Design Publication Review and Evaluation

Design Publication Review and Evaluation

This brief pushed my thinking of a very open brief, at first I struggled to come to terms with what I was being asked to do, I tried not to listen to peers who where just as confused or where confusing me, and I went and clarified with my tutor what the content had to be. I then knew what I needed to do and really as long as I could relate it to my own practice I could produce a publication of any kind on any subject I wanted.

I listed things that I liked whilst looking into what format the book would take. I looked at previous students work and found that I wanted to try produce a publication that had multiple book formats and I wanted to use the Acco binding clips to bind my work, I also knew that this method of binding would make the binding and production a lot easier and I could concentrate of the content and design of the book.

I ended up having three sections to my publication and I think on a subconscious level I had almost replicated the name of the module PPP, and my publication had become principles, practice/ practioners and personality! I think that this is highly appropriate for the brief and I think that the content shows a well- rounded synthesis of my own practice.

I enjoyed working with a combination of formats. If I had had more time I would of considered my choice of stock more to see if there where any better combinations, however I do not feel like the stock choices I made were unsuccessful. I am also very pleased with the front cover(s) of the publication the three covers work really well together and I am happy that the foil on the front almost went perfectly even though it was done using the shorter method of  foiling. I also like that I incorporated the pistachio stock and it adds an extra colour and texture to a book that is content heavy, the pages add breaks to the content and I think that this works well.

Design Publication: Making

I printed out the three publications, they where printed digitally as single sheets. 

I cut the sheets out by hand using a scalpel and metal ruler, I felt that this was more accurate.  

I was pleased that the format had worked as I was worried there wouldn't be enough space around each publication. 

When I got to the third publication half way through cutting it out I realised that the pages hadn't paginated properly, I realised that this was because a blank page had not printed and so all the pages had shuffled along.

However I did cut out the third books front cover to see what all of the books looked like together I was pleased with the result. 

I then decided what stock I would use for publication one and two, looking at the third book I  wanted the colours to match. And so for the second book I had some stock I had accidentally ordered for another brief spare, and so I used pistachio green for the cover.

I also had some grey stock and I tested this out I felt that this went well. And so I selected this stock.

After I had selected the stock for the second front cover, and then I used this came stock to create the index pages, I did this as I felt that the the green would add more colour to the publication and it is an obvious visual break between each section.

I decided that I would try to foil the front cover, which is the fibonacci spiral, I did this because on the third image part of the sculpture is silver and I thought that this would tie the two together. 

To transfer the foil onto the design I had to use the heat press, this transfers the foil on to the design by heating up the ink which the foil sticks to. The press is set to 160 degrees and is pressed for 12 seconds. 

I felt that the foil transfer went really well, I liked the effect and I felt that it looked professional. I would use this for the front cover of the first publication.

I then put the book together, to put the holes into the book I drew around the holes of the binding clips, and I then had to get the holes drilled as the book was too thick, I hadn't thought I would need to do this but the college has the facilities I needed, I then pushed the clips through the holes. I think that the foil and the clips works well as they are both silver, I think that the covers work well together and I am happy with the result.  

Design Publication- Book 1 Development

For the first book of the design publication I wanted to look at my own design principles, almost like my own rules of design, in the book I wanted to look at what has inspired my own principles and examples of design I like in relation to which category. 

I looked at me and my design and I underlined some important principles and features of my work, I then made these into categories which are:

Colour
Type
Layout
Print

Foiling (print finish)

I then began to source imagery for each category, I did this by looking back at my pinterest boards, which I started in first year I feel like this is where I collect most imagery I really like, and so I looked at this for the images for this publication. 

https://www.pinterest.com/amylouisehill92/

Most of the images below can be found on the boards on my pinterest, when I couldn't find something suitable or I had thought of something else I had seen I looked on what I had appreciated on my behance too.  

In the book I will include the site address or the name of the studio who created the work, and so I won't be including my own work in this book at all, I think that this makes it clear that this book is about my principles and my design inspiration, the second book will look at my own work and the third at my outside influences, I feel that this makes the three books really defined as separates that work together as a set. 

Spreads of the book

I followed a similar aesthetic to Book 3, and I stated with a contents page, which states the categories of the book, again there are no page numbers as I wanted to keep the book really simple, you can see that the pages are defined by the subheadings. 

Colour

Describes the way in which I look at colour, and how its not necessarily bright and loud in my design practice. 

A second double page spread looking at colour and subtlety. 

Type

Type is very important in my design I will always look at the way the type is working in every brief, from a logo to body copy, to me it all matters. 

The images I selected for this category shows a variety type applications, a logo, a pattern, body copy and simply the name of the product, I would and have use type in all of these ways. 

Layout

I chose one image to represent this idea of layout and grid I think that this image shows a good use of an interesting grid and I like that it is still structured. I describe this within the copy on this page.

I then showed some other examples of layout, looking at print and digital examples, as layout applies to both.

Print

This section looked at print as a whole and how it is my main area of focus, but within that how you can look at different disciplines of design. 

I then looked at foil as its a print finish i really like and have used in my work, I find it really interesting and I think it adds extra detail to a piece. This page has one double page spread as it is an extension of print.

For the back cover I will follow the same layout as the last back cover, I will do the same for the last book two as it give consistency to the three books and its clear and simple. 

I couldn't decide what to have on the front of my first publication, until I had started to write about layout and grid. I remembered the golden spiral which has a strong connection to nature too, I also felt that it would look nice on the front cover and it is a principle of design. I will need to decide how I am going to print this, Ideally I would like to foil this but it might not be possible with the time left and available screens.