OUGD 201 - Print Evaluation

1. your ability to select develop and evaluate a range of appropriate source
material gathered through a breadth of appropriate research methods

At the beginning of this module, I wasn’t sure what I thought was good. There where things I could list of the top of my head but there was no real way to prove it. This is why I chose Dyslexia,, because I was able to research more into it than I already have done and find specific reasons as to why it is good, and not a hindered like most people believe.

My research methods included browsing the internet, looking through books I already have on the subject and general knowledge. (As well as speaking to dyslexia support that we have in the college.)

I focused on proving that just because a person has dyslexia, does not mean they can not do everything else a person without can do. I also tried to show that having Dyslexia is a positive thing as we learn very differently from a person without it. This type of learning can help with later career moves like becoming an artist or something that involves hand’s on learning and general creativity.

I believe I could have done more surveys in the class and to the general public. After one survey, the answers I received on Dyslexia where as follows: It isn't good to have because you can't spell and it's frustrating, also you get a free mac. I wanted to prove that having a learning disability isn't frustrating all the time because people develop coping techniques to deal with it.

I also want to make this brief fun and that was where my concept idea came into it.

2. The level of investigation and experimentation into appropriate production,
media,processes and technologies.

Overall I think I am now that little more knowledgeable on the print process than I was before hand. There were many things about different types of printing that I didn't realise before hand. This had been covered in my print booklet and is a main part of it. I decided to concentrate on different types of printing rather than different paper types ect, (even thought that is also relevant)

I know that writing white text on yellow paper will not be readable once printed, but it is on screen. If I was to make the full print process booklet then this problem would be looked at and rectified as not to blind my reader.

3. the breadth and quality of practical skills, ideas and design development.

I think this was probably the strongest part of my work, and I believe I have improved from last year. The idea for the concept came straight away, as well as my audience. The problem I found was that i was struggling with products to make. My first initial idea was a little bottle of positive dyslexia traits, but it had not context. (it was essentially a design floating with no where to live.) So I came up with the Dyslexia Depot idea after researching into the 826NY writing program.

I believe I could have looked into producing different products as well as different themes for the store instead of sticking with the fifty's. I chose that era because it was the age of discovery and development and that was something I wanted to bring to the store.

Overall, I am very pleased with the how the logo for the store turned out as well as the mock up product I made for the presentation boards. Even though it's simple, it works with the era I was looking at (as well as using printing techniques from that era.)

4. the documentation, organisation and presentation of your work for this module.
As it was started on the brief, I think I should have done more blog work than I have. Over the last two weeks, it felt as if I never left college which meant I was able to do even more work on my briefs. (which was a good thing)I'm finding it harder to work at home and easier to work in a studio environment. At home, I'm more tempted to leave the work and work on things I don't really have time for (like my illustrating and writing.)

The presentation work at the beginning of the year, (though not judged on graphic design quality) could have been better produced. I'm a designer, which means I should just be putting information into a power point, but really thinking about how it covey's with the audience.

I'm starting to see what kind of style I have and how it is improving and not this needs to follow through into my work.

5. the success of your final products in relation to the briefs.
I finalised the 5 A2 boards about four times until I was really happy with them. I like their overall outcome and feel as they convey exactly what I wanted to say. There could have been a few more slides in the PDF to cover a few bit's here and there that I'm only just starting to remember. (Like WHY I went for the fifty's theme), which isn't covered in either the boards of the PDF.

For the presentation boards, I should have booked my self into the print rooms but I kept changing them on a daily basis. However, I think they turned out just as good and it doesn't bother me too much that they don't quite have the professional feel to theme.

Overall, I'm pleased with how my boards and the print booklet turned out, even though I could have planned for the booklet a bit more. Layout and typography are not my strong points but I think it was delivered quite well in that respect.

I am pleased with what I have produced in this module, and I hope to improve with the next module.

The Big Picture

So I wasn't very happy with this design to begin with, it just seemed a little too miss matched for my liking. However, once I had the box made and the design finally printed onto the lid it didn't look so bad.

Please ignore the magic tape holding it together.

Einstein pulls those shades off so much better than Kanye...

The design was printed on sugar paper as I was hoping for a more recycled card feeling. The design it's self was supposed to be screen printed onto the paper but I didn't manage my time so well. However, as it's just a mock up I don't feel bad for admitting it.

If I was to make the product (and it wasn't for a mock) then yes, I would have booked myself into screen printing.

Logo Re Design

After having a small talk with Lorenzo about what I need to do for this project, we got onto the discussion of the logo. It needed to be more readable and easier to make out if shrunk down to fit on the side of a small box. So I spent the morning going back over the old design and tried to re work it with out completely re doing it.

Ok so here's the original Einstein character that I wanted to keep in the logo design. This is the bit that I didn't want to completely remake but I did make some small adjustments as you can see by the 2nd image. :
Right now it's not very ordered or logo-ish. I change the font to make it more readable and adjusted the size. It needed something to keep it together, like the original had a small banner/board with the text upon it.
I added a grey outlined oval just to see how it would over lap with the text. The actual border is black and it was hard to read the text with that running through it. So, some adjustments where in oder and I had the finalised black and and white image:
I deleted some of the border and even made a small indent around the characters arm and hand so it wouldn't be completely lost in black.
The colours are still pending for the design but here is this is the sort of coloured version. I still need to do some finalising.

And playing with textures and overlays is always fun:

I rather like the distressed look. (But it makes it look more western than retro 50's...but that was when the wild west was all the rage.

Logo 2

2nd of 3 store front logo's for the Dyslexia Depot. Again, I have no clue which one I want to go with yet but I'm less keen on this one than the first one. I think once I have the 3rd one up and done I'll know which one I'll want to go with.

The original slightly changed because every now and again my ability to draw hands goes away. I really should stop simply chopping body parts off or I'll turn into Rob Liefield. (shudders)

And the black and white version's. At this point I still think I'd go with the first logo but we'll see what colour has to bring to it.

Dyslexia Depot; Logo 1 COLOUR TIME!

Working with colour on this was harder than I first imagined. The first two colours are rather gaudy looking and both use more colours then I could afford (If we where talking about printing on a professional level.) However, the last one worked well for the style and era the theme is set in. (Retro/vintage/50's)

I still want to look at using colours from that era like dusty pinks and toothpaste aqua. (You know which ones I mean, old diners and such.)

Then I played with the opacity to see what effects I could get with a wood texture. I think it looks a little bit like spot vanish, not really useful for my project but I rather like the overall look.

(Looks like I etched him into a school table. Whoops.)

Dyslexia Depot; Logo 1

This is the first of 3 logo's I have developed from a sheet of designs. So far I've just worked with it in black and white. I'll be doing colour versions in a few but here's what I have for now.

Original:

Dyslexia Depot's poster child: Einstein. Why? Because he's iconic and was the thick child in school who had to sit at the back with the safety scissors and glitter. He was the father or modern physics and couldn't spell for toffee.

Four slightly alternated designs but I'm not so sure about this one just yet. I'm going to work on the other two and see which one is stands out.

Retro Font-GO!

Over on my Design Context blog I have looked into packaging and advertisement from the 1950/60's and general retro/vintage era. I want the dyslexia store front to have a theme and many iconic designs came from that era. Also, many crazy idea's where boxes up and sold back then and what's crazier than a shop that sell's you positive dyslexia traits?

So I've been looking around for font from that era and here is a small compiled list. I'm hoping to broaden this list but I have my heart set on "Brody" for the store front Logo. (I'll post up the mock up's later.)

(Click to enlarge)

The top four font's are exactly what I'm looking for but that era also used a lot of block capitals and bolded letters so that's something else I'll have to look into. Unfortunately, it was pointed out to me that the thunder bird font looks like it belongs in a western and not packaging from the 50's. I have to slightly disagree as many western films/books and merchandise came out at that time and just before space age really took off. My era's cross because I've been looking at space age and the time when everybody thought we'd be living on Mars by now.