OUGD406: Speaking from experience

CONCEPT:
A set of minimal text based posters, providing inspiration and motivation to first year graphic design students. The tone of voice will be informative. 

MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES:

If you’re going through hell, keep going.

Believe in your self.

A creative mind is motivated by the desire to achieve, not to beat others.

If you can dream it you can achieve it.

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.

Even if you fall on your face, you’re still moving forward.

What you plant now, you can harvest later.

Either you run the day, or the day runs you.

By failing to prepare, prepare to fail

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

Always desire to learn something new.

Failure leads to success.

Things don’t just happen. Things are made to happen.

Opportunity does not knock, it presents it’s self when you beat the door down.

Well done is better than well said.

Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.

Doing today will improve tomorrow.

It’s always too early to quit.

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

Winners never quit/quitters never win.

Set goals and smash them.

The most effective way to do it, is to do it.

Go big or go home.

I can, therefore I am.

Avoid looking forward or backward, look upwards.

If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not trying.

Be the round peg in the square hole.

Be all you can be.

Success feels good.


TYPE EXPERIMENTS:

As i wanted my posters to look authentic i wanted to use a san serif block typeface. I tried a number of different typefaces so i could pick the most appropriate. being able to see them all side by side with all the same letters and words really helped me when it came to picking the best one. Although because some of them were so similar it was hard to chose between certain ones.

LOGO DESIGN:

Here are some of the logo ideas i created on illustrator, to feature on my posters. I decided to incorporate a logo on to the posters so they all look consistent and work as a set. I got the inspiration for this style of design from my research in to logos. I really like the middle 2. I think they are simple and stylish, just the look i am going for. I am not sure how i am going to incorporate them in to my final designs yet.

POSTER DESIGN:

I felt that this poster was too boring and plain. I don't think it fulfils my brief as it isn't decorative enough.

The poster with a logo. I think this is an improvement, however i think i may have made the idea a little bit too simple.

At this stage i decided to add a boarder to the text, this is my favourite layout so far however i still think the poster is lacking some colour and vibrance.

PATTERNS:

I started to look at pattern designs, to add to the posters to make them look more vibrant and engaging. I was inspired by the colours of a piece of design from my research.

(from research)

(from research)

(from research)

I was really influenced by the layout of the secret 7" layout. I liked the bold black frames encasing the information and the bright colourful background.

I started to create different vector shapes using illustrator in order to make patterns with.

REVISED LOGO:

REVISED POSTERS:

I think this poster is a lot more fun and vibrant. I really like the bright colours and the format works well.

HOTDOG BOOK:

FRONT:

BACK: 

FINAL DESIGNS:

The posters are printed double sided when place in a bright place the pattern on the back shines through the paper.

This is the postal tube designed to store the posters in.

OUGD404 Design Principles; What is a book? 10 Things Publication.

10 things

Here are the 10 things that i decided you should know about graphic design:

1. GRAPHIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES: Learn the rules of graphic design, but don't be afraid to challenge and break them.

2. VISUAL LITERACY: Understanding the visual language of design is really important. synecdoche, metaphor and metonymy.

3.SEMIOTICS: Semiotics plays a massive role within Graphic design. To break it down, it includes a sign, signifier and symbol. Remember the three ‘s’ words of semiotics.

4. FUNDAMENTALS OF ANATOMY OF TYPE: cross bar, stem, terminal. Learning the anatomy of type and related jargon will really help you to understand typography and its purpose.

5. TYPE CLASSES: As a graphic designer, it is imperitive that you pick the right catagory of type for the right purpose. e.g. block type for headers and titles. Making the wrong choice can seriously reduce the legibility and readabilty.

6. FONT VS TYPOGRAPHY: Learning the differences is important as a graphic designer as typography plays a vital role.

7. LEGIBILITY AND READABILITY: Graphic design is all about communicating and sending out a message, but does something have to be legible and readable in order to do so?

8. CMYK & RGB: It is important to know the differences, what they do, how they work and when to use them.

9. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY RESEARCH: Research is paramount to everything you do as a graphic designer, it helps form the basis of your entire brief. it can also help to motivate and stimulate idea generation. Knowing the difference between the two is very important so that you can have the most varied and wide range of research possible.

10. MAKE MISTAKES: making mistakes is what we learn from, if we are to scared to try new things, then we will never progress.

Initial thumbnail double page ideas:

I have decided to make my publication 400mm by 400mm, i really like square books, i have never made a publication with in a square so it will be an interesting challenge. I have chosen to use one column with a magian, gutter and bleed line of 20mm

I think this simple page size and layout gives me lots of scope to be creative and imaginative with my layouts.

some digital mock ups:

I have decided to use this grid across all of my pages the left column shows the page number as well as adding information on what the page is about. This grid used across all of my pages will help to add cohesiveness and uniformity across all the double page speads. I think it also allows me to be more creative and diverse with the spreads as this will help tie them all together.

this is a simple yet effective layout, it is clear and concise. i will used this layout when i need to convey important infomation to the audience.

This layout is again clear and concise, but provides a bit more entertainment to the eye, with the image grids and vertical headers.

throughout my publication i also want to have some pages that don't follow  grid. 

I thought that readability and legibility would be a great page to do this with. The over lapping text helps to portray the message of illegible inaudible type. I am really pleased with this page.

I really like this page, it follows a grid but breaks the gutter lines at the same time. It is uniformed but breaking rules simultaneously.

I had some problem when printing my publication as I only have a a4 scanner, therefore i had to print it half the size, however i think it still works well. Over all i am happy with this publication i think i have worked productively to show my knowledge and understanding of columns, grids and page layouts. If i was to do this brief again, obviously i would print it to the correct scale, but i would also try and experiment more using a greater number of columns.

Final publication: