OUGD504 - Brief 3 - Development: Cover [2]

OUGD504: Brief 3: Type In Context

Development: Cover [2]

FEEDBACK:

With a number on concepts developed for the cover of my publication I approached a range of students and tutors for feedback as to which concept they felt should be developed into a final cover design. The sample of students questioned all agreed the orange was bold and engaging, they loved the info decision making and felt it made the cover stand out. The students also agreed that the first concept (1) was not appropriate and wouldn't be engaging enough to attract an audience. 

There were positive comments towards the second concept (2) students said 'I really like the concept behind this and how you've made it contemrpary because I think actual stamps wouldn't have looked as good' another student said it looked 'very tumblr' which I didn't know whether to take as a positive or negative comment although with the target audience using tumblr as a form of social media demonstrates how it would appeal to them, 

Finally the third concept was praised for its creative and innovative features, students and tutors both liked the creativity of the two covers and the cut out creating more depth than a standard book cover. Comments included 'I really like the cut out illustration as it is intriguing  and playful similarly to the inside of the book'. Tutor comments included; ' I like the second design however I think this concept makes you think of Australia more and its just more playful' students said how this would appeal to the specialist target audience through the use of creative techniques and ultimately decided that this would be the most successful cover design in appealing to the audience. 

DEVELOPMENT: 

Deciding on a chosen concept to develop into a finalised cover design I started to experiment further with this concept, I created a prototype using standard card purchased from the college shop and laser cut the illustration into the black cover recognising that in commercial printing this would be die cut however the university does not have these facilities available to me. I acknowledged the limitations of the laser cutter as thick stock results in scorch marks however is far more time efficient than manual paper cutting and creates a far higher degree of accuracy. 

With a laser cut mock up complete I started to experiment with the positioning of the smaller cover, I initially imagined it centrally placed with equal space along the 3 exposed sides however through development with tutors and students found an offset positioning would be more effective in creating an engaging aesthetic that looks more creative and will appeal to the target audience. The offset design creates a more visually interesting aesthetic that will stand out in a crowded book store and is less conventional than a standard centre aligned publication. 

Still awaiting the arrival of the stock samples from GF Smith that I plan to produce my cover using, this development has given practise to the production of the cover so that it can be reproduced easily as a final resolution on the final stock. The use of mock ups was important as it would allow me to trial the design before producing it using expensive stock that I had a limited supply of.