OUGD504 Studio Brief 03 - Evaluation

This was the third brief of the module and therefore we were well back in o the wing of working and so it was time for a brief of which was somewhat more substantial in the amount of work that they entailed and so the main consideration during the unit would be making sure our time on the project was planned and used efficiently.

The brief led on from the project that we were set of summer in which we took photographs of some examples of typography in a certain location that has some sort of relevance to the location itself. After a minor setback with my original plan after loosing my images I finally decided on turning my examples of neon signage typography into a hand-bound professional publication and as this editorial avenue of design is something I can see ­­­­­­­myself doing in the future it is important that my skills in the subject develop. Even though I had to change my whole concept last minute it actually benefited my project in some ways as the original image that I took on my phone in Amsterdam weren’t a very good quality and so being able to retake them in Leeds with a professional camera helped my publication look a bit more professional.

The research stage of the unit was quite beneficial as rather than researching in to modern applications, trends and competitors like some other units I complete the emphasis on research lay in more theoretical and historic means as I looked back through the uses of canons of construction and application of editorial design that stretch back in excess of hundreds of years and allowed me to look at theoretical principles suck as the golden ration. This side of research isn’t something that I’ve had masses of experience with and so therefore is great to learn about.

The design stage of the unit was something that I had massive interest in as Instead of going for the obvious in your face approach to design that is often conveyed through neon that can easily become tacky instead I decided to convey a different more historical side to neon signage and its links to Leeds the city it is based in. This created extra problems in the designing stage as I had to stray from the norm of designing and try something a little more risky but I believe this paid off.

This unit was also the opportunity to fully develop my skills in which the whole module was based around and this was the considerations that must be in place in the production stage of any brief, everything from post digital stages, printing methods, stocks etc. This is a crucial stage to any design because no matter how professional the design is if the production stage isn’t properly considered it can hinder the professionalism of the project. We finally bound the book by any method that we thought appropriate. I was overall quite impressed by how professional the publication came out.