smith papers do they have available?
• What costs are associated with such papers.

LAYOUTS 

Below are the series of layouts created for the yearbook. 

• The size of the inside margin has been increased to compensate for the biding method. 
• The margin at the bottom of the page has been increased to make room for the addition of the individual students name. 
• A range of six layouts were created for students to use to display their work.
• The six layout variations provided the students with a range of layouts they can use to display one to three projects.  

PROGRESSION 

Once the layouts had been created they were sent to Danielle who forwarded them to Duncan with the supporting information students need to submit images of their work. 

BRIEF TWELVE - BAPT - YEARBOOK - TUTOR MEETING

Today, Danielle organised for our group to have a sit down meeting with Duncan, the course leader from the BA (Hons) Printed Textiles & Surface Pattern design course. During the session, we presented our current concepts for the publication and discussed our current ideas regarding aesthetic decisions such as the visual theme and stock choices.

Leading up to the meeting the group have had a number of developmental sessions in which we generated and refined our ideas for the yearbook. Before progressing any further with the project we needed to have a preliminary meeting with Duncan to ascertain if our approach to the project fits as an adequate representation of the course and its third year students.    


SESSION AIMS

Before attending the session I outline a series of aims for the meeting, all of which are listed below;

• Review concepts with course leader.
• Enables us to progress with project once completed.
• Enables us to put together a proposal for Evolution so they can price up the cost of production. 
• Organise dates for receiving content. 
• Discuss the specifics and flexibility of content.

NOTES 

The image below displays a scanned version of my sketchbook that was taken to the meeting. The first series of points seen on the page acted as reminders for the aspects of our concept we wanted to discuss with Duncan. 

FEEDBACK NOTES;

• Cover image - should not be overly detailed. 
• Abstract. 
• Bright colours.
• Simple design.
• Nice graphics.
• Shapes.
• Uncoated stock - preferred. 
• Rows of students consist of 4 & 6-8's.
• Text provided for the copy can be shortened.
• Day in the life - information can be generated by a few students.
• Photography options.
• Could take images ourselves - been done previously.
• Could organise to receive images from students - also been previously done.
• If images are organised we will need to specify scaling and dpi etc.
• If we want to include a class photo organisation is key/
• A good amount of time is needed before the photo to properly organise it.
• Arts thread - Portfolio website.
• Previously used to display student contact details.

DATES 

After conversing with Duncan about the specifics of our concept we were able to conclude that he was happy with our proposed ideas for the yearbook. We moved on form discussing our concept by defining a set of dates to start getting the project moving towards completion. 

05/04/2015 - Students will be contacted with the details about the number and size of their project images before breaking up for easter.

05/04/2014 - Duncan is aiming to get the copy to us by the end of this week. 

24/04/2015 - A preliminary deadline for receiving the images will be set for the week. 

TBC - Inforgraphic focuses were sent to duncan today so information for the infographics will be collected over the next few weeks.

TBC - We also outlined a completion date for the project for around the start of May, as all members of the group ideally want to submit the project as part of the extended practice module. 

BRIEF ELEVEN - YCN - MOO BRIEF - BRIEF & EVALUATION

PROJECT BRIEF -

PROJECT EVALUATION - 

BRIEF ELEVEN - YCN - MOO BRIEF - SUBMISSION MISTAKE

Today, a day after the YCN deadline for competition submissions, I had the horrific realisation that I forgot to submit the digital advertisement as part of my response to the competition.

Somehow, during the excitement of submitting a project I am really proud of, I managed to forget to add the gif file to the collection of documents sent to the YCN email address through wetransfer. 

Unfortunately, there is nothing much I can do about it now other than hope it doesn't affect the success of the project too much.