Final boards for PRD

OUGD203 EVALUATION.

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
Iʼve always wanted to try screen printing. In the previous module evaluations I frequently mentioned that I had wanted to experiment with different processes within design and always made excuses such as “Never had the time” This was down to poor management. In this module I have not only improved on my time management, I have also significally improved my screen printing skills. I think Iʼve applied these skills very successfully and personally, I think it shows in my finished designs. In previous modules things were left to the last minute and you could tell. Iʼve definitely improved and cannot wait to apply these newly developed and refined skills in the third year.


2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
My main deliverable was a music zine. All the zines that I had encountered researching had a lo fi and DIY quality. It gave the zine a sense of sentimentality and you could tell thought had been put into them. I stuck with this lo-fi way of working and screen printed covers and posters for my own zine.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

The strengths that I can see in my work are those of consideration and time. As previously mentioned I had always left things to the last minute with past briefs but with my new time management and practical skills, I can begin to see the positive effect it has on my work.


4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
There are a few prints, which didnʼt come out too well. It was my first time screen printing solo, so it was always going to be a hit and miss, as it always is with screen printing. Although having designs from different layers overlap in a quirky manner can look interesting, I felt I had let myself down. When designing the posters/covers, I made sure everything was gridded and lined up. Yet when it came to printing each layer on individual screens, there were a few lining up errors. With anything practical, screen printing skills progress the more times you do it, so next year Iʼve promised myself to screen print more and to not be lazy and to get my hands dirty.


5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?




To try different print finishing techniques. I became a little over protective over my hand printed zines and had not wanted to ruin them by bashing them or pressing on them.
Upon looking at the prints I could see huge potential for a much more hand crafted end product using skills such as sewing, book binding and various other finishing techniques.


Work better as a team.
One of the key things in collaboration is communication.
Because Will and I had seperate deadlines to contend with (type and image) I felt like we were constantly distracted. This led to us not communicating as much as I had hoped thus less work was produced. 


Continuous blogging.


This is quite a persistant one. Because I'm getting so into the practical work, I sometimes forget to blog it and say that naiave phrase 'I'll blog it tomorrow' When it came to blogging , I had forgotten something I had done a few days ago and the reasons I did something a certain way. Some days were better than others. During the last few weeks of the module my blogging significantly improved and I was uploading on the go. I plan to continue blogging everything I see and do in a summer blog. This way it will become second nature when I'm a third year.


Research more.


In order for a piece of design to communicate and solve a particular problem it must have research to back it up and justification. Particularly in the PRD brief, I knew the founder of the magazine and knew roughly what it was about but in hindsight I know more questions should have been asked.

Make mock ups.

Because of the pressure of deadline I jumped straight into designing the final product before trying it out first. In crits I had brought in a mock up version of the zine but there was only the one. There wasn't an opportunity for the people critting to try a whole selection of different prototypes.

Attendance – 5
Punctuality –5
Motivation - 4
Commitment – 4
Quantity of Work –4
Quality of Work – 4
Contribution to the group - 4

Photographed range

Making the regular editions 

 After the zine's first edition, the zine will be colour coded for each month. First I printed the basic cover design from the bubble's printer. I then cut it down to shape and folded it with the pieces of content.


The final cover design -

I continued this process with the other monthly editions.

Mixing more colours.

Today was another day of screen printing.
I felt that yesterdays green and red prints were quite flat looking.
So I decided that more vibrant colours would be used.

Those colours were Blue and Florescent orange.

Poster design tests.

Here are some tests for my a3 poster.
I really wanted to get a sense of expression but keep within a gridded structure.

Print process


DISTRIBUTION METHOD


It's all well and good to make the zines but where could I sell them. There needs to be a distribution method. From what I've seen of other "zine manufactures" , their work seems to be sold on websites such as Print Process.

Print-process was founded by Blam [Mark Blamire] in November 2010.
It appears to be an independent zine selling website with contributors selling their work on this website.
It would be great to get Counteract zines on there for online exposure and attention.
So I've made a mock up to see what it would look like.

Zine layout

Open publication - Free publishing - More layout

A selection of pages from the Counteract zine. The finished product will have more content but this is just to get a sense and feel of the layout. As mentioned in previous posts, I want counteract to be a concise zine and for it to promote easy reading. I think the layout does that successfully by being minimal and easy to understand.

Screen Printing.


Today I went to the screen printing room and managed to grab the last two A3 screens (the rest were reserved) I've always wanted to screen print solo but never found the time nor commitment but
it seemed relevant for this brief as most zines are screen printed and the whole production is kept lo-fi.

My two stripped screens - I intent on screen printing my posters/covers/postcards

Zine layout tests


Here are some layout tests for the magazines news sections, although this will be the overall layout of the magazine.

Open publication - Free publishing - More layout

Grid test


For an A5 zine, a 5/6 column may work best.
the magazine is a monthly issue so there wil be quite a lot on content to contend with.
8 column may be a stretch so I'm going to stick with 6 columns for now.
The gutter is 6mm but the margins are 12.7mm. This allows for the content to fit on nicely without looking too cramped. I may increase the gutter as I go on.

Here is a quick layout test to see how the grid works. I know there's not alot on there but the high number of columns makes it flexible if I were to add additional content. I want counteract to be a concise magazine so if I were to have too much cotent per page it may confuse the reader.

Magazine content.


Because I'm expanding Counteract from a web based magazine into a multi medium one.
One thing to take into consideration is that you can fit a lot more onto a number of webpages than you can a few pages of a book. I would need to condense a months worth of content on the website into a concise and easy to understand zine.

Zine format test.

Before I transfered the designs to the computer, I created a quick lifesize thumbnail of the cover of the magazine to get the feel of how the format would work.

A5 FORMAT ZINE.

Business card 

RANGE

As part of the range, I thought a business card would be appropriate. This would let the founder and editors to network and meet other, like minded people.


Here are some business card designs.

My product and range

Here is a list of my finalised range along with a rewritten brief.

- A monthly zine 
- A limited edition screen print poster 
- A special edition zine with screenprint -Stationary
- A Birmingham poster.

Letterhead 


 Printed range.

Logo mask.

This idea picks up on the triangle shape very strongly. The shape of the triangle became a good opputunity to mask images to say different things for different moments.

The photos show birmingham landmarks and live music (festivals and gigs).

hacer un gif

Logo decisions.

I've decided to combine elements of both logo designs. This design takes the shapes and arrangment of the first choice and the square and line of the second choice. Above are a few alterations I've made to the logo. The line under the triangle seems to work well and I've also added the same line under the A in the word counteract to add relevance. I'm quite unsure wether to keep the word "counteract" under the logo itself.  A decision I will make later on.

Counteract Logo development

As with any logo design I started out on paper. It started with a few simple designs and type treatments but as you look through the designs below, whilst designing and putting my visual thoughts on paper I was finding new ways to improve the logo.

Open publication - Free publishing - More counteract

I started with the word Counteract and trying out borders around the word to give it strength and I also tried experimenting with the meaning of COUNTERACT which is to do the opposite of one act. I did this by having the word splitting the word into two sections "Counter" and Act. I flipped the word Act horizontily to subtly communicate counteract. I also paid attention to the word counter in a typographic sense. In type anatomy, the counter is the enclosed or partially enclosed circular or curved negative space (white space) of some letters such as d, o, and s. I used block characters with the counters filled. This gave me a geometric visual for a logo. I then condensed the word counteract into two letters - "C and A". This meant the name of the magazine could work as a logo which enabled ease of application onto products such as bags, stickers etc.  Sticking to the geometric idea of the previous design the C and A were blocked which made it easy to work with.

I tried out different weights, sizes and positioning of the two shapes.
At the moment, I can see the designs below working. The shapes give the logo a strong identity.

What I plan on doing.

This is the overall look of Counteract Magazine. Personally I think the logo is poorly designed and the website layout could do with some work. All the information looks cramped and useful space is wasted.
I do however like the functionality of the site. The site is user friendly and is easy to navigate.

I plan on giving counteract a complete makeover. Starting with the logo of the magazine.


Counteract website:

The current logo.