Module evaluation

OUGD504 was an interesting module that had its ups and downs. The major issue for me in this module was a brief period of illness in the beginning, as a result of this I fell behind and after this struggled to catch up. As a result studio brief 1 did not turn out as expected, as I was completing it alongside studio brief 2. 
I enjoyed studio brief 2 the most in this module. Learning about a new previously unexplored area of graphic design was really insightful and I especially enjoyed the planning aspect - creating wireframes was really helpful and helped to progress my project. Additionally the input from Only studios and the lectures on UX/UI design helped me to learn more about the specialism. UI/UX design is definitely something I will be exploring again hopefully in future briefs.
As mentioned earlier time management was something I struggled with majorly. After being ill, completing two projects alongside each other was tough and both the finished products were not up to the standard I wanted them to be. This is the most evident in my publication for studio brief 1 were the errors made when creating the document for binding. The finished result was misaligned and scruffy however I did not leave myself any time to reprint and improve on the book. However I did like the extras I created for this project, using processes such as laser cutting added to the aesthetic of the publication and the research undertaken at the beginning of the project clearly and directly influenced the design successfully.
I did not enjoy the surprise in studio brief 1 where we swapped briefs with a partner. Actually creating a book on somebody else's content was enjoyable as I got to learn more about a subject and also gives an insight into what creating work for a client would be like in the industry. However I thought the swapping of briefs could've been made evident from the beginning instead of sprung on us because I think it threw me off a bit.
Studio brief 2 was more successful overall than studio brief 1 I think, I preferred the concept and design of the product as it was something I was interested in, so I was able to create an app that I myself would use. In feedback, the concept and design were praised fairly highly. If I was to improve upon this brief I would animate the app, to show transitions etc., but I did not have the software in order to do this. 
In this module I have definitely had a bit of a wake up call. I personally find it difficult to adjust to a change in lifestyle, so this being the first module back after summer was going to be difficult for me. On top of an illness I did find it hard, however I had enough time to catch up, I just didn't apply myself as well as I could've done. I think my designs overall were good but the overall presentation and bringing all elements together did not work as well as it could have done.

Guidebook research - Edith Bowman's Great British Music Festivals

Edith Bowman is a DJ, best known for hosting shows on Radio 1 and also her love for and passion about music festivals. A self confessed festival addict, she decided to compile her knowledge and expertise into a festival guide.

The book contains sections on major festivals (Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds, Download etc). In contrast to my idea, the book focuses on these festivals and her particular experiences of them. Going into detail about her past visits as well as brief histories of each and her own opinions, she offers a DJ's and frequent festival goers insight into the festivals themselves. Her words may be too subjective for the kind of guide I want to create - and also only focuses on the music of the festivals and not every other element (for example packing, camping etc).

Her guide can be used for first time festival goers to compare and decide where to go due to her detailed stories and expert opinions, and also for seasoned goers to discover more about the festivals they love.

Screen - final app adjustments

After the final crit I decided to adjust a few things in my app design.

I have decided to remove the statistics page, where users could go to check the live polls and compare parties against each other to see how they are faring. I would've kept this page in if I had given myself more time to design it, however the stats are still featured on the political party page under each party's section. This also meant I removed the icon as well as the button to the page on the home page.
This adjustment also means the icons can stay in the same place/order across all screens - lessening any confusion there may have been over the swapping orders when navigating screens.


I have also added in the pop ups that would come up when the user tapped on a word to add to the dictionary, and to expand the definitions on the dictionary page. Keeping the same style as the rest of the app, the pop ups appear in the middle of the page when a user taps and holds on a specific word in a piece of text. The pop up on the dictionary page will show the definition of the word as well as 2 buttons, one for the user to save it to their dictionary and one to go back to the quiz.

Screen - final app walkthrough

Open screen. This page opens as the app does - the letters in the logo change between colours of political parties.

Home screen. Contains the menu - the app will be in the grey colour scheme at first.

Quiz pages. The second page shows the quiz with a pop up, when the user taps and holds on a word, a pop up will appear telling them the definition of the word.

 Quiz result. From here on the colour scheme changes to whichever party the user sides with.

Personal profile - shows the users political party, constituency (top of page), as well as the users most important issues as defined by the quiz.

Dictionary page. Users can search for certain words in the search bar.

Political party page - a list of all major UK political parties for users to do their own comparing.

The political parties own profiles - shows information about the parties as well as a broken down version of their manifestos, clicking through these will take users to the manifesto so they can read about the issues they care about.

A news page for users to keep up to date with issues they care about even after finding out their political affiliation.

Colour versions shown for all political parties.

Screen - Interface analysis

My app: a quiz aimed at UK youth (teenagers 16+) to determine which political party they side with and should be voting for. The app will provide a fun interactive format for teenagers to be educated on politics and in particular the parties, their basic values and policies.

I want the format of the app to be fun, a games based app but with an informative edge. Potentially with a dictionary type side to the app, where users can tap on a word and the definition is displayed, as political words can sometimes be confusing and extra effort to look up separately. If the meaning of the word is easy to find and explain the user will be more likely to become better informed.

QuizUp

Format - app

Audience/User - all ages 

QuizUp is one of the most popular quiz apps.

Sections

News feed

News feed (from here you can post to followers using top left icon.)

Quizmart

Profile

Profile (settings are accessed through this page (top left icon.)

Browse Topics

Notifications

Typeface - sans serif

Colour - black and white with elements of grey.

The Independent

Format - online (only) newspaper (used to be printed)

Audience - average age 43

Political stance - changed from independent to liberal

Typeface - sans serif, custom typeface "Indy Sans", light and bold used on these pages

Layout - modular grid, ran in columns

Colour - white and black (could be for ease of legibility, could be as it is a newspaper, could be for neutrality. Colour palette for newspaper in general has a running theme of red (not affiliated with any political party as the newspaper is not limited to politics).

Theme - politics homepage primarily relevant photos as well as text (headline in bold, section of article below). actual article page - large scale photo at top of page. text follows, aligned to left of centre section. On right hand side are ads as well as related stories on other sections of the newspaper. On very left hand side breaking up the grid format and cutting into main text are other stories readers may be interested in. 

Other features - navigation bar/menu remains at top of page. Social media buttons are placed to left, newspaper sections in middle, and general icons to right (search button, UK/US, account, main menu).

Screen - Only

4 stages of a project
Research 20%
- competitors, audiences, personas, principles
wire framing (IMPORTANT) 40%
- ideation, test assumptions, client buy in
design (as much time as wire framing) 40%
front end
- coding (work with developers)

Goldsmiths

Printworks 
https://onlystudio.co.uk/printworks-london

- static versions of an animated logo
Uni of Suffolk

Lost Village
abandoned village/ lost in time
branding incorporated into festival (tattoos, clothing, make up etc)
bespoke typeface


Helbers
high end 

BMTH


4 projects on go at the time
invision
https://www.invisionapp.com/

Print - Stock and Prototypes

After reconsidering the size of my publication due to printing limitations, I visited the print room again to find out which stock I would need to create my publication from.

Initially I wanted to print my publication on two different types of paper - a fair quality stock for the first section of the book, and then a textured stock for the maintenance tip section, as this would reflect the premise behind records and how they physically play.

I chose to create my book from Olin Regular (200gsm) for the first section and Portrait Rag (285gsm) for the textured section. However after talking to James I realised that I could not print double sided on the Portrait Rag so instead I have decided to just keep the Olin Regular running all the way through the publication. The cover and sleeve will be made from regular black card (300gsm).

After obtaining samples of this stock I set about creating prototypes of my publication. Working to half scale, I needed to create this prototype so that I would know the width of the spine, which I need to consider in the creation and design of the book cover and sleeve. My publication will contain 11 pages, so in making a smaller version I can add or adjust any elements.
After creating a half scale version I can note that the spine will measure 4mm across, giving me all the measurements I need to carry on creating, and also start the design.

Before I test my method of perfect binding I studied other perfect bound books I had to hand and saw that they had an extra page at the beginning and end of the book. This page is bound in the stack of pages and stuck to the very inside of the front cover.

In my layout post I hadn't considered this element of the book but I think it will be needed to ensure that I don't lose as much space when the book is bound, and also to help the book look neater when it is finished. Stock wise I think I will use a thinner, less expensive paper, as nothing will be printed onto the paper.

Print - primary record research

I went to Oxfam and picked up some cheap records to study the physical records as well as the sleeves and design.

Drew Scott - Music Rising

I picked up this record as it had the most simplistic design in the shop. The sleeve is made from a semi shiny black paper, with a hole in the centre measuring 100mm across, allowing the label on the record to be the central focus. The construction of the sleeve is also very basic. Taking it apart I can see that the sleeve is made from one large sheet of paper folded and adhered using tabs on the inside, with one open end, for the record to slide into.

london's brilliant - Wendy James

This record sleeve is designed slightly differently. The case opens like a book, with the sleeve on the right hand side. The extra material is used for design purposes displaying a large photo of the artist on the inside cover, along with lyrics to the song. The sleeve is used as an additional aesthetic element, instead of a necessity to prevent scratches on the record as in the design of the music rising record.

If I was to deconstruct the record sleeve, I would see that it was made of two sheets of very thin card, stuck together, with one end open for the record to slide into. The inner layer is adhered to the outer layer similarly to the inner layer in the front cover of a hardback book.

More attention is paid to the visual impact of the record sleeve, with large monochrome photos of the artist as well as the addition of a pink colour scheme. The result is a sleeve that goes beyond pure functionality, it utilises design in order to sell the record.

The Rise EP - 2Tall (designed by iwant)

This record sleeve follows the same construction as the Music Rising sleeve, however it is made from a much heavier, more luxurious stock. The digitally printed cover is textured due to being coated and the combination of heavier stock and this treatment makes the sleeve feel far more thought out than the Music Rising record.

The actual content of the design also reflects the style of the record. The genre of music is relaxed electronic (2tall - Rain) and the digital aesthetic of the sleeve, including linear features, bold clean type and obvious CMYK colour palette shows this well. 

Out of the Question - Mumm-Ra

This is a 7" record, which I got to compare to the larger records, in terms of size. A book this size would be more compact and possibly more handy, however I think the intent of the client was to create a book that could easily be displayed along with the physical records in an audiophiles collection. 

The construction of the smaller sleeve, known as a gatefold sleeve, is similar to both types of sleeve. Again it is in a fold out format and double layered, with the inner sleeve adhered down, and one opened end, but the sleeve is made from one sheet of card, and is folded at the top edge to create that double layer.

Typesetting seminar and study task

Typesetting is the composition of text by means of arranging physical types or the digital equivalents.

orthography
the conventional system of a language

line reading process - movements are saccades

3 elements to typography

• letter - design of the individual character/ glyphs and anatomy
• word - how these glyphs fit together
• the line - combination & arrangement of words in a body or sequence

Hierarchy
Some messages are more important than others. Type size, style, weight, colour and treatment can add emphasis to elements that require prominence.

Alignment
left, justified, centred & right aligned (not commonly used because difficult to read)
rag refers to the irregular or uneven vertical margin of a block of type, often on the right edge

paragraph 
indented
full line break 

leading
distance between the baselines of successive lines of type.

tracking
amount of space between a group of letters to affect density in a line or block of copy.

kerning & pairs
adjusting the spacing between individual characters/letter forms in a proportional font to achieve a visually pleasing result.

hidden characters (return, spaces, tabs etc)

line length
40 - 75 characters, or 7 - 10 words

widows and orphans
lines or words left hanging or separated from a complete block of text.

hyphen (-) function as formation of certain compound terms. also used for word division
en dash (–) indicates range distance or time
em dash (—) take the place of commas, parentheses or colons

reading: the punctuation guide

rivers
gaps in typesetting which appear to run through a paragraph of text due to a coincidental alignments of spaces.


Page 1: Great Expectations is a book consisting entirely of the very first page of the novel Great Expectations, but typeset in 70 different ways by designers/ studios.
The variations between the design of the texts is massive and shows just how different people can interpret texts. Some are incredibly abstract and have next to no legibility.

Study Task: Typeset and lay out the text to communicate a particular idea or concept

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens — Chapter 1, Page 1
My father’s family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip,
my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more
explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.
I give Pirrip as my father’s family name, on the authority of his tombstone
and my sister - Mrs. Joe Gargery, who married the blacksmith. As I
never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either
of them (for their days were long before the days of photographs), my
first fancies regarding what they were like, were unreasonably derived
from their tombstones. The shape of the letters on my father’s, gave me
an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair.
From the character and turn of the inscription, “Also Georgiana Wife of
the Above,” I drew a childish conclusion that my mother was freckled
and sickly. To five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half long,
which were arranged in a neat row beside their grave, and were sacred
to the memory of five little brothers of mine - who gave up trying to get
a living, exceedingly early in that universal struggle - I am indebted for a
belief I religiously entertained that they had all been born on their backs
with their hands in their trousers-pockets, and had never taken them out
in this state of existence.
Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as the river
wound, twenty miles of the sea. My first most vivid and broad
impression of the identity of things, seems to me to have been gained

on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening.

main themes and words
— tombstones
— parents (mother and father)
— names (Pirrip, Philip, Pip)
— child, infancy

Blast magazine
Anthony Burrill - Letterpress
Experimental Jetset