OUGD405 Design Process Evaluation

OUGD405 Design Process Evaluation

During the briefs in Design Process I have really enjoyed expanding my design skills and finding new ways of working. I've definitely built upon my skills from the last module through developmental and conceptual work. I have learnt through these briefs that it is a lot easier to create designs once your concept is in place. I think this is something initially I did not think thoroughly enough about which is why I have struggled before in the past. Therefore this has been really useful to me especially during Brief 4 as I was able to expand my brief further by considering all possible features. As a result, now I'm going to try with every brief from now on that we are given to create a concept first and my designs will follow after that. 
Studio Brief 3 and 4 have definitely been the briefs I have most enjoyed. I looked into website design for Studio Brief 4 and after having no prior knowledge to website design, I now feel confident in designing and producing a website and am quite happy with my outcome. 
After research, I have found that editorial design is something that really interests me and is something I may look to doing in the future. I really love page layout design and its surprising how much it creates a strong composition. Being introduced this and conceptual designs has been the most valuable asset to me during this module. They have really helped me in improving my process and development in my briefs to really explore different materials and designs to create the best possible outcome.
In addition critiques have also allowed me to do this by getting really good feedback from my peers and discussing different options. I feel that I have definitely improved in critiques as I feel a lot more confident in expressing my opinions and giving feedback for other peoples work. Presenting as well I have found much less daunting and think by the end of the year I would have achieved my own personal goal in improving at presenting. 

The workshops again, have been very beneficial, particularly InDesign.  As I have never previously used InDesign, I've found just how useful it is in creating publications. I now feel confident in using the necessary software such as InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop to produce graphic design, and my skills on these will only improve. 

Overall I have enjoyed the tasks set to us and have overcome my struggles while developing my ideas and produced my work to a standard I am happy with at this initial stage in the course. For example I struggled with Studio Brief 3 technically as I learnt that my images were not a good resolution and due to the nature of the images, I struggled to find decent ones as I was unable to take the photographs myself. I feel there is room for improvement in my productions, but as I am still learning about graphic design, I feel that at this moment in time, and at this level is does not matter to much as I am only going to progress. 
I've attended every possible session I can and regularly stay later than 3:30 at Leeds College of Art. I think my time management has been quite good and has even improved from the last module. My aim is to continue this method throughout the year so I am always up to date and can progress within my work.
If I were to do this briefing again, I would make sure my image resolutions are at a decent standard for my book, but as I only learnt this in our InDesign workshop, it was inevitable for me to find out last minute anyway, I have learnt now to always check and preferably, use my own images. I am proud that I have continued to manage my time a lot more successfully than in the past, I produced work to a standard I am happy with. I am keen to progress further and cannot wait to learn more and continue on in the course. 

OUGD405 Studio Brief 4 - Production

OUGD405 Studio Brief 4 - Production

http://en257322.wix.com/listforliving

I have really enjoyed learning about web design in this brief as it was completely new to me. I'm very happy with my outcome for this overall and got good feedback in my critique, saying that I had thought about every aspect and feature. I think my ideas for the website does solve the problem of how to get people to continue and complete their bucket lists, through this website, and also through a phone app and learning about this website through posters.

I have learnt through this brief that it is a lot easier to create designs once your concept is in place. I think this is something initially I did not think thoroughly enough about which is why I have struggled before in the past. Now I'm going to try with every brief from now on that we are given to create a concept first and my designs will follow after that. This has been the case for creating an app and poster design after my website, as my thoughts were clear in what I wanted to produce, the designs for these have followed straight away and all relate to one another, making the company easily recognisable. 

OUGD405 Studio Brief 4 - Development

OUGD405 Studio Brief 4 - Development

To solve the problem of how to get users to complete bucket lists, I didn't want to just have a digital bucket list online, I wanted a website that would actually allow you to complete them and is completely dedicated to you. Therefore I thought of once you have added in your list of what you want to do, you will be able to 'Find Out More' and the website will use your details such as location, price range etc to find a list of different locations, options, tours etc that you can complete this, so it is almost similar to a compare the market website but it is completely personal to you and will allow you to fulfil your goals.
To start off with, after researching into different websites, I creating some sketches of what I wanted the website to include and some brief layout designs. This was useful as it enabled me to see what pages the website would have what and what I want to include within those.My research definitely helped in informing my design decisions as I had no prior knowledge to website design and found it all quite daunting. However once I had a clear idea of where I was going to go, it became a lot easier to figure out which page would have what. For my main menu, I decided to create 6 pages - Home, How it Works, Your List, What Will You Do?, Inspiration and a Community page as I feel this includes all the main aspects of what I want in my informative website and will be easy to navigate around, especially for someone who is new to the site. In addition, I think that Bucket Lists are mostly related to travel, therefore I wanted my website to have the aesthetic of a travel website, as form my research, well designed travel website are really visually stunning. I think the use of images are really imposing and make audiences aspire to be there which has a bigger impact on how audiences view the website. I think the main purpose I found from researching travel websites, is that they play off the people's desires and use this to show its images in a way that people will be really attracted to. Therefore I think this technique is best suited for my website as it will draw people in to use the site and create the association with Bucket Lists more appealing. 

 For the Homepage, I made a design using Photoshop for a mock up of how I wanted it to look. I want a picture to be full screen and have all of the secondary navigation over the top. I think full screen photographs look a lot more striking and really give the website an edge. This is a feature on 'G Adventures' website and I really love the layout because its so imposing, I think photographs have a large impact and and are key to travel related pages, so why not have such a large, imposing picture? I think visually it looks stunning and makes a much more interesting website.

After creating this mock up I then learnt about the website 'Wix.com' and discovered it was such a useful way of creating your own websites. Therefore I then used this to create my entire website on and really sped up the process for me. Although I initially used a template to get to grips with the site, I deleted all of the content to add my own and make it my own website. I kept the slideshow feature on the homepage but obviously changing all of the images, as I think it mades the website look more professional as it is a feature commonly used across other websites. 

The other feature that I kept was the logo in the banner/header, although I did draw quick sketches for what the logo could be, I decided that as I'm not actually branding this website, the logo isn't a key part to focus on and in fact the original logo they had suited quite well, as it's a tab with a globe in it, therefore I decided just to stick with that. 

Next to this is the website name, which I decided to call 'List for Living.' I think the name has part of the problem to do with why people don't make them anymore as they've been seen nowadays as a waste of time. Therefore I wanted to move away from related titles to Bucket Lists and rebrand them as 'Lists for Living.' I think the Living element in this is appealing to audiences and brings across the ideology that creating a list and booking through this website to travel or experience something will allow you start actually living and have fun. I think audiences would be attracted to this as the website is purely made for your needs only to help you in fulfilling your desires and dreams. 

  

I created a typography and colour palette for my website as from my research, I found that it is best to stick with the same few typographies so its clearer, therefore I have chosen to have Raleway for my title font, Helvetica for my body copy, logo and header font, and Courier New for the details and hyperlink text. I think all these typefaces are distinctively different, therefore I think it will be easier for users to recognise which text is for what, making the website clearer. I also thought about which colours would be best for my website (not for photographs but for the layout itself) and found that a neutral palette works best as it relates well to laid back, beach scenes which you typically relate with travel. Also planning travelling itself is quite a stressful task therefore I think the palette has a quite calming effect and also is quite subtle and not harsh on the eyes, which is useful as I want the main focus to be of the photographs. 

- Home Page

I started off on Wix by creating the home page. This will include a box list with three drop down menu's of 'Price Range,' 'Location' and 'Categories' which will be quick options for members or audiences who want to quickly search what they want to do, so a catalyst. I was originally going to have a search box as well saying 'What Will You Do In 2015?' but I found that it looked to crowded with the slideshow and already having a box list. Once I got rid of this and just put the main title on there, I found it looked a lot better and sleeker. 
I wanted to include the words 'Bucket List' on my homepage however as I feel that if I didn't have that, it would be unclear what the websites purpose actually is. I also added icons to show you a quick summary of the website that you can set your goals, sign up with Facebook and see how others achieved their goals. 

I feel that these images are are a good range as they vary in there nature and also show diving, walking and in a boat, showing how there is different options and is accessible to everybody. Further down I included some examples of different options that you can explore as from my research, most websites showed examples of the different offers that they had on and examples of what you can do. I then wanted to include added extras than you can achieve from this website. Therefore I added in 'Life Events' and 'Photo Albums' to illustrate how you can share your bucket list with others and with yourself, by posting your experience and photos, which can then be turned into a photo album for you, giving this website an extra advantage, and what I believe to be a useful tool for members as often we do want to share our experiences on Facebook. I also added a 'Free Brochure' section with an image of my guide for Studio Brief 3, as both of them directly link and free brochures are often offered when travel is involved. 

- How it Works

I added a How It Works page for new users as I feel people need to be informed of how to use the website. I find these good tools in existing websites but quite a lot I found don't feature these, and I feel for this would be a useful asset for my website. I included a simple diagram of how the list works, also information as followed:

ABOUT US

Over a third of us who create bucket lists, unfortunately will never get round to actaully completing them. Many of us feel that we won't be able to fulfil all of our dreams, blaming our financial positions for holding us back. Here at List for Living, we feel that this should not be the case and we feel that everyone should be able to fulfil their dreams. We are here to inform you of affordable ways to complete your goals, and let you share them with everybody!

HOW IT WORKS

Whatever your goals - long or short, we are here to help you achieve them. We're a site that is dedicated to you, and only you. Once you sign up, we'll then ask for some details such as your location and price range, then you simply write down your goals and dreams on our list page, then we'll take it from there! We'll show you a list of opportunities from your list that you would like to complete now and show and compare the best deals for you. You can then book your adventure through us with the third party website. Even if your goals are to be on time for work or university this week, we'll help you out by offering tips and advice  so you can achieve this. Once you've completed and checked one item off your list, you can share it with our List for Living comunity and show your experiences and offer advice for others wanting to achieve this too. You can also connect to Facebook through us and create a life event to add to your timeline! So don't let your lists become neglected, sign up with us and we'll help you out in making your dreams come true!

- Your List

For this page, I wanted to add extra features rather than just a simple list, so you can also decide whether these goals are long or short term and also add your own preferences to them. In addition the 'Find Out More' option is where you can browse how to complete these and options to do this goal available to you. Once you have completed it, you can then choose to 'Share' your goal and photographs, or simply at the bottom view your photo albums. I also wanted to add a 'Countries Visited' feature to aspire you to visit more, and also a 'Suggested Goals' that take similar things on your list and find others for you that you can add. I think these features add a more personal element to the website and my intention was also to make the page easy to navigate around. 

- What Will you do?

This section is for users to browse around, and specifically aimed for audiences who haven't necessarily got these goals on their list, but they can still browse around options they can do, so I narrowed my list to 16 different options that I thought will appeal to a wide range of audiences, and used a grid system to display these which I think are quite clear and work well together. I also added the quote at the top as a motivational feature as the purpose of this website is to help you achieve your goals so added motivation won't go amiss. 

- Inspiration

Another feature I created was the 'Inspirational' page to further enhance the audiences experience on the website and find more encouragement to do something they've never done before. Unlike the 'What Will You Do Next' this page is relating to the 'Your List' page as it is inspiration for goals you can add on your list. So it shows ideas and also the most popular goals and is in categories so you can find something more suited to you. 

- Community

A feature I found common amongst websites that I thought was a good feature is a 'Community' page. This allows you to share your achievements, but mostly to see what other people have done, and perhaps if they have something they want to do, they can see how others have done it and get tips. I showed an example of someone who has shared their goal, and it gives you the option of adding this goal, liking it on Facebook and leaving a comment, so you can really connect to others around you.

Website Page Layout:

Most websites now all have an app so I think its necessary to create one. I created the homepage design for an app, and tried to make it consistent with the website so the overall look is clear and easily recognisable. I also maintained this look for the same reasons in my poster I created to make people aware and advertise the website to create more viewers. I think this image was a good image to use as its subtle and relates to travel, which is on the majority of people's bucket lists, and both feature the main heading of the website 'What Will You Do In 2015?' so all have this branded marketing effect. I think it could be displayed in a travel agents, or booking centre or hiking shops and such, and also as an advertisement in any magazine, perhaps also it could be the design for advertisements that you can see online. 

OUGD405 Studio Brief 4 - Design Boards

OUGD405 Studio Brief 4 - Design Boards

OUGD404: Design Principles: Studio Brief 02- Study Task 2

OUGD404 Design Principles Studio Brief 02-  Study Task 2

What is a Book? - Examples of Folds

Thread Sewing: Thread sewn text is recommended for book work where strength durability and a high quality feel are required. Characteristics are a strong bind with good flat qualities.

Burst Binding: Bound using Hot Melt Adhesive with sections burst perforated on the spine to allow additional glue penetration. This binding method is recommended for binding documents where additional strength and instant binding strength is required.

PUR Bound: Bound using Reactive Hot Melt Adhesive , a binding method for frequent use with increased page pull strength and lay flat. Recommended for books with a large number of pages or when heavy heavy weight text materials are used.

Flexi Binding: Rounded and backed Flexi bound book with a 300gsm board cover. Flexi binding has the characteristics of a traditional case bound book with reduced weight and bulk. The book has 2 x 4pp end papers and a thread sewn book block.

Swiss Binding: Swiss binding offers good lay flat and strength and a design opportunity with a range of colours and materials available for the inner spine.

Case Binding: Rounded and backed case bound book with a cloth cover 2500micron board. The cover has been foil blocked and de bossed and includes head and tail bands and a ribbon marker. The book has a 2 x 4pp end papers and a thread sewn book block.

Otabinding: Otabinding is recommended for books that require increased levels of lay flat for example musical scores. They are very durable as the spine of the book is not broken by the opening of the book, as the cover is glued at the front and rear hinge. Otabound books can also be produced using PUR adhesive.

Perfect Binding: Bound using Hot Melt Adhesive, a binding method recommended for binding documents of limited use where instant binding strength is required. 

Case Binding: Square backed case bound book with a gloss laminated printed paper cover over 2500micron board. The book has 2 x 4 end papers and a PUR bound book block.

After looking into different examples of folds, I then went on to create my own. I created about 15 different examples but these were the four that I felt worked best. This was a complicated fold, shown to me by my peer. I think its complexity is what makes it so interesting, as it has many different pages and ways of opening it. I think for a simple thing such as having serval different facts on it would work, however I think for a book that has a specific order it wouldn't work as the pages and folds are to unorganised to read page by page. For a fun little booklet it would be unique, but I think it doesn't work as a book due to practically.

This second booklet is a simplified version of the above. I folded it in together so that it opens out. This version works a lot better because it can still be a functional book, while being interesting as book itself with no content as well. In addition it would be a lot easier to produce as well.

This is a hot dog folded book. This for me was the most functional booklet and I was really intrigued as you can make a six page book out of just one A4 page. I think practically it works well and will be the easiest to print on and produce. However I also feel although it is like a regular book, it still is quirky in itself and is a nice little booklet that people can pick up and take and clearly read. I also then went on to create this hot dog fold again but with A2. 

Lastly, I created this booklet. It opens up several ways similar to the first book I made, however I found that it is less complicated than the first as it is easier to open up. I think perhaps this type of booklet could be used for kids and I think it would create a lot more interest for them from the different folds and exploring the book. 

As we must create an A4 folded guide to producing the folded publication, I decided that the hot dog fold is most appropriate to this brief. I think all of the other books I have made, are interesting but I the hot dog guide is the must clear to read through. As this book is an instructional booklet, it must be logical and in the right order, therefore the book itself needs to be simple to use for anyone, which the hot dog fold is. Furthermore, the hot dog fold book takes a few simple steps to create and works with any scale, making it the most user friendly.

As for this brief, we must produce and print an A4 black and white publication, I decided I wanted my publication to have an illustrative vibe to the book, therefore I drew out what I wanted my book to look like and which steps to have, but I've asked my friend who is doing Illustration at Leeds College of Art to collaborate with me and draw out the drawings that I produced, but to she'll do it to a much higher standard. I have planned the layout and design, and which stages will go on each page. I have also designed two front covers which I have not yet decided between, but once Sophie (Illustrator) collaborates and draws them out, I'll be able to get a better idea of how each looks to decide. My plan is once they have been drawn, to scan the illustrations in then using InDesign, layout the A4 paper and place all the images on and add my text and headings, making sure that the layout will print and fold into a book correctly. Then fold the A4 in the hot dog fold for the final finished book. 

Once the illustrations were completed, I scanned in the images onto photoshop, and used the magic want tool to only get the outlines of the images, and then I placed them and re sized them onto my A4 paper.

I had quite a bit of trouble trying to print the correct layout right. I made four attempts before I got the correct layout, the first had two pages in the wrong place, the second and third was completely wrong and the fourth had two images upside down. Finally however, I got the correct layout and once folded, it came out correctly.  I think the choice of font works well as the typewriter style works well with the style of illustrations, and creates an overall simplistic feel. I also however used handwriting which I scanned in, and overall I am very happy with how it has turned out. I've enjoyed collaborating and deciding the design decisions together and having Sophie's input, I think having anyones input is always useful but to have an illustrators input was particularly valuable. In the future I am keen to continue on collaborating and hope to do so more to expand my development. 

Final Book: