Friday the 28th Group Critique

Critique 
After printing my publication I asked to questions to a group of other students in class

1. Do you think the front cover book and design fits well with the content
2. What colour wire best fits the book. (I brought samples)

I got mainly good feedback, I was told the colour of the cover worked well with the theme and reminded them of chip shop chips in paper. I was also told to use both of the wires to see what works best but the black best suits the colours.

I did get a negative comment saying that the colours inside the book maybe a bit childlike and not appeal to students but on other critiques people said that they liked the colour and it worked well. Therefore I am sticking with the colour scheme and going ahead with my cover idea. 

I also asked them weather I should use mount board for the back and front to make them thicker and they suggested I should to make it more professional and use 3 or 4mm.

Binding Mock ups

When creating a publication using a new binding method it is important to practise and create mock ups to be sure that it will work. It will safe me money and time to do the mock ups on pain paper rather than printing.
I cut a mock up book 17 x 18 cm and marked out where I would make the hole punch. I bought some silver wire offline and twisted it around a pencil to make the spiral shape then threaded it though the book. The binding method worked well however the wire felt to thin and that it could get squashed easily.
I tried again with a larger sized book and tried to double up the wire so it would go through each wire twice. I thought this could make the wire stronger. However this made it impossible to thread through and went all out of shape.

I now know after creating these mockups that the wire bound method will work well with the size of publication that I wanted which is 17 x 18cm and that it is possible for me to create it myself.

The wire was to thin therefore I will need to look for a thicker, stronger wire that would work better.

Latest Design Decisions

After the critique a common comment was that the text was to big. This lead to me having the design decision to split up the text. This is a better layout as individuals are more likely to read the writing if it looks smaller and easier to read rather than having a larger block of text that can looking daunting or boring. As part of my target audience of new designers I would stay away from a book filled with large paragraphs of texts so this being pointed out in my book has helped me to change this design decision for the better.
Beginning to incorporate my handwriting to the publication I went from my Review Box type design to something that adds more colour due to listening to some feedback of people saying it doesn't quite fit with the layout. I also had the idea of the smaller review being something that you can tear out and take with you therefore you can use it if you want to go to the place your self to look or go for food.

Starting to create elements of my pages I have handwritten all of the small reviews using my key so there is less writing and using my handwriting makes it look more personal. They are in the colours of my key which I wrote down to keep constant and organised.

A chat with a Tutor

Talking to Nick got another viewpoint on my publication idea. Explaining my idea he said that it had to many concepts and I needed to have a clearer idea before I continue designing. I need a clearer target audience and idea.
The target audience for the publication are New Students the guide/review style book is what to do and what not to do when it comes to designing food shop. This will be shown by the content of both bad and good signage within the northeast. My target audience will effect my design decisions as it should be engaging and clear to understand and navigate. As a student myself I know that when I open and book that is full of text it makes me not want to read it and feel negatively towards the content. I also find it looks to generic and boring. This is why I am aiming for something more personal in my design as well as including the necessary information.

Friday 14th October Crit

Today in crit I showed my designs and talked through my concept of my book so far.
I asked these questions

• Would it appeal to my target audience of new designers interested in signage?
• Is my layout appropriate?
• Is the binding method appropriate to my ideas?
• does my handwriting is the book look okay?

We had some good discussions and this is my feedback

• Spilt up the text into smaller columns so the text isn't so daunting
• It can look a bit childish but playful maybe think more about colour
• leave room for spiral binding and maybe make it like a calendar
• Play around with layout, maybe the colours for food aren't needed
• Maybe add the map to each page showing where the takeaway is.
• Could add food reviews from online
• Go upstairs and ask how to layout my idea on indesign

This feedback was very helpful as I didn't realise that my text looked big and I also could do more layout options. Due to this feedback I will go back to designing and make some changes.

OUGD504 First Design ideas

Now that I have my concept I started designing some ideas of what I wanted to include. I didn't want to have a serious name for the book but I also wanted it to be obvious it was about food. 

So I brainstormed a few ideas:

• How the Northeast Represent there food 
• Takeaways and restaurants 

However I thought they would not attract the audience as they are uniteresting. I then thought that I want to show the diversity of the cheap food and posh food places with in the title. This is how I came up with From Chipshops to Restaurants I like this name as it is more catchy and makes comparison between cheap chippies to posh restaurants. I spent a lot of time trying to take pictures in as many places in the northeast as possible therefore I wanted to highlight that within the book by including a map page of the northeast. This will also help if people want to find the places in person.

I want my publication to be smaller than A4 and in more of a square shape. I came up with a basic grid system to make my main pages look consistent. I will need to alter this in Indesign but it is a start. I like the idea of use Helvetica or ariel for my body of text as it is easy to read and it is related to designers and it communicates better I also have been doing my own handwriting using a graphic tablet to make it personal. I want to include a key within my book so that I can colour co-ordiante and use symbols to shorten information. On my main pages I want to include some sort of review box were you can glance to get quick information on the signage and place.

Friday 7th October Crit

On Friday the 7th I had a crit were I spoke to half of the class about two concepts I had for my publication. This is what I talked about:

Idea 1

• A small publication Target Audience Design Students interested in signage
• Content, Reviews of takeaway and restaurant signage in the northeast
• Use my opinions to talk about the signage and humour to talk about the place
• Use a handwritten style.

Idea 2

• A small publication Target Audience Design Students interested in signage
• Content, Reviews of takeaway and restaurant signage in the northeast
• Use facts and talk about the ideals of design 
• Use professional Type

Basically my ideas are similar but one is more formal and factual and the other is more humours and personal. I told the group that I was unsure wether people would want to read a book with 1 students opinion in it ?

Feedback

• Don't review the food in the restaurants, stick to what you know which is design.
• It would be good to mix your opinion with facts. This would give it a good balance and be interesting and unique.
• For future you could make them limited addition and bring out new books for different places in the UK not just the northeast.

I was pleased with my feedback as I helped me come to a more finalised concept of creating a publication that reviews signage in context of food genre and the northeast. It also helped me to see how my publication could be further developed by adding more additions of place.

Binding Research

There are many binding methods which could be appropriate for the publication. The publication needs to evoke a personal but professional feeling. By giving the book a home-made but well-built look and feel that feeling could be created. It also must be easy to use and navigate around due to its intended use. The publication would not need to be mass produced because only a limited amount of copies would be produced due to its small target audience. This also gives the potential to create other books targeted at different areas and demographics around the country.









Looking at binding methods there are two potentials. One being saddle Stitch and another being wire bound. A problem with the saddle is that the book may not be able to stay open flat on a surface which is important to the handling of a book. However a negative of wire bound is that the pages could be pulled out which in this case the book is not intended to lose pages. Looking at the two methods the wire bound method seems most suitable as the book could be able to stand up and be easy to flick though. Also it is somewhat quite unique for a graphic design book to have this binding. You also associate a wire bound book with a note book. My book will be full of my writing and opinions which makes it personal like a notebook. I need to do research and practice with this type of binding as I have not done this before.

Every book starts with a idea/note for designers - Armand Mevis

When reading the essay 'Every book starts with an idea, Note for designers' by Armand Mevis I made notes on my favourite quotes that I found Interesting.

'Ideally all books start with a question. The clearer the question, the more precise the answer.'
I found this good as a starting point to designing a book. To make a question and then answer it through my design decisions.
'Regardless of the initial circumstances there are questions to be answered,
What needs to be done?
What are the main issues that need attention, the problems to be solved?
What does not work, what is missing?
How to create the right conditions for a workable situation?'
These are good basic questions to start with.
'Design and content need to go hand in hand, like a perfect dance.' This is a very good point made as it is important that the content matches well with the design to stop confusion and so it fits well.
'To know how to solve things you need to be open, to reinvent, to rethink what a book can be.' This is a good point as it is important to always try new ideas and rethink what you are doing to get the best results.
'You cannot just sit down and wait until it comes to you, because it will not come by itself.' The best ideas and designs are formed through trail and error, from research and talking to other people. You always need to be trying things.
Overall I really liked this essay as it covers ideas that I never thought of and can lead you to think of better ideas and create better designs. Book design is one of my favourite areas of design and some of the points made are very valid and can help.

Summer Project Presentation

In the holidays I created a presentation which had different signage for every letter of the alphabet. I wrote about the location and analysed the letters. However when we got briefed on the presentation we were told not to go into to much detail and show everything and that we should talk about our ideas and ask questions so I redid the presentation.







For my presentation I talked in front of my group and Simon Harrison and John about my ideas. I said that I was focusing on takeaways and restaurants in the North East of England and showed them the signage that I had for the different food genres. I said that in the publication I could make comparisons between the food types and look at were the food originated and weather the signage works well. I also said that I could look at how the different places can affect the signage and audience. I then talked briefly about some design ideas. One idea is that I could make something that is informative and organised talk mainly about lettering and use my colour categories. My second idea is to make something more personal and include my opinions on the signage and places. I also could have it handwritten.

After I presented the work that I had done I was given some feedback.

• I could write about How some places need to look cheap to draw in people who want cheap food.
• I could discuss the difference between countries signage and how it is different in Britain. For example our indian food places doesn't look like food places do in india. 

This feedback helped me to get a better understanding of what the content of my book could be.

Planning and organising

When looking though my signage I discarded some that I didn't need. I didn't keep some that had similar type to others and some that I thought would be harder to write about. I have also been trying not to get to many large food chains and more independent restaurants that are only in the north east. I also tried to get food in as many different places in the northeast as i could. Some of the main places were Durham, Stockton, Sunderland, Gateshead, Newcastle and Southshields.

When hearing the brief I thought that we needed to create a publication that had the letters A-Z analysed. Therefor I picked signage for every letter of the alphabet. I also looked to make sure my food categories were spread out across the book. However now I found out that I don't need to include the alphabet I'm am going to have another look though my signage.