#contconcom1

Publication: Edition

After a long discussion over coffee, our group have decided on ‘Edition’ as the name of our publication. We believe this name encompasses what we want our publication to represent. Professionalism. Integrity. Cutting Edge design and a Contemporary view on the design scene.

Speaking to Textbook Studio

Earlier this week, myself and Kennedy had the pleasure of speaking with Vicky and Chris over at Textbook Studio in Islington Mill. We decided together that Textbook would be brilliant for our publication (and we were right).

Armed with loads of questions and ideas, we drove to Islington Mill (which is situated right around the corner, luckily for us!) You are greeted by what appears to be an unused old mill. Which is pretty much what it is, besides the ‘unused’ part, that is. Upon closer inspection, you can see this artefact of a building is teeming with creative life.

We spent over an hour talking and chatting about all things design. We recorded it all, and I unfortunately was lumbered with the task of transcribing the recording, all five-and-a-half-thousand words of it! Lots of great content for our publication though.

Whilst we were there, we took lots of photographs of the studio and Vicky & Chris at work (or at least pretending to do so for the camera). I’ve gone through them all, picked out my favourites and edited them. We made a joint decision to make them black and white, purely because we will be risographing the photographs, and black and white is the best format to do so.

Manchester’s Creative Playground

After a recommendation from one of my tutors, I’ve taken a look at Manchester’s Creative Playground, a (rather out of date) map of studios creative collectives from around Manchester. I must admit, quite a few of the organisations listed are no longer around (or at least they have changed their web address). 

I did, however come across three particular studios that I’m in love with. They are Glorious Creative, One 69a and Truth Creative. I’ve included a screenshot of their website(s) above.

This is really helpful, as our group is currently looking for design studios to feature in our publication. These three are serious contenders!

Source(s):

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zHV2xUI-Jotw.kyfj-hSEXlJ8&hl=en

http://www.gloriouscreative.co.uk

http://one69a.com

Irma Boom

Perhaps the greatest designer to come from the Netherlands. I admire her work and even more so, her attitude. Her recent TED X Talk is inspiring in more ways than one. I love her approach to work, and her apparent lack of remorse for her decisions.

I really like this book edging. The rough texture adds interest to what is in itself a very minimalist design for a book cover, she describes it as a ‘white block’.

Some of my favourite quotes from the talk:

“Don’t read briefings, you should just do whatever you like. It will always be better”

Font Pairings

One of the hardest parts of editorial design is pairing the right fonts. It’s important that what ever display font you choose for a title or heading must complement the body font (and vice versa). I stumbled across Just My Type in my research, and I’m eternally grateful. The website hosts a wide selection of beautiful font pairings. The cherry on the cake? The vast majority of them are hosted on TypeKit, which is included in my Adobe Creative Cloud membership!

Whilst I may not use any of these specific examples, it has definitely inspired me to come up with more creative font pairings in the future.

Source(s):

http://justmytype.co/hfj/

I’ve compiled a list of some tips and tricks for working with Adobe InDesign. These will come in handy when it comes to designing my publications, both for Fundamentals of Communication and Contemporary Contexts: Communication.

1. To make multiple objects the same size, first set the height and width of one object. Then select the remaining objects and choose Object> Transform Again> Transform Sequence Again Individually.

2. To live distribute, select multiple objects (frames or lines) that are in a row and then click and hold down a side handle of one of the outermost objects. Press the spacebar and then drag the side handle to increase/decrease space between objects vertically or horizontally. Try this with a corner handle to distribute the space between objects diagonally.

3. To create live corner effects, click the yellow square on the right side of any frame to activate Live Corners. Once activated, drag a yellow diamond to increase/decrease the corner effect. Opt/Alt-click the yellow diamond to cycle through the other corner styles. Opt/Alt-Shift-click to change just one corner.

4. To hide a selected object or objects, press Cmd-3 (Mac) or Ctrl-3 (PC). To show all hidden items, press Cmd-Opt-3 (Mac) or Ctrl-Alt-3 (PC).

5. To place multiple images on a grid, choose File>Place. Select as many images as you want to place. Choose Open. The cursor will show a thumbnail of the first image and the number of images loaded in the cursor.

6. To fit a frame to a graphic: Double-click a corner of an image frame. Or press Cmd-Opt-C (Mac).

7. To replace one image with another, choose File> Place to select an image. Then Option (Mac) or Alt (PC) click on an existing image on the layout you’d like to replace with the new one.

8. To apply an effect from one object to another, select the object that has the formatting you want. Then, drag the “FX” icon from the Effects panel onto the object that you want to format.

9. To apply the last color used on a new object, press comma (,).

10. To use the Photoshop colour picker, double-click the Fill or Stroke icon in the Swatches Panel (or on the Toolbar) to open the Color Picker.

11. To duplicate any page or spread, open the Pages Panel, and Option (Mac) or Alt (PC) drag the page. This works for document pages and master pages.

Source(s):

http://www.fluxconsulting.com/adobe-indesign-tips-tricks/

Jamie Oliver’s Brand Guidelines

Following on from my research into Christopher Doyle’s brand guidelines, I wanted to take a look at a real-world example. I came across a set of guidelines for the Jamie Oliver brand, I was quite surprised at just how specific the requirements are for his brand. The booklet, which is over 100 pages long, discusses at length about the size, colour and placement of the logo and other visuals.

I really like the simple and concise layout of the guidelines. Each section is clearly marked, and the pages themselves are helpful and clearly written. There are many aspects of these guidelines that will help us when we create our own. The CMYK colour palette page is specifically helpful as we will need to create our palette using colours that are available for us to use on the risograph machine. Similarly, I liked the style of the photography used in the booklet, which is created using two colours.

Source(s):

Christopher Doyle’s Identity Guidelines

We have decided to brand our publication. For this I think it’s important to consider how we can create a consistent image throughout the publication, using brand guidelines to restrict our creative choices. Whilst this may seem harsh and counter-prodocutive, it can actually make a piece of work more interesting. Guidelines ensure continuity between pieces of work (or pages, in the respect of this project), which is important when building a brand image.

Above is the cover of Christopher Doyle’s Identity Guidelines (2008). The book, which can be accessed using the link below, does a brilliant job of demonstrating how brand guidelines can be applied to almost anything. Doyle’s hoax guidelines touch on the basics in quite a humorous manner. There are several sections within, giving details on key identity formats, colour palettes and clearing space.

Though we are branding a publication and not a person, there are aspects of the book that will help us create our own guidelines. This, in turn, will ensure we keep our image and design choices consistent throughout our work.

Source(s):