OUGD404 - Self-Evaluation

Type Journal

I am almost certain that the typeface used in the centre of this sticker is Lobster. Some of the characters have been edited. This typeface is a mixture of script and sans serif which I think is really interesting. 

I have noticed a trend within design at the moment. it is evident in the 3 images above this. The trend is type, usually all capitals in a messy hand painted style. I have seen it across multiple different medias. I do like the way it looks but I think people are using it inappropriately.

the type used for the Homepride logo stood out to me. The font used looks hand painted and it flows really nicely. It gives the brand that friendly homemade image.

OUGD404 - What is a Book?

I started this brief by researching a list of key terms that we were given. I already knew the meanings to some of them but decided to find the definition of all of them and do some research about them to refresh my memory.

Grid - The grid divides a two-dimensional or three-dimensional space into smaller compartments. The fields or compartments may be the same or different in size. Within these fields, text and graphical elements are arranged systematically and the priorities stand out more clearly. Grid based organisation is inviting to readers and helps strengthen the authority of text.

Columns - a vertical division of a page or text.

Gutters - The inside margins or blank space between two facing pages is the gutter. The gutter space is that extra space allowance used to accommodate the binding in books and magazines. The amount of gutter needed varies depending on the binding method. Although often both referred to as gutters, the space between columns is really an alley.

Margins - Margins are very important part of any publication design. To set up a type and leading sizes you have to set up columns, and to set up the columns you have to start with proper margins. Margins contribute to the effect of the overall design and the white space surrounding them creates a sense of comfort and belonging.

Sub Heads - a heading given to a subsection of a piece of writing.

Paragraph - a distinct section of a piece of writing, usually dealing with a single theme and indicated by a new line, indentation, or numbering.

Images - a visible impression obtained by a camera, telescope, microscope, or other device, or displayed on a computer or video screen.

Captions - a title or brief explanation accompanying an illustration, image, cartoon, or poster.

DPS - two facing pages of newspaper or magazine where the textual material on the left hand side continues across to the right hand side. Abbreviated to DPS.

Drop Caps - A large initial letter that drops below the first line of a paragraph, usually used at the beginning of a section or chapter of a book

Headline - a heading at the top of an article or page in a newspaper or magazine.

Measures - The measurement of a line’s length (including lines that do not contain characters - like a partial line) that is designated in picas.  The length of a line is termed a “columnmeasure” if the text is set in columns. 

Folio Numbers - In a book, it is the number of each page. A single page or leaf (one half of a folded sheet of paper) that is numbered only on the front side is also a folio. In a newspaper the folio is made up of the page number plus the date and name of the newspaper.

Pagination - the sequence of numbers assigned to pages in a book or periodical.

Imposition - Commercial printers often use large sheets of paper that they fold, cut, and trim to the finished size. The individual pages may not be printed in the same order that they will appear in the finished document. Getting the pages of your digital document from reader's spreads or reading order (page 1, page 2, page 3, etc.) into printer's spreads or printing order is called imposition. 

After gathering together all the research that members of my group did and the research I did myself I started planning what I wanted to put on my double page spreads. I figured out what I would need such as diagrams and images. 

I gathered together the images that I was going to use in one folder. I also put the text that I intended to use into one document so I could copy and paste from this. 

I wanted there to be a certain consistency in colour across the pages. I had already decided I wanted to use yellow and black as these are highly contrasting and I feel they work really well together. I made some of the images black and white and put colour overlays on some of the images. Obviously I couldn't do this with all my images. For example the images and diagrams I was using on the colour theory pages had to remain as they were or they wouldn't show what I needed them to.

 There were some components of the pages where I could have used existing diagrams, however I wanted the typography in the publication to be as consistent as possible. In the publication I intend to use a combination of Gotham and Minion Pro. I am using a serif and sans serif because this will help me establish type hierarchy within the pages. I will use the serif typeface for the majority of the body copy and the sans serif for most of the titles. I used these typefaces as much as possible within the diagrams I put together on Illustrator. I used the yellow and black colour scheme within the diagrams aswell. Again for consistency and aesthetics.

Once I had the majority of the components together I could start planning the layouts. I drew out some thumbnail pages with a 3 column grid. These thumbnail sketches really helped me when I was working on Indesign. 

Although I had used a 3 column grid when doing my thumbnail sketches I decided that an 8 column grid would be more flexible when working in InDesign. I decided to have my pages B5 as this would be about right for the amount of content on each page. I used the margin and gutter sizes that I was given but added a 3mm bleed.

I started designing the first few pages on this document. I made the title on Illustrator as I wanted it to stand out and be visually interesting. I placed one of the diagrams I had designed into the page along with one of my secondary images. I used a combination of different fonts from within Gotham and Minion Pro as these were the fonts I had decided upon. I worked fairly closely to my thumbnail sketch for this double page. I put in 2 yellow strokes, one underneath the title and the other sitting adjacent to it on the facing page. I felt this made the page feel more structured and added to the hierarchy of information. I intend to use these strokes as recurring elements throughout the double page spreads. 

I wanted to keep some of the pages really simple and this was one of the ones I had planned to do this with. I only had one image and then body copy to use. I put different components of the pages across different numbers of columns for aesthetics mainly. Again I only used Gotham and Minion Pro but this time I used a very simple title. 

On this page I used a title that I had designed in Illustrator. I used the yellow strokes again and this time put a paragraph of text above the line on the right hand page. This text introduced the main body of copy that sits below it. I used a slightly larger point size and a bold version of Gotham. For people to understand the content on these pages I felt they may need the definitions of two of the key words: legibility and readability. To make sure these were read before the body copy I positioned them on the left hand page on their own in a large point size.

Although I was reasonably happy with the pages so far I decided that they were slightly boring and the continuity between pages wasn't quite right. I just accepted the measurements that InDesign gave me and didn't even consider changing them. Before starting on the design of these pages I spent time looking at some existing editorial design. Some of the layouts that I liked the best used large margins. I have never before experimented with this. I tried out a few different sizes but settled on 30pt margins all the way around. I decided to use a 6 column grid as it would be easier to transfer the layouts I did in my thumbnail sketches on a 3 column grid to a 6 column grid. 

I decided I wanted to make sure that this time the pages were done to as high a standard as i could. I set up a baseline grid to ensure that the body copy all sat on the same lines. I decided that the majority of my body copy would be 10pt so set the grid to increment every 12pt. 

On the master page I put page numbers in each corner. justified left on the left page and right on the right page so it sat up against the edge of the margin. I used Gotham Medium at 9pt with a +50 tracking. I felt the characters in this typeface look better further apart as they are so structurally simple. I decided to use this style in my titles as well. I aligned the type to the baseline grid.

I copied the majority of elements from the previous document over to the new document with the different presets. I had to resize some of the components and I changed the title to a much simpler style. This will allow me to keep the continuity and make sure that the type hierarchy isn't confusing. I also aligned all the type to the baseline grid where appropriate. 

I had a few problems with some of the text boxes. For example the widow on this text box looked ugly and I decided I needed to get rid of it. I did this by using negative tracking. 

I rearranged some of the components of this page. I added another text box which sums up what a type heirarchy is and moved the definition across to the right hand page. I like the way that the content on the left sits at the top and on the right it sits at the bottom. It makes the page look much more balanced. Again I had to change the tracking of a text box to get rid of a widow.

I essentially kept this page exactly the same as it was on the previous document. I liked the simplicity. I changed the format of the title so it was the same as the other pages and aligned the body copy to the baseline grid. I also made the definitions stretch across the entire page rather that missing out a single column. Other than this though I kept the page the same as before.

I really like the way the components of this page are scattered. I had already come up with this layout on my thumbnail sketches and I followed the plan almost exactly. I decided to use justified text as I wanted the text boxes to be blocks as this makes the separation between them even more obvious. As i was displaying different typefaces on this page I wanted the body copy to be as simple as possible. I used Gotham as the body copy on this double page alone. I justified the text either left or right depending on the placement of the text box. 

I placed the anatomy diagram into the document. Even when it was spread across all six columns it was still smaller than I would have liked. I put all the definitions for the terms on the diagram underneath it. I formatted the type to 10pt, the same as the  The text didn't fit under the diagram though so I moved it to the right hand page. I felt that it looked unbalanced like this though. 

I considered spreading the anatomy diagram across two pages but I decided against this. If it were actually printed some of the information would be lost in the bind. 

I decided to spin it around and have it sideways along the page. I experimented with different placements but decided it looked best aligned to the margin on the left. I also moved the title across to the facing page and deleted the yellow stroke at the top of the page on the left. This meant that the diagram had a page to itself. I think the fact that you will have to turn the page to look at the diagram properly will mean people will look at it more thoroughly. 

I used two images on these pages, one which was my own photograph and another which I found on the internet and edited. I laid out the text and the images how I had planned on my thumbnail sketches to start with. I used semibold italic Minion Pro as the typeface for the quote and Gotham bold as the typeface for the small section of body text on the right of the left hand page. I experimented with different alignment of text and decided that some sections needed to be justified and some aligned left. I used two titles on this double page as although the subject matter was the same I felt I could be more specific. I reduced the width of the body copy on the right hand page by one column. I then moved this along so it sat against the right hand side margin. I tried aligning the text right but I preferred it as it was. I liked the way the image and the text sat together, it balanced the page well. I experimented with having the image coming out of the margin and breaking the grid. resized it so it filled the bottom corner and I made the image go into the bleed. I have seen this used in existing publications and I feel can look really good. I like the way that this is the only element on the double page that doesn't stick rigidly to the grid.

This page is based exactly on the thumbnail sketch. I had no problems whatsoever when it came to designing this page as I already had it all planned out in my head and on paper. I used Gotham bold for the body copy on the left hand page and for the definitions of additive and subtractive colour. This made the text stand out so these sections will be read first.

I had two images I wanted to use on this double page, a fair amount of body copy and one quote. I used Minion Pro Semibold Italic for the quote as I have done on previous pages. I placed this quote at the top of the right hand paged aligned with the top of the title. I edited the image of the colour wheel in Photoshop and converted it to a PNG so I could save it with a transparent background. This allowed me to use a text wrap that was circular. I experimented with justifying the text but some of the words were completely illegible when the text wrap was enabled so I decided to left align it instead.

I found this quote by Josef Muller-Brockmann and thought that it was really interesting. I wanted to make it a focal point of the page so gave it a yellow highlight. This added a bit of colour to the spread which was needed as the image I am using is black and white. The body text below this is set in Gotham book. I increased the leading as I felt that it looked good next to the quote. 

I lined up the quote with the image on the facing page which helped make the spread balanced. 

Finally I designed the introduction and contents page. I used the same grid system as the rest of the pages. I designed the contents page in Illustrator as I felt this allowed more flexibility and ease of use. I used the same weight, length and colour stroke as I used on all of the other pages. I set most of the type in varying widths of Gotham. I mainly used all caps with a +50 tracking as I used within the rest of the publication. For the introduction I set the type at 12pt Gotham Book. I aligned it to the baseline grid. As the grid was set to increment every 12pt this made the leading of this body copy fairly large. At experimented with changing the point size to 10 but decided that the leading separated this body copy from the rest of the body copy in the publication. I used a yellow background on the introduction page, again to separate it from the rest of the publication. I used a black stroke in place of the yellow one and stuck with the same format for the title.

Overall I was pleased with the way that the pages turned out. I thought that the hierarchy of information is clear, the aesthetics are strong and the pages are laid out in a way that prevents the information seeming too intimidating to read. I uploaded the final publication to Issuu as this will make it easier to share.