OUGD405. Design Process. In Design Tutorial.

had a session with mike to introduce in design.

gutter - the space between each column on a page.  [ ] gutter [ ].

bleed - to do with cropping/trimming. designs for print usually printed on larger size paper than the design is. also most printers dont print right to the edge of a page so have to upscale to get the full size print. to accomodate any inaccuracies in trimming we put an extra bleed over the edge of the design. for example a 3mm (standard bleed ammount) continuation of an a5 design would account for an incorrect trim.

slug - an area outside the edge of the page. slug area is the area containing printed marks like registration or trim marks or colour comparisons etc. outside of the bleed area. can set it in the print dialogue box in in design.

so we can create grids for layout on a page: file>place


in preparing an image to put into in design from photoshop we need to make sure the image is

1. the actualy size we want it to be printed
2. in cmyk or greyscale
3. 300dpi
4. .tif or .psd not jpeg

in preparing an image to put into in design from illustrator we need to make sure the image is

1. cmyk 
2. can just be saved as .ai
3. size doesnt matter in illustrator

 in the second session we looked at how to format images, text and how to place images (cmd+D) 

all aspects of a design should be kept in one folder

you can cut out an image in illustrator the place in in indesign and work text around it using the text placement tool

 the text is now surrounding the image

the icon in the middle of the image is the contents grabber. you make a box for an image to go in and then you can move the image around within the box using the grabber or move the box itself

 you can also make shapes for text to fill.

when you go to print make sure all the formatting is the same, the sizes are the same, the bleed and slug is the same, and any other extras. its good to try it in black and white first. 

OUGD405. Design Process. Research, Collect, Communicate. Presentation.

we had to prepare a 2 minute presentation regarding the research we had collected.
these are my notes for the presentation

overall i was really happy with my presentation as had had a breadth of information to present and was confident in my speeking and explaining. it ended up being that i had too much information for the time limit!

OUGD405. Design Process. How To...

we got put into groups, i am in group 4.

we got given a research theme. our theme was communication skills.

we got given a week to research through that topic as dictated by our group decisions. we were each asked to put together 3 research boards; 1 primary research, 1 secondary research, and one of the most interesting info between the two.

primary research.

secondary research.

most interesting.

from this initial research we got given the how to brief. we showed all our research to the rest of the group in a group crit and were then given the brief to think about.

we ended up deciding to work as two separate groups and so the group i was in was with leo and sarah.    we began by re presenting all of our research and looking over at the information we had.  we decided that we wanted to focus on communication skills, communication issues, what makes up communication, and how to communicate with more confidence.

who needs to know?

• anyone with communication difficulties or shyness
• mainly students to help them in meeting new people

what/why do they need to know?

• what communication is
• the different forms of communication that exist and how they occur
• how to confidently and effectively use these tools of communication 

how will you tell them?

• using a series of interactive exercises that outline, and educate about, the various methods of communication
• supporting material in the form of handouts containing written advice and information
• advertising/promoting material in the form of a poster that will hold the handouts for distribution

we are trying to educate people about the types of communication and how they can improve their communication skills.

we will educate in a professional and understanding tone of voice displaying patience and commitment to the aim of our project.

having got a basic plan for our intended outcomes we split the work between us. i was initially tasked with designing some sort of logo. see design context for research material. i wanted to maintain simplicity in my design and wanted to avoid cheesy looking self fulfilment logos or stock photos regarding communication.


i started my doing some hand rendered sketches of how the logo might look.

i started using the literal phonetic pronunciation with the 'k' but felt it was overly tied up in linguistic type, which is confusing and doesn't really look that much like the word 'communicate'. so, from this, i looked at the splitting of the word itself to represent the pronunciation. i thought this was a working idea with which i could work.

from these initial designs i moved to working with illustrator. we decided to maintain the cmyk colour scheme as it is appropriate to G.D and also looks good.

i like this design but think its somewhat overly simplistic. i dont really like the hollowed type as the readability is somewhat decreased. i quite like the idea of the 3 circles but its still overly simplistic.

having considered the flaws of the design i decided to fill the letters, make the overlaps of the circles create the mixed colour in between and centre the text better. this, i thought, did improve the design but i still dont like it that much. the new colours created by the overlaps distort the legibility of certain letter which i dont want. 

i decided then to scrap the background circles and include the cmyk colour scheme directly in the text. i experimented with different drop shadows and how they might increase/decrease the readability. i thought about having a background shade but it made the logo too blocky.  i then started to mess about with the fonts useable.  i began by trying a variety of different typefaces but felt there was then too much difference between each bit and it just became confusing. so i decided to stick to using helvetica and just played around with the font style, looking at different weights and directions (italics etc.). by splitting the pronunciation into sections literally, in colour, and in terms of font i was able to maximise to the communication of how to pronounce the word communicate.

i am quite happy with the final logo as i think it does well in achieving its purpose of communicating the word and making people understand the concept. its readable, aesthetically interesting and neatly composed. i also think this form of drop shadow works well to bring the letters out but doesn't confuse anything. i think the logo is just simple enough and doesnt overly draw attention from the rest of the project. 

while i was doing this leo was working on the poster design and the considerations for the interactive role playing game and sarah was making the presentation to go with it.

i think the poster works really well in line with the theme of our project and achieves its purpose of promoting the project and the tear off information available for assistance in communicating. 

while leo and sarah were working on these aspects i then began designing the tear off.

front of tear off

i wanted to make sure the information on the tear off was constructive and helpful. i felt it should be light hearted to reflect our aims and ideals. i wanted to include some imagery to create a split from an, otherwise, text based tear off. i thought it would be good to include information about communication and then go on to assist people in improving their communication skills.

back of tear off

the design for the back of the tear off definitely contained to much text but i thought it was necessary to get the information/advice across as this was our main aim and not to be purely aesthetic. i feel as though the advice available is a testament to all of our quality research which enabled me to really consider the advice with regards to a real world project of this sort. 

when it came to the composition of the final poster design we realised that the dimensions of the original back of the tear off were too big to fit the space given. after some rewording and removing some less necessary text we made it so the tear off would fit the dimensions of the poster.

upon finishing the design work we got together to practice the presentation and work out the details for our interactive communication game. the theory was based around the idea that around 7% of all communication is verbal and the rest consists of body language, eyes, tone of voice etc. we wanted to make people realise the importance of speech in communication while also demonstrating the effects non verbal communication can have on interaction. we had decided to some sort of charades type game but involving more appropriate themes to our project.  

the basic idea of the game is that each volunteer receives a que card with a common phrase, question, or statement. they arent allowed to show it to anyone else and cant speak at all during their turn. the aim is to, though the use of the various methods of non verbal communication, act out the phrase/question and see weather the rest of the class could understand it. in this way both parties will be learning about the different sort of communication, how to recognise and interpret them, how to enact and utilise them, and hopefully gain a boost in communicative confidence. 

statements were:

merry xmas

how are you?

your late

do you want to go out tonight?

i love you

i feel great

we got a really good reaction from the presentation and the game. people thought it amusing and engaging which was important because we wanted to have fun with this and i think that making people laugh breaks down any feelings of unease or lack of interest. overall i think we did succeed in helping people to communicate better and outline the forms and methods of communication effectively. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

OUGD405. Typogateaux.

we recieved the typogateaux brief and from then had to consider what cake we might make, how we might make it, what letterform we might make it in and the design of that letterform.

i began by researching many different cakes in terms of aesthetics primarily. there are some people who can make some amazing cakes that are perfect in form and quality and probably taste fantastic aswell. 

we were allowed to do the brief as an individual or in a group. i decided to work with leo sims and make a cake between us. we considered a few different recipes that we had found but realised that neither of us were capable bakers and so we didn't want to jeopardise the quality of the cake because we couldn't bake. we both knew we wanted to make a sweet cake and so began there.

  

we began the development of our idea by considering the letter(s) we wanted to design the cake based on. i liked the idea of doing a letter 'x' because its square and so would be easier to fit in a cake. we wanted to include serifs on our design and thought that the structure of an 'x' might make the cake weaker in build up; it might collapse or what. i also thought about a few designs for an 's' but the same problems occurred and neither of us were keen, aesthetically, on using an 's'.

we went on to consider using the initials of our first names (L&J), a cliche maybe, we liked the way beak of the 'l' could be joined into the arm of the 'j' and considered some ways of achieving this. the main problems that occurred were; the counter created in the middle of the 'j' and 't' was either too big an amount of negative space or the weight of the letters had to be drastically increased. 

after some attempt at designing a letterform for our cake we decided that it was best to sort the base first and make our letter to scale it. we bought a million dollar shortbread base approx. 20X15cm. we then designed the Y around the base. i wanted to maintain simplicity, as before, but really like the addition of block serifs to give the character more formality and presentability. after drawing our the Y we cut it from the page as a stencil for the cake.

final Y template

we placed the template on the base and cut away the unwanted parts.

using a scalpol made the process a lot easier but the brittleness of the cake made some parts difficult still.

when we were happy with the base we added a layer of peanut butter to act as a sort of 'cement' for the next layer. we thought this would also offset the sweetness of the base somewhat.

after that we cut out some belgian sugar waffles using the same Y template. this bit proved difficult as the waffles were very delicate and easily crumbled. i think we got it pretty well matched though. 

from this second layer we ran a line of peanut butter round the edge of the Y in order to create a sort of 'trough' for the jam to then go in, we tried just putting the jam on but realised it would likely be squeezed out with the addition of other layers.

having filled the centre with jam we added another layer of belgian waffles which were then covered with another layer of peanut butter. after this we neatened up the sides by removing any run off from the inside and sealing everything up. we then began to decorate the top with smarties which i feel really topped the cake off.

having positioned the smarties we filled the remaining space with biscuit crumbs to create a stripy patter across the letter.

overall i was really happy with our efforts. we didn't even attempt to make a cake as neither of us have any baking skills and we didn't want to jeopardise the tastiness or the structural integrity (which i think we had spot on). if we had planned the design and making better we might have been able to follow a recipe but i think our cake was more original and suited to us. there was a fair bit of making still involved and so i think our creative demands were met. in terms of taste, i think we were really successful in making a tasty tasty cake. it was very sweet but tasted fantastic in my opinion. the general sweetness was offset by the peanut butter and the dryness offset by the jam and those two ingredients work fantastically together. aesthetically i think the cake was a success. it resembled the Y in surprising detail and the colouration and patterning of the smarties just tied it all together. although we didn't win the contest, and i wasn't expecting to, i think we worked really well towards making a cake designed to resemble a letter. we did get a lot of positive feedback about the taste quality of the cake and this made me feel proud.

OUGD405. DEsign Process. Collect, Categorise, Communicate. PRODUCT.

we were given the brief relating to the research brief in which i had to research constructivism. from our  research we had to choose one topic of particular interest that we would then focus our research on. i chose to look at constructivist learning theory within and post the constructivist movement.having gathered a more focused body of research, now knowing more about constructivist learning theory, we were set the second part of the brief. this concerned the design and production of a product, in line with our specialised research topic, that somehow involved the use of info graphics and information visualisation. we had to choose one of the options of how to answer the brief. i chose to explore publication and promotion as i felt it would be the most appropriate way to design something based on the constructivist learning theory.

i wanted to make some sort of 'how to' / 'crash course' guide on the constructivist learning theory; what it entails, how it originated, how it can be used in education and the acquisition of knowledge. the problem was that the theory advocates the exploration and experience of an environment or situation in gaining new knowledge, as opposed to being taught a to b in a teacher/student format. so i decided to try and aim for the publication to inform and assist in putting people in the situation required to understand, utilise, and experience constructivist learning theory first hand. 

initially, and according to my rationale, i wanted to experiment with screen printing in the production of my publication but i then decided against it, instead focussing on screen based and digitally printed design to make the zine.

i started by designing a story board layout of the basic contents of the booklet. unfortunately, the scanner didnt pick up pencil well and so some of the images are hard to make out. my main focus was to make the publication flow well in terms of text and image contents. i thought about how each page could be composed and how each topic should lead onto the next.

having thought about my initial designs i decided to experiment with logos and branding. i wanted my designs to be in line with the constructivist graphic style, so maintaining a linear composition with an exploration of geometric shape and grid layout. i thought about how the lettering could be really elongated while having some letters of drastically varying height to balance and contradict the taller letters.

i thought about what my publication should focus on and how it should be presented. i want to inform people about the constructivist educational theory and instruct them on how best to use it and what one can achieve from using it. i want to maintain a light hearted but educational tone of voice, encouraging people to try the educational theory in a way that suits them.

i continued to explore potential designs for my logo and was happy with the themed reaction to constructivism in my designs. i think the idea of the word 'theory' being joined somehow between the words 'constructivist' and 'theory' and the use of cut outs and line placement really lends itself to the constructivist theme.

having become more familiar with constructivist methods for design i felt more focussed on what sort of logo would entail such methods. i want the booklet to look like a construction in form and contents.

when i was happy with a basic design i moved on to consider how each page would look and what it would say. page 2 i wanted to be an introduction to the ideas of constructivism; the movement, a slight history, the ethos, and the introduction of the learning theory.

the first page shows a sort of time line, in construction, that contains information visualisation concerning the journey constructivism took. the triangular compositions of each section are influenced by the designs of El Lissitzky and mimic those iconic constructivist graphics. i wanted to show the progression of constructivism up to the founding of the learning theory but in an engaging and interesting way so not to bore the audience. 

page 3, i felt, should bridge the gap between page 2's contents and the introduction of the application of constructivist learning theory. in this sense, i decided to make the page about the theory of constructivist learning and what it entails.  

i thought about how i  could demonstrate, as an info graphic, how constructivist learning theory works and how it can have success in the acquisition of knowledge. i thought about using the analogy of horse riding being a skill that can only really be developed in a practical way; in the field. you cant really learn about horse riding to a successful extent in a classroom.

i decided to slightly reorganise the design of page 3 as i though some of the composition of text and image was off. the page was slightly too busy and so i decided to do a different analogy to lessen the crowdedness of the page.

page 4, i decided, would be the main instructional page that would instruct people how to use and follow constructivist learning theory to gain successful knowledge and true learning. i didnt want this page to be a purely instructional page because that isnt in line with the theory so i decided to try and assist people in finding their own environment appropriate to their learning.

i think the analogy of brick laying is a bit random and the point may be slightly missed. i thought, still, that it would work and that it is a good representation of using the theory in the field.

in order to reassure people of the successes of the theory and so the publication has some credibility i designed page 5 around the primary research i had gathered in the previous brief surrounding the testing of the theory on subjects. i wanted to show people that it can work and include some graphic statistical representation to assist the proof/demonstration.

throughout the zine i wanted to maintain an inspiring, motivational tone of voice. making people recognise the theory for its successes and hopefully getting people to experiment with the theory itself. i thought about making the flow of this page mirror a skatepark with the ramps taking you to each next section or point of interest. 

having established the basic layout and contents for each page it was time to begin the digital design of the zine. i used adobe illustrator to make the designs and text. i wanted to maintain simplicity in design and so kept to two main constraints; the use of only two typefaces throughout (Futura and Russian), and the colour scheme of black white and various shades and transparencies of red (minus the exception of a small amount of yellow on page 2).

i worked mainly with the pen and shape tools as most of the imagery was simple and easy to design and i wanted everything to be my own original designs and not from copy or web. i also work a surprising amount with the manipulation of transparency in colour which i think added another dimension to my designs.

i thought about how i could use simple shapes and constructions to effectively transfer the message or instruction as i felt that simplicity of form was in line with the constructivist ethos.

i thought a lot about what font was appropriate in what situation and developed a pattern of using futura for body copy and Russian for any slogans or words of particular significance. i also explored the composition of titles and other bodies of text, using separation lines and changing direction, to complement other constructivist design styles.

i think some of the pages may seem a bit over crowded but i made sure to maintain a significant amount of negative space and the black and red on white really lends a hand in bringing out that space so as not to make the designs look over crowded.

having designed each page how i wanted, and being happy with each page, how it looked, how it read, how it might be interpreted, i then put each design into adobe Indesign to make the zine corrctly formatted to be printed.

it was really just a case of making sure each illustrator file was correct and how i wanted it to be and then using the place tool (cmd+D) to input each design into the 6 page template i had previously organised.

each page fit fine, the quality of the designs was to par, and the layout seemed fine.

when i went to do some test print runs, however, i realised some major flaws in my design, or rather the composition of the zine. having decided to do 6 pages turned out to be a mistake because to make any sort of book that can be successfully formatted to double sided print, it has to be a multiple of four pages because otherwise there are odd pages that would get missed out, or blank pages would be included. i tried to reorganise the indesign file a couple of times but each time the same problems occurred. i knew that it was possible to make because i had done a prototype in line with how i wanted to make it. the problem was that in terms of print, this format wouldnt work.   

i reorganised the indesign file in a way that would avoid the problem but it meant printing single sided and the constructing the zine mysefl, which i didnt mind as it adds a constructivist feel to it, being that i made it. 

what i did was on the first page (above) i put the first and last page adjacent to each other. then i put the second and third together, and the fourth and fifth together and then would sandwich the middle pages within the outside 2 pages and stick the backs of each page to each other in a W shape.

this proved successful and my printed final zine came out really nice and then i just constructed it in the studio.

below is an example of each page

this is the zine itself and how the audience would interact with it.

overall i am happy with how my final product came out. my work effort in the first couple of weeks was heavily lacking and i didnt feel motivated or inspired to pursue the brief with any major commitment. i was stuck for ideas and couldnt come up with anything i really felt was appropriate or that i liked. i think this was the major flaw in my answering this brief. we had a massive amount of time in which to consider and produce a product in answer to the brief and i know that if i was more committed i could have done wholly better if i had worked steadily from the get go. i would have likely been able to pursue my original idea of using screen printing in my answer. having said this, once i got to grips with what i wanted to do and began designing my pages, i felt really comfortable with just getting on an the ideas came to really easily and fully formed. i think having done a lot of research surrounding the topic and really getting to grips with the theory itself was a massive help. it enabled me to just get on with the designing as i already knew the contents. from this point and up to the final print, minus the small mishap with indesign and the layout of the zine, i was really focussed and motivated and i think it does show in my final product. its just a shame that if i had committed like this from the start it could have been ten times better. in the end i was happy with my outcomes and feel that they successfully answered the brief in a way that complemented constructivist learning theory appropriately.