Module Evaluation

In terms of researching for the What is Good brief, I was really pleased with what and how much I discovered. I tried to look for primary, secondary, qualitative and quantitative research and when narrowing down to what was the most relevant, I was able to find a lot of factual evidence to back up my concept statement from book and internet sources. I continued to research throughout the whole project, which is something that I have improved on, because previously I have thought of researching as being the first thing you do on a brief and then just refer back to it when developing ideas. However, this brief meant that I continuously had to look for research, whether it be inspirational packaging material, laughter health facts or printing processes. There was always something new I needed to find out and I actually really enjoyed coming across new websites, or interviewing my target market - something that I never felt confident in doing.

However the design for print booklet brief was the opposite as I know I could have researched a lot deeper and more thoroughly into printing processes and understanding all the various methods that are on offer to the designer. I see now that I didn't have an equal working balance between the two briefs because initially I became so involved in my ideas for 'What is Good?' I tried to turn this around towards the end and focus on what I have learned over the module and put my research into the booklet, but I realised it was the development of the layout and researching existing magazine layouts that I found more interesting than how my booklet could be printed etc.

This is the area that has let me down overall. I spent too much time investigating into production processes, and reading books such as Ambose/Harris 'Print & Finish', 'Colour' and their 'Production Manual' but didn't document thoroughly enough or experiment into any appropriate processes myself. I specified what would be involved to commercially print my work, but I know I could have gone out of my way more to research stock and commercial costs of prints, for example. I initially wanted to gain experience in contacting printers and experiment with at least one finishing print technique, such as spot varnish or embossing instead of just writing about it in the booklet. However I feel that I covered 'how to prepare your work for print' successfully and learned a lot in the mac inductions about colour and software and wanted to get that aspect across as the main content of the booklet.

I feel like my idea development for the 'What is Good?' brief and the way I annotate ideas as to what works and what doesn't shows a clear path to how my final resolution came about. I definitely improved on visualising my ideas and putting them into practice. I have improved dramatically on design software, in particularly InDesign and Photoshop. I think I could have covered more of a breadth and tested out more of my initial concept ideas that I documented, but if I did I probably wouldn't have allowed myself enough time to exhaust the idea that I went with.

In terms of the content and the message delivered in both briefs, I feel like the final resolutions are fairly successful. There are always going to be improvements and alterations needed to perfect them, but I am pleased with the amount of effort and time I have put in to developing my work. I am particularly impressed by the final "what is Good?' resolution photographs, where I went to a health spa and documented it with the promotional material within the context that I aimed for it to be set in. I talked to a lot of people about the product while I was there and they all gave useful feedback in terms of which idea they would most like to see there.

The documentation and organisation presented throughout are what I believe to be my strongest areas, as I always think of presenting my work clearly so that if I wasn't there to explain it, it would speak for itself. I document my thoughts on design sheets visually or with annotations, and evaluate my ongoing process here on the blog. I live by 'to-do lists' and always set myself targets to complete the work on time week by week. The weaker areas of my work that I have addressed within this evaluation, I hope to improve on as I move onto the next module and I will take with me my stronger skills and continue to improve on those too.

Five things I would do differently next time:
1. Stop writing ideas, put them down on paper visually instead.
2. Visualise a broader range of ideas - don't just document them and go with one.
3. Be more experimental - don't be afraid to get stuck in and put techniques into practice.
4. Balance all briefs equally - don't prioritise one over the other.
5. Keep referring back to the brief and read every bit of it so I don't miss anything or read it too late.

Resolutions in their context

Promotional advert

I wanted to design a poster to set up next to the CD packaging to draw the attention of the spa members. I would stand the poster and the product on the reception desk as this is a guaranteed spot that all members will see.

Here are some of my ideas:

















































I chose to use duotone as my print process for this media, and I captured one of the spa members laughing as the main shot for the poster, as it looked really effective and natural. I used the violet and black from my packaging and then layed the logo design over the top in white. Printed professionally, I would choose a matt silkstock suitable for posters, magazine ads, leaflets etc.

Here is the final resolution:

5 Presentation Boards

16 page magazine

16 pager layouts

Ideas came from existing magazine layouts found on my design context blog. I want to use the same grid for the whole booklet, but design 8 different, interesting layouts upon it.

Chosen packaging resolution

Target audience questionnaire

Mock ups

I didn't know which style of CD packaging to go with, so I have made mini mock-ups of my strongest three and written the pros and cons for each.

The classic cut-out sleeve























Pros
- Simple
- Shows a bit of the product through the packaging so people know exactly what they're buying
- Cheap to produce & commercially print
Cons
- Not very experimental, after all my research and development, it seems the 'easy way out'.
- Wouldn't stand out on display - I want it to be different.


The box case























Pros
- Neat, simplistic, clean-cut
- Fits in with the market and other competition
- Easy to make
- Easy to handle/open
Cons
- Could be mistaken for any other health product
- Seen as dull/boring/regular?
- I wanted my packaging to reflect laughter and it being an unusual form of fitness but I don't know if this does that


The fold-out packaging



































Pros
- Exciting way to unveil the CD
- Different - makes people curious
- Opens up to reveal health facts in a clever way so there's minimal type on the front to match the simplistic style of health/relaxation packaging
Cons
- It doesn't close properly so would need some sort of seal to stop it popping open
- It's relevant to the laughter theme, but is it relevant to target market - do they care how it opens?
- Difficult to produce quickly.

Type Workshop 4

A quick review of what we have covered so far:

- Basic understanding and principles of type - what does and doesn't work.

- The idea of 5 decisions you need to make when selecting a typeface - serif/sans serif, uppercase/lowercase, weight, size, position on a page.

- Line of text - Where to break a line so the person reads it correctly and understanding the hierarchy of how you read words in terms of their layout, size, weight etc.

- Body copy and how 8,9 point size text is perfectly readable for print in books, magazines etc. and how columns should have a minimum of 6 words and a maximum of 12 words on a line.

- Paragraphs and how to indent and use line spacing effectively.

- What enables a text to work in the form of grids and columns that give you room to play with the layout.

This last session we looked at type in a different way - looking at the phonetic use of our language.

To begin with we had to attempt to write exactly how someone would say our name in a situation.

The second task shows how it changes when my brother nagging me and getting more and more frustrated.

The noise of an action in the morning was the next challenge

We then had to attempt to communicate a sound of a vehicle. The first is a bus pulling up to a bus stop, rumbling as it slows down and then the hydraulic brakes makes that hissing sound as it stops. The second is a sports car whizzing past you at a high speed. Here the weight and size of the font has been considered to add to the effect.

Design development

Design sheets after crit session - re-working my message, playing with colour and designing mock-up ideas.