What already exists?

Before starting I need to find out what education is already out there for children on disability so I do not just recreate something that has already been done but enhance it and join them at wanting to make a difference.

Scope is a UK charity there for disabled people. They also help at educating the public on disability. There main aims is for equality and having a better society. They encourage young people to help them campaign and give advice and support to teachers in both primary and secondary schools. 

When trying to search for young people learning about disability I found it hard to find what I wanted. All the information I was receiving was on how to educated a special needs child. 

It was a struggle to find anything on educating children about special needs.

Every child at some point in their lives will meet someone with special needs or a disability. I feel that it is important to prepare a child for these moments by giving them the best knowledge on disabilities.  There are many studies that show children are quick to judge a person due to there appearance. This can mean children can sometimes look at people who look different to them and be scared to approach them or uncertain about the person. Some children also resort to bullying other children who are different to them in order to make themselves feel better or more powerful. 

Often children with disabilities can feel isolated when around others there own age because they are treated differently and are easily ignored. It can be difficult at times for them to have a voice which is why I want to create something that will help other children learn more about them.

I am interested in making my education in a print form.
Looking at what already exists the story books aimed at children are all made up stories with illustrations.

I feel that children would benefit from real stories showing real people so that they are able to understand that people like this are real and not just in stories.

Talking to Dines

Dines from studio Blup came to do a talk for us. He invited us to pitch ideas to him and get feedback. I felt I could do with some professional opinions on how I could go about this project and picking a target audience.

I talked to him about needing to figure out an audience for my project to make it more specialised and have the right tone of voice. 

• He suggested that I start from the bottom with children as they are our future and are the best and learning.
• He also said to pick a place like England as the main audience and to collect real stories from people as that will have the highest impact.
• He said I should consider within any project social media and online presence.

Overall he loved my idea and felt that there was many different ways I could go with the project.

Research into audience.

I got 56 responses to my survey

A majority of people who took my survey was 18-21 year olds which showed me that this age group is more engaged with technology. However I did get at least 1 person from each age category which is beneficially for my results.

It was found that 64.29% of people personally knew someone with a disability and 10.71% of the people had a disability themselves. This made me think that a majority of people would have a general understand of disability.

However even though 75% of people have or knew someone with a disability interestingly 37.50% of people have felt awkward or uncomfortable around someone with a disability.

And even more interesting that 39.29% of people admitted to feeling unable to engage with someone who had a disability.  I wanted to find out more about what would make people feel unable to engage these were the most common responses.

• Not knowing how to act or what is unacceptable
• Non verbal/unable to talk back in anyway
• How to first approach them
• Scared of them
• Not knowing the correct way to communicate
• unsure wether they needed help
• not aware of their level of understanding and comprehension
• unsure of their disability
• scare of the response

Exactly 75% of people said they have been taught about disability however many people declared that it was only a very basic or small amount of information. I wanted to learn how they were taught to help inform the way I can inform people of my message. These were the most common answers.

• Asking questions/Converstaion 
• Through work and training
• Online research
• Education (School, College and University)
• People who have a disability
• Experiences
• Church
• Hospitials 

As I need to start my project only talking about a smaller amount of disabilities I wanted to see what disabilities people were already familiar with and what else they could name.

  100% of people who took the survey said they would be willing to learn more about disability which means my campaign can go forward as I know their will be an audience I just need to figure out the platform in which I will do it.

Doing a survey was a very effective way of collecting opinions as disability can be a sensitive topic to talk about and I needed to understand what audience I should target.

Binding and publishing

I wanted to print my publication and experiment with binding and paper.

I printed the photography pages on gloss paper and the text pages on matt to add a bit of contrast and show the photography to its best quality. I then cut down the pages using an electric guillotine and perfect bound them using glue by hand. I felt that the finished product would be better produced in bulk by machines rather than by hand as there is more room for error and it is harder to be precise doing it by hand. I also would also in the future use a thicker stock for the cover to make it look more professional. I also think there could be even more of a contrast between the pages maybe making the photography be on a shiner stock. 

Final Design

My final design has a simplistic cover in monotone colours to draw in the attention of the reader. Like many other photography books I could have placed a photograph on the cover however I wanted to portray my colour scheme as it links to the inside and gives a lot more attention and vibrance to the photography inside. The only colour inside the book other than the photography is one mandala colour in the Indian flag colours. This is the first thing you see when you open the book. It represents the style, colourful and sophisticated nature of the Indian culture in one illustration. I also include a map of India with some of the key places so people can see where some of the facts are located. Every photography page has a specific layout making the photography all the same size and on alternated sides so the photography is on the front and back of one page. I did this so I can experiment with making the photography have a different paper. The facts are all aligned in a grid but located in different areas on the page to draw attention to them and make them more engaging. The facts are only small as I felt the book did not need to be loaded with information because it would distract from the images and be unnecessary to the cause. The target audience is creatives, photography admirers and people who want to learn or travel. I think this book works as a guide to giving people who have never been to India an idea about the people and culture you can expect.

A Project on Disability

Over summer I had the opportunity to live and work with disabled people and It really made me change my opinion on disability in general. This has really driven my passion in wanting to help represent good causes and peoples differences within my design. I really want to do a project that represents disability and helps stop the stigmas associated with it. I hate when talk about disability in negative way like referring to someone as 'Err they look like a Down syndrome' or 'thats so sad poor them' I feel like with more knowledge people will be able to understand and therefore treat people with the respect they deserve. I want to create a big project which could lead into a campaign by creating a publication that shares knowledge of disability in a unique and well thought out way.

Starting the project I wanted to write down the thoughts in my head. This led to my main idea of a publication. I want to create something different from a NHS style Leaflet or complicated website. My main aim is to create something that represents a little bit of how the people with these disabilities feel

I was struggling to start this project as I had many ideas in my head and I wanted some tutor feedback before getting stuck in. I talked to Amber and two fellow designers about my idea.

Some very good points were raised within the discussion which I had not yet thought of. 

Such as how do I put across the message that all disabilities should be treated differently however I would be categorising them into the same publication therefore I would be slightly going against my own message.

Also although a publication is a interesting way to put across this information it needs to be justified, I need to figure out, where it would be, who is the audience and why would they want to read it.

Together we thought maybe I could make this brief into a collection of publications so I would not be to heavily categorising the disabilities. 

My next steps will be a survey to find my best target audience followed by more detailed ideas.

My inspirations

A big inspiration to me when doing this project is the National Geographic as there stories and photography take people on a journey. I love there square simplistic logo and this is what gave me the inspiration to include squares space and lines with the book design.

looking at the website they use lines in there layout which links to their logo. They also have dark backgrounds to enhance the photography and Bold easy to read text. Like them I am using a dark colour scheme and square consistent layout. I am using the lines to draw attention to the information and to make the text more formal but approachable. 

Organisations such as National Geographic and Lonely Planet are great at bringing different cultures to everyone allowing people who cant travel to still be able to feel like they can learn and experience another place. This is what I want to achieve with my publication, I want people to enjoy the photography and want to learn about the people.

There is also room to make the book part of a series which explores the people and culture in other places but with similar book layouts and styles.

Patterns and Sizes

After getting feedback I realised that my book should be quite big as photography books usually are larger o show off there detailed photography and large images.

We discussed the idea of including Indian patterns as the textiles and patterns are big there in use of clothes and materials. I did research on this and found many of the materials are made with Paisley or repetitive patterns. I was more interested with the Mandala circle patterns as I feel like they would be a good contrast against my square layout. I like how detailed the patterns are and feel it would brighten up my publication bring an extra detail of India.

 I created these patterns from inspiration of the patterns I found online. I made them white as I felt it was a good contrast to the black backgrounds.

I think that the shapes bring a little something different as my main theme makes everything a square.

I also liked including the colours of the Indian flag as it brings forward the culture and add a little more to the pattern without taking away from the photography and all of their textures and patterns are vibrant colours.

Critique // Feedback

I got together in a group critique with other designers to show them my initial ideas, I created some questions to lead the feedback that I needed.

• Should I try and include pattern?
• Should the cover include photography?
• How should I create and bind the book?
• Is there anything other than a book I could do with the photography?

This is the feedback I received:

• You could play around with small amounts of Indian pattern as long as it doesn't take away from the photography.
• Maybe add a map to show where I India the photos were taken
• Link the cover more to India, maybe with some photography. 
• Make the cover thicker?
• Perfect bound is best for many pages and making the book look more professional.
• Maybe look at making some images full bleed
• Thick stock
• Maybe the book could be part of a series?
• Why not try including different styles of paper in the same book?
• The book needs to be bigger, closer to A4 to be like a photography book

Overall I am very happy with the feedback and it has made me know how I can push my design to be better and what further development there can be.

Initial Layout and content

For my initial layout ideas I began by thinking of a consistent layout. I want there to only be one image on a double spread layout in a big size. This will draw attention to the photography and show it in a detailed way. The pages will alternate with side having photography and information. 

I want the colour scheme of the book to be dark so that it enhances the vibrant colours in the photography.

I received Anthea Photography and I was very
happy with the contrasting colours and unique people. I came up with a name 'The many people who populate India' with the world people being bolder as I wanted to show that the book was focusing on the people who live in India. In my initial design I have used lines to draw to the shape and text I have used making it look more serious. I have also linked the lines going forward inside the book to be next to the facts.

I have placed the photography with black even spacing around it so it draws the eyes to the picture.
Next I will need feedback.

First Meeting // Initial Ideas

Meeting up with Anthea we talked a little bit about the style of photography that she does. She is big on travelling and portrait photography. She aims to be a documentary photographer.
After learning this I knew I wanted to do a documentary style book focusing heavily on photography.

Anthea said she was going on a trip to India therefore we decided to base the book on their people and culture as they have the second highest population.

I told her to take photographs of people as a focus.

I will be taking inspiration and information from websites such as national geographic and the BBC.

We started to figure out the roles in the project.

Anthea
Anthea will be traveling to take the photographs in the way that I ask her.

Me
I have full design control over the design, content and direction of the photographs giving me more ownership over the project.

I am very happy to be working with Anthea as I find her very talented and I am interested in working with photographer and designing for publication. I am also excited to try this different more serious style.

Brief // Photography Collaboration

In collaboration with Photography Student Anthea Spivey the brief is to design a photography documentary book based on identity and population. In this brief I aim to create a publication with the target audience of creatives and people who want to gain knowledge on culture and the world. The project will combine photography and design and information to create a factual story of the worlds growing population.

antheaspivey-photography.tumblr.com

Project Overview

I have created a video which is a demonstration on the design and how to navigate my website. The video is able to bring the website to life and show the positive and friendly tone of voice.

Overall this project has been a success I was able to work successfully with a photographer who was far away from me and was only able to meet in person for one meeting. I had to rely on my organisation and communication to get the work done. I was also able to get another opinion on design from a student who doesn't study where I do. 

The website is designed to be easy to navigate for its older users by its use of prompts and consistent layout. The colours are fun and engaging and are used to represent the categories. The website includes large high quality images of the scenery and wildlife at the locations to give the audience and full view helping them make there decision on where they would like to go. 

To promote the website there are also branded postcards featuring the photography and giving information of the location and photographer. This works well as it is a more subtle promotion that can be spread through word of mouth.

This project could be taken further by creating advertising promotion and further website development in the future.

Promoting the website.

Now that the basics of the website are designed and I have been given feedback I want to look at how I can promote it to my target audience.

As my target audience is 30 years plus it is less likely they would be regular social media users therefore I need to figure out other ways of promoting and getting people onto the website.

I want to think about how Danny's photography can be consumed in print form. 

I found from talking to my target audience that word of mouth is usually how they know what places they want to go to but they wish they could have more visuals. I am thinking of how I can make word of mouth and photography fit together.

That brought me to postcards. 

I have created a range of postcards featuring Danny's photography of the places on the website, this means people who go to the place can buy the postcards and send it or show it to others talking about their experiences. The postcard includes the logo/website and works really well at promoting it. Postcards and cheap and easy to produce and will promote Danny's photography as well as the website.

Feedback from Photographer

I met up in person with Danny to show him my designs and layout and get some feedback. This was the points he raised.

• It would be better to offer a way to enlarge the images or just make them better and more clear to see and they are the main decider of if a person will consider going there.
• Maybe use breadcrumbs (the circles below the images) to show how many images there are of the place.
• The key information looks a little bit out of place in the yellow box
• The text could be larger as its for older people
• I think the logo works really well as it relates to the outdoors and you can see what the website is all about from the logo.

He liked the colours used and opening pages but gave me good feedback on the layouts of other pages. 

I also got some feedback from other designers.

• The user reviews needs to look more formal and more legitimate 
• It needs to be more noticeable that you need to scroll down to get more information.

Making the changes

After getting feedback I decided to make some changes of the layout and design.

• I have made the photography larger to show it in better detail and to make it the main focus. I have also given an option to look at it larger and this gives the user the information of the photographers name.
• I have took away some of the unnecessary information and made the writing bigger making more inviting and easier to read.
• I have given an instruction to scroll down making it more obvious there is further information
• I have changed the colouring of the user reviews making it look more serious but also linking it to the logo. This change also means people can click a button to add a review. This also makes the key information above it stand out more.

I am happier with my design now I have changed it from my feedback.

Development and navigation

Following the steps you begin by picking one of the categories, for example if you are looking for a good, cheap day to go on with the family you would click family day out. This shows red dots on the maps of possible locations. The categories also have different blurred images in the background.

When you click one of the places it brings up an image with symbols from the key, if you like the look of the place you can click to find out more. Also so you remember where you are on the map I made it so that the circle turns into a square.

Font
I choose to use the font Lato because it is easily readable and looks friendly.
Colours
The colour of the categories are the main colours and are bright and easy to see on the map and also contrast well next to each other.

I began creating the main page that you get information about the place when you click, find out more. This is where I wanted Danny's photography to play a main part at showing the user what the places look like. The key information shown is How to get there and Facilities. I also wanted to include a bit of background about the place and what you can see there as well as a map if there is one provided by the place. 

I also felt a good feature was user reviews, like trip advisor people are more likely to go to a place of it has good reviews or of they know a lot of other people had positive experiences there. 

In my next step I will meet up with Danny to get some feedback.

Initial Layouts

I began designing the website by picking colours that would represent the different categories on a map. I wasn't sure how to create the map to make it easy to use.

I wanted to include a key which shows the first things you would want to know about a location before you want to find out further information.
The key information I think is important is

• Food facilities
• Car park
• Public Transport
• Indoor Shelter (incase of rain)
• Toilets 
• Disabled Access

I decided the clearest map and most easy to use is the google map, I showed the general northeast area on the map and created my symbols for the key. I am trying to keep consistent with colours for the logo and categories.

My final home page design leaves lots of open space making it look less cluttered and begins by telling the user the first step they need to do making it easy to use for an older audience.

Submission

Overall I am very happy with the cover that I submitted as I feel it represents the meaning of the sing well. It is unique to other covers but still has relevance and meaning keep the bright and engaging original colour scheme. After receiving feedback I was confident in choosing my final design and submitting. I needed to give an description of my design and I wanted it to be simple and straight to the point therefore I wrote.

An album cover showing the heartbreak that occurs when you lose the person you love

Feedback covers

 Feedback
I needed to receive some feedback on my covers to figure out which I should submit and that represents the blog best.

People liked the first cracked designs and felt that the colours worked well but felt that it didn't fit the tone of voice of Primal Scream. They didn't really understand my first one but liked that it was unique and different to others.

 "I like that you have decided to keep the colours of the original album cover as it creates a link and the yellow is bright and shows that there is some happiness in the song along with heartbreak."

"I like the face as it is very intense and eye catching"

 They felt that the face albums were the best so then I needed to figure out which colour variation people liked the best.

Most people like the brighter colour design the best as it stands out the most and fits with my colour scheme.

As a but of further feedback I decided to get a wider audience feedback in the form of an Instagram poll. This just asked whether my illustration looks heartbroken. A majority said that it did which confirmed that my illustration did portray the emotion intended.