GRAD602 - Alyssa Goh

FINAL BLAD DESIGN AND REFLECTION

There was a lot that I learned throughout this project. The first part of the project where we had to work in groups was really interesting for me. It made me realized what soft skills I had and what soft skills I needed to work on. Throughout the group phase, my group and I worked quite well all things considered. However, there were times where I had to give reminders/push to get work from them but everything worked out in the end so I’m happy with my group. I learnt that working in a group means that you have to keep other group members schedules in mind. 

Changed DPS

Colour Key Development

WEEK 5 - PRINTOUT FEEDBACK 2

I printed out the new DPS spreads, and immediately spotted some printing errors with some of the type. Other feedback I got:

Page orders - After printing out the pages and stapling them in order, it made more sense having the colour key at the front and the tone of voice at the back.

Reorganizing contents page - Add more content to the contents page as well as align the studios with the titling or the left aligned grid.

Divider Styles - The style of the A-J divider spread is better than the K-S spread, the K-S spread’s cream eye pattern doesn’t print well on the white paper.

Grid spacing - The spacing between some of the imagery was uneven.

Page numbers - Add some

Colour key page - Try making it really big or making it really small, left align the key.

Reflection:

Intro

DPS in Context

I put some of the studios in the grid system and designs that I set up. In these new spread developments, I added more imagery to the spreads so that the viewer/reader would be able to get a good idea of the vibe from each studio. 

Dividers

I came up with two different styles of dividers for in-between the spreads. Both of these designs are inspired by the front cover. I tried one at the same position as the cover and one to the side, matching the logo on the ‘would be’ spine. 

New DPS

WEEK 4 -  PRINTOUT FEEDBACK

I printed out all the spreads I had and got feedback on things I could change.

Typography weight - some of the thin weight body copy don’t print correctly so I’m going to change the thin weighed type to regular weighted.

Icon sizing - make the icons smaller

Spacing -  some pages could be spaced closer or further

Design system - location and employee size could match the awards sections to bring in the design system more.

Add Page Numbers

Reflection:

Contents Ideation Sketches 

DPS Treatments

I came up with four different ways to organize the studio information, some with more information compared to other and I will print them out for feedback. Personally, I am thinking of using all four treatments in my directory BLAD so that it isn’t too repetitive when it comes to reading the publication.

Contents and Intro/Outro DPS Research

I made two mood boards to get inspiration for my additional spreads. I gathered a lot of contemporary styled/informational imagery as that is the aesthetic I want to go for.

For my contents spread I want to go for something more typographical and minimalist to match the inner spreads. Saying this, I would still like to experiment with different ways to use the type in that context.

Reworking the Grid

After the group presentation I went back to revisit the grid and rework the whole thing starting from the ground up. This is because Sophie (who was in charge of grids) did not use a proper grid to align her design and justify what she had on the spreads. Even though the end result of this grid was somewhat well done, it ended up lacking a strong and organized frame for the design. 

When reworking this grid, I sectioned it into 6 columns with a 3mm gutter and a 12mm margin. I left flexibility for the vertical aspect of the grid because I didn’t want to restrict myself too much. 

Sophie’s Layout:

My Layout:

Reformat Grid

Make Contents

Edit Cover

Feedback reflection and the plan forward

On Thursday 4th of August Patchwork Studios proposed our publishing brand identity: Odin’s Press. The presentation went well and we gained some valuable feedback from Becky and Paul as well as some of our peers, which I will definitely use for further individual development. I have listed down their feedback and highlighted some of the key words:

What we did well:

Clear communication in presentation

Visuals on markings is strong

Like thinking and branding for press. Vis language great.

Research strong.

Informed content - good > really content driven.

Really informative and functional content - directory. Studio Top Trumps - really feels like a directory

Black and white to break up content works well.

Use of key nice touch

Reflection:

It was good to hear what was going well and what was working. It reassured me that our work was a solid and strong foundation for further development in the next part of this project. The aim that we had for this directory was to highlight the studios in it and have a publishing brand that doesn’t distract from that - with the feedback I feel like we achieved this well. I will continue using all of the strong points that were noticed to make my individual work strong as well. I don’t think I need to change a lot as our design system was very strong and organized.

What needed work:

The colour dots needs to be played with more. Don’t know what it means until you said something in the presentation but if someone is not going to hear your presentation they wouldn’t know what is means.

Personas - good to have images of people - do we need to see what they are wearing and a bit of lifestyle? 

 Why not keep eye vertical on all spines? As is on cover. 

 Names of B&W colours nice touch, maybe less Viking and more to do with seeing?

Reflection:

Constructive feedback is always important for improving skills and designs so I am always happy to hear it. A lot of the constructive feedback we got was on smaller things which was good. This means that I can go in and easily fix things according to the feedback we got. I agree with a lot of the constructive criticism that we received. 

Things to consider:

You have gone for a very simple and clear look. Could maybe introduce a pattern? 

Could make the eye mark visually work with the type?

Going Forward:

Colour Revising for BLAD/Publishing Start-up

We ended up just scrapping the pink and green all together to have a more simplistic and refined look.

- Names based off the Odin theme

- Decided on these colours because we wanted the directory to be more of a delivery system for the information rather than the focus, that is why these colours are used in the publishing brand as well as the directory.