Sam Dallyn - Kit Builder

I've had this link bookmarked for quite a while as I always thought it was appropriate to what I was doing but now I feel like it could have a place in my giant killer brief. I want to produce some sort of book that fans will want to collect. I initially want to create a book based on statistics, views and opinions based on the FA Cup clash versus Leeds United and Manchester United. A game that will be remembered for years to come that saw Leeds, a team steeped in success, and who had a financial meltdown, currently stuck in the third tier of english football. Manchester united entered the game with naivety and were duly shown the exit door by a team willing to fight for one another. Anyway, I digress...

I feel that some sort of wooden box packaging could give the product a more robust and special feel. I like the idea of etching a logo or quote into the front, by burning with the laser cutter. This rough and untreated wood works perfectly and ties in beautifully which could potentially portray an old rivalry still tainted by bitterness.

www.samdallyn.com

Making the most of the Easter period

I think its obvious to all that this time of the year, looking at the calendar, could be make or break in terms of managing time effectively. That means catching up with work I said I was going to do, studio visits, exhibitions, and looking at new briefs that will see me through until the module hand in.

I plan on use the time I have available to clear the decks of briefs that have gone on too long, but also prepare for the PPD presentation as well as generate content for that and the context brief. I plan to experiment a little with the screen printing workshops, and do some print finishes with the identities brief I have to make them more appealing in my portfolio, and tie them in more to my statement of intent by presenting them in a way that shows off my ability to work with stock and ink.

I need to plan time off and have days to myself or else I'm going to hinder my progress later, and I also need to plan for the future (where am I gonna go after this degree is done?).

My massive to do list is as follows

- Look into options for Wim Crouwel exhibition in London (Travel costs, ways to get there).

- Print basic stationery for Charlotte and Jeni

- Produce foil block business cards for Jeni

- Mock up boards for both briefs

- Think of more deliverables for Charlottes stationery (Notebook, pen, clipboard?)

- Start identity briefs for Anna and Nicole

- Send proofs to clients

- Continue to develop Decades posters for Pop-Up shop - look at different fonts, more vector shapes

- Rethink Giant Killer brief - what is it? what can it be?

- Get on top of context work - collect more interviews, quotes.

- Get last Flatland book made and bound. - do the presentation boards.

Design Context Discussion

What I’m doing

Case study into 3 printers – small, medium, large
- Look at differences in machinery, techniques and workload
- What papers they stock
- The processes they use
- Their clients
- The work they are most proud of
- Budgets – How budget affects delivery
- Fluctuation in finishes, what is popular?

Questionnaires to designers – 10 responses including detailed response from Stone Soup. – Studio Imagery, experiences.

Document type and layout – High, Mid, Low Spec print – examples on blog with critical analysis. For Print Only – good resource for costings of jobs.

Organise visit to Design Museum during Easter – Wim Crouwel (Dutch Graphic Designer)


Questions for context discussion


How should I approach questionnaires to designers?

Is there a limit on how many books or chapters? – One book on type, one book on print – bring them both together. Look at type for web delivery?

How can I crowbar football in here somewhere? – Pick football based graphics but can subject matter be irrelevant?

High Spec Print Finishes - Potential Chapter/Book

High spec print finishes
The use of print finishes should be confined to those who use them effectively?
Who uses them effectively?
How will fluctuating material costs affect the market?
Who uses high spec print?
Why use high spec print?
How will creative budget costs affect the implementation of costly print jobs?

I have covered most of these questions without really knowing. I feel that I need to really focus down my research to find effective examples of studios that use the finishes effectively, and also studios who don't. This is still subjective, but at present, I feel that the studios who use them simply for aesthetic value have to question why? Is it something that immediately impresses the end user, or is it something that designers want to use because foil blocking, spot varnishes and embossing techniques are popular.

Bookbinding methods
The appropriateness of bookbinding to design delivery should be considered
Why should we care about bookbinding?
How many methods are there?
How can binding help a print revival?
The effectiveness of machines/mass production binding versus the physical act of binding?
What value does binding add?
Where are you likely to be to play around with different binding methods?
What industries provide the best opportunities?
What materials could be used? to what effect?
Where do you source the materials?

My next set of questions should steer me to look into an area that is totally unfamiliar but only if I gain from it. How much do I need to know about bookbinding as a designer? Do i need to know of the specific techniques or do I just need to know how they look and feel once completed as part of a book.

Paper Back - Stock questions

For my design context work, I sprung on an opportunity to ask a couple of questions about the samples I had ordered from Paperback. I intended to use the Loop Milkweed range for one of my identity briefs.

Jan from Paperback contacted me by email this week to ask if the samples I received were ok, and I explained what I intended to use the paper for, and she agreed that it had the qualities I had looked for.

I asked how popular the range was when compared with the other papers they stock, and how much they offer and how much a pack of it would be so I could calculate the cost approximately to hypothetically budget my job.

Hi Adam,
The Loop range is a fairly new product for us, but Milkweed is certainly one of the more popular colours.
In 120gsm it comes in SRA2 and is packed in 250's
1 pack is £46.63 + VAT (delivered price)
Regards
Jan Kuiper

Team Impression

I'm in the middle of trying to sort out a visit to Team to see their equipment and ask some questions based on my investigation into print and process. I have seen some of their work before and are lucky enough to have their print and process book from 2004.

The print finishing and stock usage is the next step to build on my knowledge of printing. I also need to swat up on the basics before going to them because I need to find out things I genuinely have no idea of, so the more prepared I am, the more I can get out of it.

Shown here are typical examples of processes I know of but don't know enough about. What process is used for specific examples here, who can afford specialist finishes, and how the finishes themselves benefit clients.

Lukas Muellner

Really nice use of stock and specialist ink used here which caught my eye. I am a big fan of using greyboard and similar materials at the moment, similar to what I used on the Garry Barker publication brief.


This is a bound book which makes use of an unusual but effective colour scheme. This is the whole point why I should do much more colour experimentation because sometimes, particularly in cases like this I tend to use one colour or complimentary colours without considering other colour options.

Process Journal Four

Featuring:
Browns Design, Christopher Doyle, Toko, Give Up Art, Nice Device, KentLyons, Christian Shwartz, Build, Design Project, Tonatiuh Ambrosetti, Inhouse, Tom Munckton, Marque. As well as design responses from Clinton Duncan and Kate Nielsen.

Size: 96pp 300mm x 218mm

Production Process: 4 Colour Process Plus PMS 353U
Cover: 2 PMS Cover with Foil
Stock: Knight Vellum 120GSM page and Knight Linen 280GSM Cover
$25.00 + P&P

Another beautiful Process Journal. I'd love to hold one of these. The cover of all the editions follows a certain structure which aids the continuity. I love the binding. Binding tape with a hard cover printed board seems to be quite popular at the moment. The quality of the photography takes the spreads to the next level. Using 2 Pantone colours on the front cover plus a foil does seem quite extravagant, but the money will be brought in by selling these books at $25 each.

The spreads are quite safe in terms of design, but the quality of the print and stock will balance the journal effectively.

Print week Articles

In an attempt to get quotes for my context work and to gather an understanding of the print industry I have highlighted some articles found on the print week website.

Printers hit with new price rises
This article relates to the increased price of paper stock. Paper manufacturers are to release price increases due to energy and material costs of things like fuel for transportation and the materials such as raw pulp.
http://www.printweek.com/Consumables/article/1054284/printers-hit-new-price-rises/

Arctic paper raises paper prices
This article confirms that Arctic Paper will increase its prices for paper. The increase relates to the costs mentioned above as well as the impact on profitability. The total production capacity of the group's four paper mills is 810,000 metric tonnes of paper per year.
http://www.printweek.com/Printing/article/1054931/arctic-paper-raises-paper-prices/

Robert Horne launches Yupo Tako
This article relates to the release of a reusable paper film which can be stuck to any surface without adhesives. It is thought this film could change the way signage, and stickers are printed.
http://www.printweek.com/Consumables/article/1054378/robert-horne-launches-yupo-tako/

Experimental Jetset Interviews

Taken from AisleOne

Experimental Jetset is an Amsterdam graphic design unit founded in 1997 by Marieke Stolk, Erwin Brinkers and Danny van den Dungen. Focusing on printed matter and installation work and inspired by modernism and rock culture, Experimental Jetset has done work for clients such as the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum (SMCS), Purple Institute, Centre Pompidou, Colette, Dutch Post Group (TPG), Réunion des Musées Nationaux (RMN), Le Cent Quatre (104), De Theatercompagnie and t-shirt label 2K/Gingham. Since being formed, Experimental Jetset has emerged as one of the most respected studios in Europe.


Who or what turned you on to graphic design?
Definitely punk. Although we were too young to participate actively in the original punk explosion (we were preteens in 1977), we still feel it has had a very big impact on our lives. As teenagers, in the mid-eighties, we were completely absorbed by all kinds of post-punk movements: psychobilly, garage punk, new wave, two tone, American hardcore. What intrigued us was not only the music, but also the graphic manifestations of it: record sleeves, badges, patches, t-shirts, flyers, posters, magazines, band logos, mix tapes. We are absolutely sure that it were things such as these that stimulated our interest in graphic design.

Who or what are your influences?
Right now, we would say, modernism and rock culture.

These are seemingly complete opposites of each other, but the more we think about it, the more we realize they are quite similar. Both rock and modernism surfaced around the same time: blues music started in the second half of the 19th century in the US, while the first modernist movements (impressionism, art nouveau) began around that same time in Europe. Both rock culture and modernism refer to ‘primitive’ roots (African beats in rock music, African influences in Cubism), but they are both equally inspired by futurist visions (Ike Turner’s ‘Rocket 88′ is widely acknowledged as the first rock and roll song, while one of the earliest white rock and roll bands was Bill Haley and His Comets; just two examples to show the influence of technology and science fiction on rock and roll). Both modernism and rock culture have this hidden theme of class struggle: the unresolved tension between bourgeoisie and proletariat. In modernism, this theme entered through Marxism, while in rock culture, this theme has its roots in slave music. But most important of all, both modernism and rock investigate the various ways in which the individual can deal with modernity: praise it, embrace it, accept it, manipulate it or resist it. Sometimes they overlap (Pop Art), sometimes they clash (Adorno’s attacks on popular music). But all in all, we think modernism and rock culture are like twins, separated at birth. Rock and roll is American modernism.

What is your favorite typeface?
Some people might expect us to answer ‘Helvetica’ here, because this is a typeface we use often (but certainly not always). But we can’t honestly say that Helvetica is our favorite typeface, in the same way that we can’t really say that Dutch is our favorite language. Sure, Dutch is the language we use most commonly, and feels most natural to us. It is a language we feel emotionally attached to, and a language we are willing to defend. We not only speak Dutch, but also think it, and dream it. But that doesn’t mean that we necessarily think that Dutch is the most beautiful language. For example, we love Italian, because the words sound as if they are spit out, with great precision. Esperanto is a interesting language, because it is completely artificial as well as tragically beautiful. English is a great language, because it is so compact; the way adjectives can be used in English is almost magic. We adore the way Brazilians speak Portuguese; listening to Tropicalia songs, it’s hard not to fall in love with that language. So, in a way, all these languages can be considered as more beautiful than Dutch. But still, if we go to the bakery to buy a bread, we use Dutch. To order a bread in Esperanto would be nonsense. The way we use Helvetica can be compared to that. We use Helvetica not because it is our favorite typeface, but because we feel it is our mother tongue. It is our natural tone of voice, the typeface most close to us. If necessary, we use different typefaces, in the same way that we sometimes speak different languages (for example in this interview, done in English). But when it comes down to it, we speak Helvetica.

What is your favorite color palette to work with?
The color most dominant in our work is white. Or better said, the color most dominant in our work is the color of the paper. In most of our designs, we try to show the paper; this is really important to us. By showing the paper, we hope to give the viewer/reader a better understanding of the construction of graphic design. We try to design in such a way that the result is clearly recognizable as ‘just’ a piece of printed paper. We try not to catch the viewer/reader in some kind of illusion, or floating image; we want our work to be totally honest about its own materiality. It is a printed piece of paper, not an immaterial image.

Can you explain your creative process from brief to completion?
A lot of thinking, a lot of reading, a lot of talking, a lot of sketching. It’s just working very hard. We can’t describe it any other way.

Do you use a grid system when designing and how do you feel about them?
We use grids in our work, but we think we use them in a completely different way than, for example, Swiss late-modernist designers such as Josef Muller-Brockmann. Although we really admire grid-driven work, we wouldn’t dare to call ourselves proper gridniks.

In the second issue of French magazine ‘Ink’ (published by Superscript) we answered a long interview, solely about grids; so people interested in our detailed views about the grid should try to get a hold on that particular issue of ‘Ink’.
In that interview, we took a poster we designed (below) in 2003 as an example. It was a poster we designed as a contribution to ‘Public Address System’, a group exhibition that took place in the beginning of 2004 in London.

In short, the given theme of the exhibition was ‘speech’, or ‘spoken word’. We decided to make a poster showing a text by the writer Stefan Themerson: “My lord archbishop; your excellencies, your graces; my lords, ladies and gentlemen, men and women, children; embryos, if any; spermatozoa reclining at the edge of your chairs; all living cells; bacteria; viruses; molecules of air, and dust, and water… I feel much honoured in being asked to address you all, and to recite poetry — but I have no poetry to recite.” (What we liked about this text is that it is like one big introduction, an introduction that could be seen as the opening words of every speech in the exhibition). As you notice, Themerson’s text is quite hierarchical: it goes from large (‘archbishop’) to small (‘molecules’). So in our poster, we wanted to make this hierarchy clear, by putting all the words in the form of a list. In the middle of the paper, we put the list of nouns, from ‘archbishop’ to ‘molecules’. On the left, we put all the adjectives and prepositions (‘my’, ‘living’, etc.), and on the right, we put the conjunctions, adverbs, verbs etc. The actual grid that exists in the poster is completely dependent on the length of the words. The longest noun is ‘spermetozoa’, so this word determines the width of the middle column. The longest adjective is ‘all living’, so this word determines the width of the first column. And the longest word on the right column is ‘reclining’, so that determines the width of the third column. So what you have here is a completely irregular grid, each column in a different width. The first column is narrow, the second column is wide, and the third column is narrow, but not as narrow as the first column. The leading (the space between the lines) is determined by the simple rule that the descenders shouldn’t touch the ascenders. In the poster, this basically means that the word ‘graces’ shouldn’t touch the word ‘lords’. So all the leading in the poster is fully dependent on the relationship between those two words: ‘graces’ and ‘lords’.

So how we see it, here the grid is completely generated by the poem. If the writer would have written ‘sperm’ instead of ‘spermatozoa’, the whole grid would be different, and the whole poster would have looked completely different as well. The most important formal decision was the choice of the poem. Any other poem would have resulted in a completely different poster.

So that is, in short, the role that grids play in our work. Every situation results in its own grid. And those grids are often irregular, generated by language. Definitely not the way proper gridniks would do it.

Taken from Geotypografika

1. How do the Bauhaus ideals such as “form follows function” influence (or not influence) your design work? Do you take these teachings into consideration during your design process?

We really don’t see “form follows function” as a Bauhaus ideal! In the conclusion of Reyner Banham’s ‘Theory and Design in the First Machine Age’ (1960), Banham calls “forms follows function”, an empty jingle (more precisely, he calls it “Louis Sullivan’s empty jingle”), and an example of the “revival of 19th century determinism such as both Le Corbusier and Gropius had rejected”.

In other words, Banham sees “forms follow function” as something that goes AGAINST the true nature of Bauhaus (and other early modernist movements). For him, this emphasis on functionality is something that was projected onto Bauhaus much later, by late- and post-modernists. This narrow idea of functionalism neglects the more philosophical and conceptual (Banham would say spiritual and symbolist) ideals of Bauhaus. And we tend to agree.

If there’s one thing that we took from Bauhaus, it’s the spirit of making things. In that sense, it is specifically the founding Bauhaus manifesto that had a big influence on us. Take for example a sentence like “the world of the pattern-designer and applied artist, consisting only of drawing and painting, must become once again a world in which things are built”. This idea, of a world in which things are built, has a big influence on our work. We are not interested in creating images: we produce things.
From that same manifesto: “Let us therefore create a new guild of craftsmen without the class-distinctions that raise an arrogant barrier between craftsmen and artists!”. Another sentence that is really inspirational. Although written almost 100 years ago, it describes the role of the contemporary designer astonishingly well.

We really like the metaphor in the first sentence of the manifesto: “The ultimate aim of all creative activity is a building!”. Society as a building, as something being constructed continuously, through a collective creative activity.

2. How have the ideas of “New Typography,” introduced by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and furthered by Herbert Bayer (and his “Universal” type) found their way into your designs (or have they not)? What about the color theory studies
of Josef Albers?

As we wrote, we are especially inspired by the spirit of the original manifesto. All the individual theories (colour theory etc.) we see more as specific applications of that particular spirit. Applications that were often very specific for particular contexts and situations. So, even though we do think that our own design work is a manifestation of the Bauhaus spirit, the way we apply it is very different, because we are dealing with our own specific contexts and situations.

3. How do you feel the Bauhaus’ modernist aesthetics are influencing other graphic designers in our world today?

We think that all these young students and designers that you see nowadays, on websites such as FFFFound, Flickr and MySpace, holding their posters proudly in front of them, are the true heirs of Bauhaus. This current DIY/punk explosion, of stencilled posters, bright geometric shapes, homemade shirts, etc. etc. : it really is a manifestation of the Bauhaus spirit, of this idea of shaping your environment through creativity, in a very direct way. Actually, we were recently interviewed by this New York weblog called AisleOne. In that interview, we spoke in more detail about our thoughts on this whole FFFFound phenomenon, and how it relates to early modernism.
To read it, go here and scroll to the question ‘who do you feel is currently doing innovative work?’

Charlotte Taylor identity

For my second identity and stationery set of this brief, I have produced these mock ups for producer Charlotte Taylor. The colour palette was selected by Charlotte and I have also added in a few colours of my own based on the feedback she gave me in our first meeting.

The identity, which has been signed off, is reminiscent of the pattern of the film board used between shoots. It also represents Charlottes forward thinking and planning as part of the production work. The movement in the symbol shows Charlotte as proactive and driven. The type has been spaced to portray Charlotte as open and honest.

The typeface used for the identity is Brandon Grotesk, and the copy is in Gill Sans.

Charlotte suggested using an emboss on the logo for the business card but I felt this was a little unneeded and could impact on the back of the design. I started to think about how we could make the icon stand out and feel special so I suggested either a metallic gold ink, or foil block of that particular area.

Here are some of the variations I did for the basics of the stationery.

Open publication - Free publishing

Open publication - Free publishing

Open publication - Free publishing

More year book variations

Here are yet more yearbook variations. I'm happy with the way these layouts are going, and I hope the course team can see that the structure we have in place is effective and easily interchangeable.

Open publication - Free publishing - More spreads

Decades poster prints - Pop Up Shop

This is the first in a range of three different prints for the pop up shop. I have used popular iconography of the period to formulate typography as image. I plan to print these on different coloured stocks and sell them in the next pop-up shop.

I have no idea on budget for these yet but I expect they will sell for around £10 each depending on the people that attend.

The first poster has taken an incredibly long time to produce due to the detail needed for the vectors. Vectors have taken any where between 1 minute to 1 hour.

Leeds Loves Creativity

Quick Sunday brief for me to bang out and move on from. I was interested in this briefing just because I'd seen the other identities done as part of the Leeds Loves range and I felt it would be good for my CV even if the work doesn't make my portfolio.

After attending the briefing it was clear that there were brand guidelines and restrictions I had to follow, which were quite strict but it also narrowed down the possibilities available and allowed me to focus my attention in a short space of time.

Based on the existing identities for the Leeds Love brand I wanted to create something fairly simplistic and safe. I introduced a new Pantone colour yellow to add to the palette of colours they are using for the brand. They had a blue, orange, green and purple so I felt the obvious choice was yellow.

Open publication - Free publishing - More bagd

I think if I had more time I may have challenged the brief a little more but I felt that this is the kind of thing they would have wanted from the off.

Charlotte Taylor - feedback from client and development

This is the response I got from Charlotte. I expected the font would have been a little masculine, but I wanted her to come across as a decision maker.

Hi Adam,

I like the approach that your taking, your right about the role of a producer, so your design for the Business card illustrates this spot on. I really like the simplistic layout although I am a little unsure of the font which my name is in, only because of the work which I may want to get involved in. I think it's a little intimidating which may not be the right approach if I want to work on a sensitive documentary. For instance, at the moment I am working with a local disability and self harm group who I am making a documentary for, so for jobs like these I would want to come across as a leader/professional but at the same time compassionate/warm. Is there anything slightly more subtle but still effective at showing all the attributes I mentioned earlier? I think the business card is well balanced in relation to portraying myself as both a high/low budget film maker, so in that respect it is not intimidating at all.

I am wondering whether I should also state that I am an editor on the business card, because I suppose potential employers should know this too. (So an essence of creativity might be necessary....?) I had initial concern about doing this because I don't want employers to think I am confused about my title. However, I have worked with clients before and have managed projects, but sometimes I have just edited documentaries for clients. Therefore, in the future I don't want to limit the jobs I might be offered, due to not stating this on my business card. From your experience researching into business cards, do you think stating both titles is a bad/good idea?

Colour re: I really like the darker colour too for the business card it draws more attention to my details and looks professional.

Hope this isn't too painful for you, get back to me if you need more info. Alternatively if you find it easier talking in person or over the phone let me know.

I went revisited the identity and started again. I felt the uppercase type was necessary because she was the product in this instance. I wanted to sell her skills rather than her work. I looked at a few possibilities before pitching back the clacker board concept.

Hi Charlotte,

I'm working in york tomorrow, and I'd like some feedback so I can make
changes and create the rest of the range over the weekend. The icon
that compliments the typography is a film clapperboard pattern and
also resembles arrows so could represent you as forward thinking, a
planner or someone who moves a project forward with your ideas.

I can do colour variations so you can pick and choose what you want to
print and then we'll look at the rest later.

Thanks,

Adam

Open publication - Free publishing - More bagd

I suggested that a foil or a metallic gold ink be applied to the logo/icon as Charlotte suggested there could be a budget for these. I will wait to see what happens.

Yearbook Photos

I want to select appropriate typographic driven work connected with a variety of content. I think these images show my focus.

Todays Crit

I was happy with todays crit. I felt like I had a little bit of a slow week in terms of progress because I'm in the studio and then I'm in York and my time seems to just go so quickly. That will be rectified over Easter when I sort out my back log of work, but I was happy with the progress I made prior to this weeks crit.

Questions

Should I consider specialist print finishes for identities even though the students don't have the budget?

Should I consider more iconography for the decades brief or do the duplicates look ok?

What stock (from the pamo book) would you use for the flatland pages?

Any other general issues with any of the briefs here?

Here are the issues raised in relation to my questions.

The feedback helped me clarify what I need to do and decisions I have to make. One group suggested that I should consider a low, medium and high budget resolution for the identities, which is something that could potentially work. I want to create some high budget business cards for the identities brief during easter so I can use them in my portfolio to communicate my consideration of the use of foils and spot varnishes, as well as stock.

Contacting studios for Context brief

After my discussion with Fred I decided to take the plunge and send out my questionnaires to design agencies both local and national and international. The screen shots show how many I emails I sent in two sittings.

None of the agencies here got back to me. I appreciate how busy they are but I don't think there is much of an excuse. Next time I think I will try a little harder and get names of designers and ring up prior to sending the email, and hopefully I'll get a better result.

Installation shot

Year Book Meeting Four

Year book meetings in the past have progressed well, we have always been prepared and presented our work throughout. We have been upfront about what is possible and what isn't. The interdisciplinary course had a habit of bringing new people to each meeting, something that initially did not prove a problem, however, this week it became tiresome because we were going over old ground, discussing reasoning for our actions and arguing points that had been ironed out weeks ago.

I recognise that there were always going to be issues but this is not what we needed when we had progressed well. We were asked about the copy on the profile pages and where the flexibilities would be for that, because the tutor wanted to get the students to right creatively about themselves and add quotes and titles. I quickly attempted to put a stop to any further changes to layouts at this stage as we had a structure we were working to that complimented the course and the concept we had.

Other changes were also voiced which were less troublesome, like the insertion of captions to the images we had, which was something we had also discussed previously and the students themselves had rejected.

I recognise that this is the way it is when you are working with clients. We just need to make sure we are not being messed around, particularly when the deadline for the proposal boards is next week.

Other than that we had the course team select the appropriate pantone colour swatches they wanted and also showed them the improved layouts which they were impressed with.

Jennifer Sargeant Identity

This identity has been sat in the to do pile for a while now, mainly because of complications over stock and colours. Jeni hasn't been as proactive in coming forward with feedback and colour choices so I have been waiting to test some stocks before questioning the budget on this print run. The budget was minimal so the expensive stocks have been shelved in favour of colour.

I felt that the black wasn't really portraying her work in the way she wanted. It came across as quite ruthless and lacked the delicacy of her work.

I decided to look back at the compliment slip, letterhead, and business card as well as the envelope which will be printed later. The business cards make use of darker, earthy tones which Jeni requested in the first meeting.

Open publication - Free publishing - More bagd

Open publication - Free publishing

Open publication - Free publishing

A website was also mocked up as part of the promotional material.

Year book spreads development

These are the developments for the yearbook spreads. We were conscious of that Rockwell font ever since we chose to go with it and began implementing it in the other spreads. Rockwell is difficult font to work with because for however strong it looks one way it could look awful in another way.

I started the hunt for a new font that didn't have so much impact. After all, when we approached the course we wanted to make the book more about the work, and we felt this font was just too distracting. The newly selected font, Futura, has less definition in its weight and curves so it disappears into the spread much more than Rockwell, which was heavy and weight by the slab serifs.

Here are the development spreads for the profile pages. With the structure we have in place we can move the profile module around the page to suit the imagery we receive.

Open publication - Free publishing - More bagd

The quotes spreads are working significantly better with the new font, currently Futura.

Open publication - Free publishing - More developments

Leeds Loves Creativity Briefing

I attended the briefing for the Leeds Loves Creativity identity design. Steve Smith took the briefing and I felt that there was not much that could be done for the new identity. Essentially a new colour and icon could be introduced.

He stated he wanted one A3 presentation board but I wanted to show the logo working in context so I will design two boards. One will be the impact board and the second will show the logo in context.

Here are the brand guidelines, which I have flicked through to get an idea of what has gone before. It is pretty restrictive but I am sure I can do something in a few hours. Branding guidelines are presented below.

Open publication - Free publishing - More bagd

LCA Pop-up Shop

I decided to enter a series of prints for the LCA pop-up shop in May. I am still unsure whether my pitch will be accepted but I have wanted to do a series of prints for a while without the complications of designing a full range. This is very much a self-initiated brief. I have written up a quick brief to contextualise what I intend to do.

The deadline is Monday 21st for proposals so I intend to do these quickly and develop them during April ready for the shop in May. I plan to screen print editions of 20 on colour plan but it might have to be budget college coloured paper.

Open publication - Free publishing - More brief

Charlotte Taylor - First proposals

I have sent these first draft finals to the client to get feedback. I am unsure what see will make of the font.

This is what I sent..

Hi Charlotte,

I have attached a few business card variations here. I started to
research into what producers actually do, and what you originally
wanted the stationery to portray. I thought because you will be
supplying your business card to people within industry, you don't
necessarily want to portray yourself as a brand or company so I wanted
to concentrate on selecting an appropriate font that would portray the
characteristics you want to convey to your audience (honest,
professional, etc) .

On the back of my findings into producers I found that the job
requires decision making, forward thinking, managing people and
confidence so I went for a bold font which in a weight which makes a
statement, and the underscore which is traditionally used to attract
attention.

Please let me know if I'm going down the wrong path, and need to
change the direction. I think we could try different colour
combinations for the three different cards you want but right now I'm
trying to get something that will work with the business card and then
can be applied to a letterhead amongst other things. The reverse side
has the underscore repeated to reinforce the attention.

Open publication - Free publishing - More bagd

Year Book Pitch/Proposals and Discussion with Joe & Lorenzo

Today, myself, Dan & Luke pitched back our ideas for the interdisciplinary year book to other groups also working on year books. We discussed everything we had with the client in terms of the concept we are using for the book, the structure and deadlines we have imposed and the communication we have had with the client. Judging by the problems some of the other groups have had with their assigned books has assured us that we are on the right track, and that we are on time in terms of deadlines.

We were the only group under budget which was obviously down to how pages and copies we needed, but we know we can work with the extra budget we have left over to insert the gatefold we want on the cover. We made a conscientious decision not to go over the top with foils and specialist inks because we felt it was unneeded, unless we wanted the finish to portray a particular message.

Our discussions with Joe and Lorenzo went well, although Lorenzo wasn't keen on some of the typography decisions. This isn't a massive issue as we are updating the designs week on week until we are happy. They were happy with our ideas but urged us to be on top of the designing and organising the installation for the cover. We also need to make sure we art direct the shoot on the front cover so that there is adequate room to fit the image on the cover and have the space to run the image along the gatefold.

Little things such as the page numbers need addressing to fit inside the grid, and we need to make sure any images are resized before they are placed in the InDesign document. All of which will be taken care of in good time.

All in all everyone was happy. All we need to do now is persuade everyone to use our stock

What does a producer do?

Obviously the role of the graphic designer involves research into things one knows nothing about. Part of the task is to get enthusiastic about what they do and portray them accurately at the same time.

This research involved finding out what Charlotte does and how I can communicate that. This information made me think a little more laterally about the subject. I didn't want to create the obvious resolution but I wanted it to be recognisable when out of context.

Charlotte Taylor initial

I did a quick brainstorm about what Charlotte wanted from her identity. It was important to point out these requirements before worked could begin because I need to take these into consideration and represent her in the appropriate way.

I also looked at possible colour options and noted down the cmyk values for the colours she supplied.

Next thing on the to-do list is to find out what a producer actually does.

Book Binding research

For the Year book brief and my flatland brief, I decided to check out some books of binding techniques and found this great book which is filled with everything you need to know about publishing. It even had a set by set guide to produce a hardback book, which I used for the Flatland covers.

Charlotte Taylor - Email reply to discuss brief

I had some more interest in the identity brief I had set so I quickly fired off some questions and got a reply this morning from Charlotte. This month is a little full due to my internship so this brief might have to sit on the back burner for a while.

Hi Adam

Sorry it has taken so long with the dissertation and all ive been really busy. Are you still able to do it? How long would this usually take?

My answers are below,

First explain what you do? What's your potential job title?
Producer factual production
What are your aspirations are?
My aspiration is to offer each client high end video production specific to their needs and at an affordable price. (Maybe this needs some work!! Ill think of a better way to put it)

What attributes would you want your brand to portray? sophistication,
high or low budget, professionalism etc, etc.
First and foremost I would like it to look professional, quite simplistic and sophisticated, but it must also portray an element of affordability.

What audiences are you trying to reach?
Audience is important, I would like my service to be accessable to both low/high budget projects. So, although I want to come across as being sophisticated and professional, at the same time I dont want to alienate some groups, so a balance is important.

Any thoughts on colour?
I quite like the idea of having 3 sets of business card colours which compliment each other but all have the same design. (If that makes sense??) I have attached a combination of colours which interest me. Im not sure about text colour maybe that should stay black, but then I can see the alternative colours in the combo used for text.

Again, this feels straight forward. I will fire off some proofs as soon as I have a minute and then do any changes if necessary.

Flatland - position evaluation

After my tutorial with Fred I have decided to finish my current brief for the Flatland book and concentrate on delivering the book to the best possible finish. I will then split the brief, and concentrate on the promotion of the book in another brief. This is partly to make it easier for myself, so I don't have to worry about delivering too much to a tight deadline and letting the quality of my work suffer as a result and also to ensure I can clearly see what deliverables I need to deliver and when. It makes my job much more effective in terms of time management, and allows me to put the new brief aside if I want to.

Other briefs on the go include the identities brief and the year book brief. The identities brief isn't progressing as much as I would have liked but I haven't spent the bulk of my time on it anyway. I intend to finish one identity and stationery pack soon so it can be signed off with the client, in the mean time I have been waiting for paper samples that the client will prefer to the pastel colours I showed her previously. The other identity I have going needs some more attention as the client wasn't happy with how the mark portrayed her.

The year book progress is flying. We have a structure in place and we have a concept and ideas we are happy with. Numerous proofs have been presented to the client and we now have content to work with. We have had quotes through as well as stock samples so we are moving in the right direction.

Evaluation point

At this point in time I really need to think more laterally about the briefs I have. I need to experiment with colour and stock much more and stop relying on white paper with a 4 colour process (flatland). For this I need to learn more about stock and colour options I have. I've started researching into various stocks and ordering stock samples which are to help me complete the briefs I have. I'm looking at natural, satin and matt stocks at present to see how they hold and retain ink, how they display imagery and so on.

Of the briefs I have completed or near too completing, the Garry Barker brief is the one I feel has the strongest outcome. The Flatland brief has the potential to be as strong but my lack of knowledge and practice in print processes, stock usage is hindering the outcome. I need to think beyond the boundaries of what I know already and start to pull in new knowledge to help take the brief deliverables to the next level.

Collaboration is proving to be a double edged sword, and I've seen the good and bad parts of it in the last two weeks. One minute I fear for the project, and the next I feel that we have a great system in place. We couldn't ask for a better course to be involved with and the deadlines have all been met so far. The cover will make or break the project, so we need to have secondary systems in place if the whole thing goes wrong. I think we have a good working relationship in the team and no-one backs down to suit anybody which is frustrating at times but will make the outcome better at the end.

The context work is bubbling under the surface. I have sent out questionnaires to around 40 agencies, and I will hope that some of them will come back to me sooner rather than later. I am also hoping to get as much information, knowledge and experience from my internship with The Beautiful Meme. I have already learned a lot in the short space of time I have been there. I've got to see print samples and stocks up close and also worked with real budgets. I am still trying to find where I fit though.

The remainder of my time is to be spent on the briefs I need to finish before and during easter including a new brief I want to start and pitch to the pop up shop. I've worked incredibly hard so far and I don't want to take it easy now. I can't afford too.

Action Plan

New Action plan for the coming week

Open publication - Free publishing - More action plan

GF Smith - Colourplan

I order some colourplan samples from GF Smith recently too to build up my growing supply. This time it was for the Giant Killers brief. Although I want some uncoated, tactile, vintage looking paper for the main content, I also wanted to experiment with one colour prints on colour paper. I am unsure how or what it will be but I got a selection of papers to looking at. I am more interested in the weight and finish at the minute.

Arctic Papers

I picked up some great samples from Arctic Paper. They have a speedy paper sample service which has allowed me to get papers for the year book and for the flatland book brief.

I order samples of the Arctic Matt and graphic papers, and I also got a massive book of book papers, as well as a range of munken swatches. These will not only come in handy to show the interdisciplinary course but will also come in really handy when I need to specify a stock for a particular brief.

Paper Back

More samples came through the post for me today, which I was very happy with. I have been looking for more tactile paper stocks for my identity brief, particularly for Jeni Sargeant who requested something with a bit of texture.

I got some natural stocks in SRA2, A4 and even envelopes. I will post my thoughts, as well as pictures later.