Studio Brief 3 - Development

Studio Brief 3 - Design Processes, Page Layout (Indesign)

Development

Having created a range of initial ideas informed by my research, I felt confident enough in my initial concepts to develop them in a digital medium in order to create my final page layout designs. 

Covers; 
Following on from my plan I started by choosing a bold block colour for the background of the page. I experimented with the colours of the olympic rings however found these to be too bland as they include primary and secondary colours. I then looked back to my initial research from Studio Brief 2, As the content of the book is based on the London 2012 Olympic games I then researched the branding and found a luminous pink was frequently used within the campaign. When I tested this as a aground colour I thought it worked really well as it stood out as unique and different yet reinforced the content of the book in a subtle and innovative manner. 

I added text in Helvetica which worked extremely well in black contrasted against the luminous pink background, I tested the sub-title in white and black however thought it made the page look more interesting with a 3 colour swatch as it brightened the overall aesthetic. I then added the heptagonal shaped to create my first attempt of a finished design (seen below).

I then experimented with the design of the heptagonal shaped, filling in a random selection of the shapes with my swatch colours of black and white to create an unique pattern that is abstract yet structured (below left). I liked this design however when I asked for feedback from lecturers and students they asked if the pattern represented anything, this added a layer of confusion which made then less sure on the design, one comment included 'I like the design but I don't get the coloured in 50p's, do they mean anything?'. I also experimented with filling all of the heptagons in again in a random pattern (below right) however all the comments regarding this design were negative with the most common being 'Its way too busy'. From this I then selected the first variation of my design (seen above) as the final design as I feel its minimal look is very modernist by nature and its aesthetic is bold and contemporary. 

Words page; 

I had a vision for the words page to be used as an inside cover, I felt this would work best as  there was not a lot of content and it wouldn't make a particularly interesting spread. For this I asked my designed the page as a printers spread instead of a readers spread this meant that half of the spread would feature on at the front of the book as an inside cover and the other half would feature as the very last page before the back cover. I thought this worked especially well as it works as a nice subtle introduction to the book. I used the design of this page to reinforce my three colour swatch of pink (Pantone 226C) Black (Pantone Black 6C) and White (Pantone 663C). I like this 3 swatch colour scheme as the black and white is of a typically modernist nature however the pink is bold luminous and fresh, it brings the pages to life and is relatively unusual to see the colour void of any gender connotation. I then started experimenting with the placement of text, I initially placed placed my words top left justified left as this is another modernist trend I tried to incorporate within my designs. I used Helvetica as I decided this would be my body copy throughout due to its connotations of modernist design. To make the design seem more contemporary I then experimented with the leading and found that it looked best with the words overlapping in different colours so they were still legible. I think the final design looks contemporary and bold with the use of the block fill black to contrast against the luminous pink of the front cover. 

Coins page; 

For the coins page I wanted the layout to reflect the content. As there were 30 coins commissioned by the royal mint I placed 30 heptagons around the text to symbolise the 30 commissioned coins. I then experimented with the arrangement of the coins and found that the layout looked best with the coins in a clean rectangle with the text extending into the white space creating an edgy look that is contemporary yet still fits the modernist theme. For the imagery I had a vague idea of what I wanted the imagery to look like, I envisioned a repeat pattern all over the page of coins featuring a selection of the coins depicting different olympic events. I created this in Photoshop and imported it as a TIFF to Indesign as this is the best file type to preserve the file quality. I experimented with 2 versions of this design one filling the while left page of the spread as a full bleed image (seen below left) the other conforming to Tschicholds canon (below right). I then asked a range of students for their opinions and found the second variation using Tschicholds canon was the most popular with comments including 'I like the use of white space surrounding the imagery'. I am happy with the final design of this page as it fits to modernist principles yet has subtle variations that makes the design unique. 

Quotes page; 

My quotes page was follows my initial plan well, I have used a full bleed image photoshopped to incorporate the colours of my swatch, this is then contrasted against the stark white right side of the spread, The white space juxtaposes the black background of the imagery with the pink adds a bold splash of colour that prevents the page from looking dull at a glance.  I have photoshopped the image of Usain bolt in photoshop, the original was full colour and not very aesthetically pleasing in terms of a design style, I experimented with photo filers and effects until I created this dramatic monochrome image, the athletic features of bold are accentuated through the light shining onto his muscles. even though the image is  relatively difficult to see at glance the shirt clearly says the athletes name allowing the reader to understand the relevance of the picture even at a glance. I have aligned the text with focus points in the picture for example the body copy is lined up with the athletes pointing hand across his chest, I feel this balances the image well creating an aesthetically pleasing layout. The main focus points of the spread fit within Tschicholds canon creating a consistency throughout the pages. 

Facts page;

Similarly to my quotes page, my facts facts flowed naturally from my initial plan. I started by drawing Tschicholds canon to fill the spread, I then filled created a test plan filling the image to the bottom of the text boxes on the page (roughly 3/4) page full, I then created a text fox full of placeholder text to get an idea of what the final layout would look like. I liked the results so decided to continue with this concept. I searched for a range of images I could use for the large image and was instantly attracted to an artists poster by Rachel Whiteread commissioned to celebrate the 2012 games. Initially I intended to find an image to and manipulate it using photoshop to make it unique however I thought this image worked really well so decided to use it as my main image (the only small manipulation I made was altering the background from cream to as a slightly off white as then allowed to to flow seamlessly into the text at the bottom at a glance. As I used the artists image I also quoted the artist in the bottom right corner. I then split the text box at the bottom into 4 columns as this looked aesthetically pleasing and very modernist, I filled this with my facts to create my final page design. I am happy with the design as the imagery is striking and creative, although it contrasts with the strict nature of modernist design the columned grid balances this well. 

Statistics page;

For my statistics page I wanted to follow a strict grid, similarly to the rest of my pages I followed Tschicholds canon to create a bold modernist feel to my design. I wanted to incorporate a large heptagon to reinforce the coins the content originated from. At first I created the outline in the pink from my pallet and a variation with a block fill heptagon. I knew the block fill worked best as it was bold and vibrant however I felt it lacked detail, I trailed a series of variation incorporating the queens head as this is the common feature on all coins. My first variation (variation 1) was to photoshop a cast of the queens head onto the heptagon however this was quite photographic and it didn't work with the vector style heptagon illustration. The second variation (variation 2) I used a silhouette of the queens head against the bold fill which created an instantly bold and graphic illustration. I asked a range of students which design they preferred and similarly to my personal oppinion the  bold illustration (2nd variation) was the most popular. The text is standard to the rest of my layouts with a 22pt body copy of Helvetica Neue light in black and a larger Helvetica Neue bold in pink for the titles. 

Variation 1

Variation 2 

Opinions page;

Typical Modernist design uses photography for its objective nature, with this page layout I wanted to demonstrate this principle. As the page content was on opinions I thought about how opinions are unique to the personal, when brainstorming unique features I thought of fingerprints, this lead to the basis of my design. I used Acrylic paint to create a range of my own fingerprints, I then scanned the best results in at 12000 DPI to increate the size of the image however because the image was so small a small amount of distortion still occurred. I then manipulated this in photoshop creating a monochrome image with a high contrast to increate the depth of the blacks. I anchored this with the text 'my opinion is MINE' as I felt this would reinforce the opinions content and create a clear link between the fingerprint and the text. I then experimented with the position of the text and image on the page, I found that the image fitted well within Tschicholds canon and the body copy mirrored this with the 2 columns both aligning with points in the canon. I was happy with the outcome of this layout as I felt it the aesthetic was very modernist yet it still remained contemporary and unique with the use of the bold pink to raise elements of the layout. 

Overall I am extremely happy with the result of my developments, Each page is different and unique yet the publication still flows sue to the standardised features such as body copy, swatch and grid. There are a number of typically modernist features present throughout my designs for example the use of black and white, an abundance of white space and the use of Jan Tschichold's canon that can be applied to every page however these features are complemented by unique quirks that make the design unique and innovative for example the use of bold luminous pink and the use of illustrations and bold artwork instead of the typical objective photography.