OUGD406. Design Practice. Workshop Brief InDesign - Bears.

we were introduced to the new brief concerning our skills and abilities with using adobe indesign. we were each given an animal to research and base our publication around and i got BEARS. having considered a breadth of research and gaining some understanding of bears my first task was to consider the topic/theme of my spread so that i could then design everything else accordingly.

i started by thinking about everything that i knew about to do with bears and made a mind map of the connections and what i could base my theme on.

having broadened my ideas and potential themes i went on to narrow down my options. i considered the main topics that i had come up with and from this came up with a variety of publication themes i could go forth with. with each one i thought about the most suitable/applicable audience and in what tone of voice i might direct that theme. this helped me to decide which theme to use and so i chose a publication on 'how to prepare/protect yourself in an encounter with/attack from a bear'.

having chosen my theme i then proceeded to extend and further specify the tone of voice and audience. from that i thought about possible titles of what to call the publication. i also narrowed down the content to specific topical points. i decided to name the publication 'Grizzly Encounters'.

having sorted out the content i thought about the typefaces and colour schemes i could employ. using the research i had found i thought about colour schemes appropriate for a publication based on bears and in particular grizzly bears.

this is an appropriate scheme as it links well with the colours of a grizzly.

this scheme presents a nice contrast but some colours are too striking.

this scheme is a nice subtle gradient but offers little variety.

this scheme offers a nice complementary contrast and the amounts are aesthetically pleasing.

above images:

https://kuler.adobe.com/#themes/search?term=brown

this scheme offeres a good range of dark - light and a variety of browns but no break from brown.

i decided to use the brown and turquoise combo because it links to bears and their habitats and offers a pleasing and good looking contrast.

i thought about my title/body copy fonts and considered using themed fonts such as 

http://www.dafont.com/search.php?q=bear&fpp=50

i quite like the brother bear font and think its relatively appropriate because it looks kind of native american and that links to bears. i also quite like the top one because its cowboy like. i typed the title out in each font so i could make a more informed decision.

i decided to choose the middle one for the title because its kind of native american 

i then went into indesign to consider the layout of my design.

i think this layout works quite well as it accomodates for 5 images which links with the 5 main topics and has ample text room. 

i like this layout because it is spacious and works with the 3 images requirement of the brief and has a decent but uncluttered copy space.

i think this layout works well because it has the 5 image spaces and a nice amount of text space. most of all it flows in an anticlockwise motion (the direction of reading that would occur) around all the 5 points. i think this layout template is the most appropriate with some tweaks.

i started by testing some new grid ideas but found that its easy to go over the top and then any suitable composition looks too busy and off.

i decided to go back to the 6x6 grid inside the margin as this offers the most evenly spaced grid.

having set up my grid i moved on to the type and image layout and maintained a similar format to the chosen mock layout.

i messed around for a bit with the boxes but decided that this was the best layout for my content.

i started by placing the title with my chosen font (brother bear) so i could base everything else around it.

i found some appropriate and quality images off the wesites id looked at and put them into photoshop where i then scaled them to the correct size for the box on the page. i did this with all the images to give me ease of placement.

using cmd+D i placed the images into the correct box and checked how each looked.

i then started to format the publication to the colour scheme that i had chosen and decided to add a drop shadow to the title for emphasis.

i included a border round each of the photos in turquoise.

i decided that to illustrate the main positions you should take when in a bear encounter so i went into illustrator and drew separate outlines and fill ins for the foetal and standing positions. to include some colour contrast and depth and perspective i added a turquoise oval to each.

i used the pen tool to create the shapes and the eye dropper tool to add the correct colour.

i wrote the copy for my publication into word to use spell check and then coppied and pasted it into the indesign file and then played around with the format and font. 

i ended up using the left alignment for my copy as i feel it looks the smartest and neatest.

when i was happy with my design i removed all the guides and outlines so i could see the spread as it would be printed. i was reasonably happy but thought it could be a bit more fluid.

i experimented with text borders in brown but decided that it compromised the readability too much and so didnt have them.

i experimented by moving around the text and image boxes so they were more suited to each other and alligned more appropriately

i then went to print the final design on a3 paper.

i think this project was a great learning curve for me in terms of my abilities with indesign. i became a lot quicker with the software and know how to use it better. i think that next time i would make more effort with the aesthetic of the page and try to include a better considered composition.