Ditto

Ditto

Thinking about how you approach your work, (methods)

Influenced by
Goth & Punk music, 80s Horror Films, Rave 'Free Parties' 
Answer Me magazine (also influenced Vice)

At RCA became the editor of ARC Magazine

Likes what graphic design can do, communicate a story

Considers the audience
made FUN Magazine as a hobby was allowed to do what he wanted visually and content wise.
the last two issues have had 62 pages + 
it was distributed by American Apparel but was told off by the police for some of its content and so they stopped distributing it. 

Worked for VICE magazine, (at the time there where only 3 designers, 4 advertisers not like the many people that work there today) 

Worked there as a freelance and did photo-journalism pieces, and Andy Capper was very definite in the editing process. 
Did his own photography and own writing 
said it was an amazing experience, but didn't enjoy having somebody else tell him what to do.

In his final year at RCA made a book called Grobisce, where he went to Slovenia and looked into the cover up of the mass graves which is suppressed in all of Europe ( around fifty years ago, after WW2, the biggest massacre since then) 
On the project he took around 2-3000 images
photocopies in stacks of archives
interviewed 20-30 people
A big political issue within Slovenia

This was his first ever self made book to be published, big experience but not exactly in a good way, many restrictions etc. 

And so this led him to create his own publishing company - Ditto

And within this company they sought to use the risograph for its reproducing techniques, colour and aesthetic and cost effective production. 

Now have galleries, bookshops, but all revolves around publishing
But due to business expansion finds little to no time to actually design anymore as he always is ensuring others can and the business is working. 

They aimed to make the risograph a process 
but believes in using the appropriate print technique for the job

80% of the work is printing for others
20% Publishing

Printing- physically printing something out
Publishing- Producing, Distributing,

Ditto Studio: Part 1

The Brief: 

Task is to develop your own research methodology and find a way to communicate it.
Develop a clear and defined way of looking at the world, filtering it and editing what you find to fit your interests and working practice. 
Well considered and useful outcome

Firstly I thought about:

How would I answer a brief?

Usually I would: 

get the brief
see what the topic of the brief is about briefly by searching on the internet 'Literature Search'
Highlight keywords/ phrases
look into these words, related imagery, see how far the word goes
research further into the context, history etc
find more visuals via books journals online
devise concepts
begin sketching/ thinking about initial ideas 
decide concepts, decide mediums production methods 
continue development 
digitise
further experimentation digitally 
print 
crit 
further refinements, back to digital stage 
print final

I think that I like to look at the words and language of a brief I like to research into thier meanings and what else can be associated with a word, where it comes from its context, the context itself. 


I would say I tend to look at more qualitative research, and this is from a secondary source. 


context
noun: context; plural noun: contextsthe circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood."the proposals need to be considered in the context of new European directives"

synonyms:

circumstances, conditions, surroundings, factors, state of affairs; More

the parts of something written or spoken that immediately precede and follow a word or passage and clarify its meaning."skilled readers use context to construct meaning from words as they are read"

Thoughts on a new methodology,
use words/phrases find words associated, find their meaning further association,
cultural and historical contexts, and their meaning. Links.



Crit with Ben

moodboards
spider diagrams/mind maps -- both obvious forms of researching, how could you push these traditional ideas, find alternative ways of doing them. 

conversations with people
photos/ photoessay, use them don't just take pictures , get a colour palette from them etc
breaking things down into smaller details
using boundaries i.e. time boundaries can force you to make decisions quickly and interestingly. 

with my idea word association can lead you to an interesting place but the audience may not understand what its about as they haven't got the same thought process. Keep it relevant.

Coming up with a name or title for the method can really define the idea. 


I think by the next session I need to really define my method and explore how I could make it different, and really consider what I look at in a brief. 

Recycled Paper

After the first crit 27/10/14 I looked into sourcing recycled paper for my publication,
I found myself looking for ages trying to find stockists that sold recycled stock bigger than A3 and recycled paper that was uncoated. As well as this finding paper that was reasonably priced. 

Firstly I found this on amazon:

It is A1 size so it would definitely be big enough, 
even though it is cartridge I am unsure as to whether I could digitally print onto it
£29.99 free postage for 125 sheets works out at around 20p a sheet (A1) so very cost effective. 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-Recycled-Cartridge-Paper-Sheets/dp/B003S60ZS0/ref=sr_1_1?s=kids&ie=UTF8&qid=1414430198&sr=1-1&keywords=Zebra+Papers#productDetails


The second appropriate retailer  I found was PurleyPaper.co.uk:
Just over A2 size (so smaller than above, but big enough for my publication)
it specifies mono and inkjet printing so again unsure on its digital print ability
100% recycled and FSC assured (unlike above)
250 Sheets for £34.91 equals about 13p a sheet (cheaper than above)

http://purelypaper.co.uk/Revive-100-White-Uncoated-FSC-100-Recycled-Paper-SRA1-640-x-900mm-100gsm-Pack-250-sheets/

I will be going to show James in digital print these resources and see what he thinks about the printing ability and see if he has any other suggestions. 

DR.ME Visit/ Briefs

20/10/14

DR.ME came and to talk to us and give us some briefs to work on during the day. 

Background of DR.ME
After university went to work with an illustrator named Mike Perry in New York
Came back after a few months and set up their own studio along with Steve Locket
Now their studio is in Islington Mill, Manchester

Main work= Music Industry based
Record Sleeves
Event Posters
Self-Directed Work

Like tactile design, use a mixture of hand rendered (mainly collage) and digital.

Also said they have produced work for Elephant magazine, and culture festivals (which interested me more)

Their rates of charging are based upon a day rate or a project rate, specifying some work (3-4 days would or can equal £1000) 

They work this out from the clients budget, and asking themselves how long it will take them to produce.

Briefs

For the briefs we where put in to pairs 'DR.ME' style as their names where together on the register at university this is how we where paired, I was put with Sarah Heal, I was a little apprehensive as me and Sarah have a very different style and I think that we work in different ways. 

We started at 11 and had until 4 to do 3 briefs.

Brief 1

The first brief was to produce a 12 x 12 inch vinyl cover for Evian Christ, they'd specified that they'd wanted to some how incorporate the 10hz tapping sound like a duga 3.

We started by looking into the duga 3 and all of the surrounding connotations i.e. it was known as the 'Russian Woodpecker' and it had been suggested to be linked with mind and weather control. 

And so we drew from these ideas, in the initial drawing stage I was looking forward to getting on with the design, I had suggested that me and Sarah split up and come up with our own solutions, but we ended up working on it together, which made me feel quite pressurised and threw me off working. 

However Sarah had had the idea of drawing a head similar to one in dadaism which is the idea of mind control and I liked this, so she went off and drew this on illustrator, which we then put together on my laptop. 

We then added the woodpecker, which I felt should be red (for Russian) 

I just felt that the styles did not match and I wasn't confident with the result. 

DR.ME changed the design to the drawing of the head but reversed, which I was happier with but looking around at other peoples work I felt theres was a lot stronger.

Brief 2

For this brief they wanted us to create a gig poster for the band 'Odonis Odonis' 

The brief was very minimal, and I was confused as to what actually needed to be on the poster and what it was meant to be. 

As well as this by this point I had lost a lot of confidence throughout the day I felt uncomfortable with the style of working, i.e. with someone right beside me and the timescale when trying something new. 

I had a go at sketching some ideas, Sarah came up with the idea of sweeping out the text in black  so the text was in a negative like space and then having a background colour, and so we went with this idea. 

Brief 3 

The last brief which we had left an hour for was a 'self-directed' brief and we could produce anything we wanted, it just had to be certain dimensions. 

Admittedly by this point I felt burnt out by the day and I found it hard to be so open, I like to have at least a word to go from and so I ended up just drawing something on illustrator that I had been working on already. 

I think the day didn't go as I had planned and I think that I would of chose somebody else to work with, not that Sarah isn't good or doesn't work hard, but she is very good at her own particular style and she has a particular way of working which I wasn't comfortable with. Maybe if I'd of been on my own from the start or we'd of done our idea separately I wouldn't of felt like I did by the end of the day, but from the day I will say I appreciate that different people have different styles and different ways of working, and that I should be more confident in my own style, and then I will be confident with others too. As well as this I don't really create work for the music industry this is not my niche.

Brief 11: Budapest Brief

I recently booked a trip to Budapest for this December, I feel that it would be appropriate for me to incorporate this experience into a brief that I could complete when I get back as I will have had a first had experience. 

I am thinking that I could create something from this trip, I have a few plans of what I am going to be doing in the city and I will be able to get lots of photographs and maybe materials that would help me create something. 

My initial thoughts are that I could 

• Create a publication/ personal journal of my experience there
• Create a guide for young adults visiting Budapest
• Focus on a particular thing or place in Budapest and create relative materials based upon that, for instance Széchenyi Baths are a place I plan to visit and something that would be appropriate to create would be a brand and identity, and maybe a brochure etc. 
• Capture the culture and history of Budapest in a photo-essay style magazine

However this brief is very open until I have been there, but I am already excited to go and I think that I will be excited to create something from my trip and so I am counting this as a new brief that I will definitely be doing over a brief I am now less interested in (e.g. smoothie company)

Type & Colour Decisions

Type Decisions

I thought about which font I wanted to use for the report, in my mind I had the title as the main impact and so I looked at what at what fonts may be best for titles and sub-titles. 

I sourced 'Cabin' from fontsquirrel.com, I thought that this typeface had a large range of fonts and I like the way that it is bold but it also has a personal touch as the accents cut off at smaller angles. 

 I then saw this font same site, I thought that this may be a good choice for the copy. 

However I looked at a font I use a lot and I think that this font is a lot more serious and I think that this is more appropriate for the content.

I will also use this font for the copy I think, using different weights of the font to differentiate copy and titles.

Colour Decisions

The first decision was the actual colour, I had already had the colour blue in my mind, I was going to use blue or green, and black. I had reservations about using green, and this was confirmed after talking about it with a tutor who said that the blue was a good association with the phrase 'blue planet'.

And so I looked into what shade of blue I would like to use starting with pure cyan, and then changing the values of magenta and yellow, I didn't change the value of black as I know that the colour needs to still look blue when I drop the opacity. 

I then selected the blue and I looked at the opacities and how they would appear. 

I also looked at how I could make the colour darker by increasing the value of black. 

Bookbinding Workshop

16/10/14 

I decided that it would be a good idea to go to a bookbinding workshop to refresh my memory and to ask some questions I had about making the front covers for my notebooks. 

We looked into stitch binding, Japanese stitch binding, a concertina bind, and a perfect bind.

With this stitch bind I also used a corner cutter to cut the corners of the book, I think that this is a nice finish especially to a book like this made from paper. 

The bind is 7 holes, its an extension of the basic pamphlet stitch. The holes don't need to be equal and there can be any amount. In this bind the pages are folded into each other, and so if I was to bind like this I would need to think about the pagination.

Whereas in the Japanese bind the sheets are single sheets, a lot easier for printing in this bind the holes go throughout the edge of the paper and so I would need to remember to consider a margin big enough of the bind. 

Again like above this bind can be changed, holes can be in different places and more or less can be added.

The most important part was looking into the perfect bind. I wanted to know what the best options where for screen printing/ foiling my own design onto the front covers. I also think the perfect bind is the most appropriate for the era I am working with.  

I also found out that I can screen print and foil block onto all of the book covering materials in the workshop, and so I think that this would be most appropriate to pick colours from there. 

As well as this screen print / foiling should be done onto the material before using it to bind. 

Another bind we looked into was this concertina book, which involves the double pages been stuck to the back of one another. I did find this one confusing and I would prefer to do a concertina as a long sheet rather than stick smaller sheets together. 

I also saw this on the way out and it reminded me of some things I'd seen when researching, and packaging for notecards was exactly like this. As well as this it could be a package for the whole 'set' its very strong and sophisticated looking. 

Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is a 2013 Australian-American 3D drama film based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel of the same name. The film was co-written and directed by Baz Luhrmann, and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, and Elizabeth Debicki. It follows the life and times of millionaire Jay Gatsby and his neighbour Nick, who recounts his encounter with Gatsby at the height of the Roaring Twenties. The story is set in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. (Long Island is an island in the U.S. state of New York.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rARN6agiW7o

As I am looking into the appearance of the film to convey in my own work I thought that it would be appropriate to look at how the time and design was portrayed in the film, through the set design mainly, which I feel with give me more ideas.

In creating the background scenery for the world depicted in the film, designer Catherine Martin stated that the team styled the interior sets of Jay Gatsby's mansion with gilded opulence, in a style that blended establishment taste with Art Deco.

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2013/05/the-great-gatsby-production

https://www.behance.net/gallery/8550121/THE-GREAT-GATSBY

Client: Bazmark / Warner Bros

Creative Direction: Bazmark | Baz Luhrmann & Catherine Martin

Logo Branding & Typography:  Like Minded Studio & Bazmark

GG Monogram: Bazmark & Tiffany & Co

Conceptual Logo 3D: Like Minded Studio

Background Illustration: Bazmark & Deva Studios

Animation & Final 3D Rendering: Deva Studios (Los Angeles)

Advertising Campaign: Concept Arts & Warner Bros (Los Angeles)

Like Minded Studio was honored to collaborate with Baz Luhrman, Catherine Martin & Bazmark team on the branding of  "The Great Gatsby". Our aim was to realise Baz's vision and develop a bespoke Deco styled logo reflective of the roaring 20s and Fitzgerald's masterpiece. We also created a display typeface to accompany the main branding. The letterforms were customised and refinined to reflect the design of the main logo. This included developing a system to combine solid and pinstriped characters in sequence when typing out words. Inspiration for the typeface was from the deco alphabet designs of K.H. Schaefer. The final titles and logo were further rendered in 3D by Deva Studios to create the signature Gatsby style.The process and final branding is showcased below.

They also showcase some of there other logo designs on behance, I think that this shows me different types of type that they also felt matched/ and where appropriate for the film and the Art Deco look. It was also good to see there development from hand drawn to digital, and how they had sketched lots of ideas down before creating the final piece. 

Thinking of type and words, I felt that it might be appropriate and whimsical to use quotes from the book (and film) in my design, this would also bring the theme of not just 1920's Art Deco but The Great Gatsby too. 

Potential Quotes from the book that I might use as part of my stationary design, I picked these particular ones as they aren't time specific, and they are quite short as well, which makes them better to use for front covers etc. 

“I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” 

“And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.” 

“He looked at her the way all women want to be looked at by a man.” 

"There I was, way off my ambitions, getting deeper in love very minute."

"in his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars"

"the world only exists in your eyes. You can make it as big or as small as you want."

Guidelines for print

I have decided to send off my broadsheet to  the newspaper club printing, I feel that this will be the most efficient and I have seen other people use this service and there newspapers turned out well. 

And so I read into the specific guidelines for the broadsheet printing so that I knew my mandatories before I begin. I will be using InDesign to design the actual document and so I want to be within the regulations. 

Here are some do’s and don’ts for working with colour:

Black and white

If you have black and white images, they tend to look punchier as CMYK, not greyscale. Some people prefer greyscale though. With digital printing, it’s not really possible to get a true, deep black, so avoid large dark areas if this would be a problem.

Pale colours

Light colours tend to look even paler in print than they do on screen.

It’s best to avoid any colour that is under 30% ink coverage if you want to make sure that it is visible in print.

Dark photos

Dark photos can lose their depth and look a little ‘flat’ in print. Also remember that dark areas will show through onto the other side of the page.

Skin tones

Some colours are particularly hard to reproduce using a CMYK printing process. In particular blood reds, bright oranges, skin tones and dark purples can be difficult to match against the colours in your PDF.

Resolution

For the best results we recommended that images are a minimum of 150 dpi but no more than 300 dpi.

Newspaper Club PDF Requirements:

Where possible, use the PDF/X-1a:2001 preset

This creates the simplest kind of PDF, and takes care of almost everything that could cause issues at the press.

Export your file as single pages, in reading order

Your PDF should read in the same order that you’d read a standard newspaper (from front to back). Make sure the pages in your file are single pages, not spreads (two pages joined together).

Margins and Bleed

Make sure your document has the margins set up correctly. We can’t print tabloids or broadsheets that have artwork in the margins. Minis must have a 5mm bleed around the outside of each spread.

Image resolution above 150 dpi, maximum 300 dpi

We recommend you set the image resolution to a maximum of 300 dpi — anything higher and you’ll make your file slower to upload, without any improvement in quality. You may start to see some pixellation below 150 dpi.

All images must be CMYK (no RGB or Spot Colours)

RGB images will be automatically converted to CMYK before printing. It’s better if you take care of this so you can see how the colour balance is affected, but if you’re not sure how, we can convert these for you. We can’t print spot colours.

Flatten transparencies

Some transparencies and effects will not print. You should flatten any transparencies within your document, as they may not print as expected, and could appear differently in print to how they do in your PDF. The PDF/X-1a:2001 preset will do this for you.

Tabloid or Broadsheet

What is a Tabloid format?

A tabloid is a newspaper with compact page size smaller than broadsheet, although there is no standard for the precise dimensions of the tabloid newspaper format. The term tabloid journalism, along with the use of large pictures, tends to emphasize topics such as sensational crime stories, astrology, celebrity gossip and television. However, some respected newspapers, such as The Independent and The Times, are in tabloid format, and this size is used in the United Kingdom by nearly all local newspapers.

Larger newspapers, traditionally associated with higher-quality journalism, are often called broadsheets, and this designation often remains in common usage even if the newspaper moves to printing on smaller pages, as many have in recent years. Thus the terms tabloid and broadsheet are, in non-technical usage, today more descriptive of a newspaper's market position than its physical size.

What is a Broadsheet format?

The broadsheet is the largest of newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages (typically 22 inches or 560 millimetres). The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material.

Modern printing facilities most efficiently print broadsheet sections in multiples of eight pages (with four front pages and four back pages). The broadsheet is then cut in half during the process. Thus the newsprint rolls used are defined by the width necessary to print four front pages. The width of a newsprint roll is called its web. Thus the new 12-inch-wide front page broadsheet newspapers in the United States use a 48-inch web newsprint roll.

In some countries, especially Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US, broadsheet newspapers are commonly perceived to be more intellectual in content than their tabloid counterparts, using their greater size to examine stories in more depth, while carrying less sensationalist and celebrity material. This distinction is most obvious on the front page: whereas tabloids tend to have a single story dominated by a headline, broadsheets allow two or more stories to be displayed, the most important at the top of the page—"above the fold".

• The Daily Telegraph (The Sunday Telegraph)
• The Financial Times (Monday to Saturday Only)
• The Independent
• The Times (The Sunday Times only)