Speaking From Experience

Initial ideas;
When looking at the brief for speaking from experience, the first thing that comes to mind is, what would I have changed about my first year if I were to do it again, and what questions would I ask to make the course more manageable.

• Living at home
• Making friends
• Procrastinating, what to do, what not to do
• Blog guide
• Inspirational posters
• How to deal with the work load
• Blogging on a daily basis
• Going out whilst commuting
• Guide to Leeds night life, where to go, where to avoid
• Student diet, how to cook, easy meals
• Overall guide on how to survive the first year

First years need to know all of these things, therefore I will make a kit that will help people to do the work and get it done on time. My biggest problem this year was procrastinating, and getting distracted by everything and everyone, therefore my publication and kit will be a procrastination guide. Showing people what they shouldn't be doing with all of their time, and how they can change their ways to get the work done on time, to their best standard. I have created three boards showing my method of delivery, concept and production.

I want to keep my colours simple and minimal, also have a neutral stock, such as antique white. I enjoy screen printing, although haven't done it this year, therefore want to do some screen printing of my publication, maybe the cover or the kit itself. Having multiple methods of production also shows the first years that they can do different things, and learn knew skills.

I started to look into what I should put into my procrastination kit, I want it to be simple and minimal, but also want to have a lot of information or things that will help the first years. The design blogs is something that has to go in there somewhere, as it is something that everyone wished they knew when they came onto this course, as they are really helpful. I want to include things like pens and post it notes, so that students can use them as reminders to do things, also I want to include the actual publication itself, with information about the course in it, and how to survive it. It may also be helpful to include a desk tidy in the pack, as it would help the first years to organise their desks.

Mock ups for desk tidy;

This desk tidy idea works really well as it was relatively simple to construct, therefore the infographics for it wouldnt have to be too complicated, also it would be useful to have as a desk tidy. The only thing is, is that I would have to construct it a lot bigger so it could actually fit paper in it, also it would have to be made with a thick card, this means it will be quite bulky in my pack.

This is a failure, it was very confusing to put together and clearly didn't look very good, it also fell apart really easily, this will not be a very good desk tidy to use, as the first years would have to try and construct it, and it may not work well.

Very simple to put together, works quite well, although using print paper made it quite flimsy, but if I changed the stock, this may work well, it will be used for the first years to clean up their desks by putting all their pens, pencils, scissors e.t.c. into it. Also there are 6 different compartments in this desk tidy, therefore it could be organised into an object for each sector.

This one also failed, I have no idea how to put it together, therefore if I cant do it, when I have a book which shows me what its suppose to look like, how would I first year be able to do it. This will definitely not be going in my procrastination kit.

Cutting out and making all of these mock ups took a long time, this could be seen as a distraction, and may allow the first years to procrastinate from their work, attempting at constructing these desk tidies. Also my procrastination kit will be quite flat, therefore I may not be able to fit the desk tidy in, especially if it has to be made of thick card. This may not be able to make it into the kit, although there will be something in there which says you should have a clean desk, or something along those lines, so the students will know to clean up, they just wont be provided with a desk tidy, which could be better for them, as it will save them time not building a desk tidy, and they can do more of their own work instead.

The procrastination publication;

Starting to make the publication itself, I first thought about the content that should go inside, what the first years shouldn't be doing and what they should be doing. As I have been there and done that, I know what people are doing when they sit down to do work, they are getting distracted by everything that could possibly distract them. I am going to try and show them what they are getting distracted by and how they should change this. I decided to draw some thumbnails of possible layouts, this is so that it can help me to get my ideas down, then when I try to make it digitally, I can experiment more with the layout and content.

Googling pugs is one thing that personally distracts me a lot, I think that a lot of people will be able to relate to this, as they may not google pugs, but there will be something they have a weakness for, as everyone googles something at some people, just to distract them from doing what they should be doing. The pug is just representing everyones weakness at some point.

On facebook you can like peoples pictures or comments, therefore I played with the like logo, and illustrated it upside down, this will show people that they shouldn't be doing this.

I also produced a twitter logo simple illustration. Each of my illustrations are the main things which distract people from their work, it is something that can easily stray you from your work, sometimes you just need to be told to get off facebook. My designs are all very simple and minimal, with the basis, straight to the point information on it. This works well for me as I like to work this way, although I may need to include more information, this is something I will bring up in my crit.

This is something else at this time that everyone is talking about and using, it is the new exciting app, it distracts you from your work as it is interesting and funny to use with your friends, this would be a good one to use, as I know that I personally spend too much time checking snapchat, as it doesnt make a sound or notify you very well if you have a snapchat, therefore people have to check it.

After a crit;
Going into the crit I wanted to see if the amount of text was appropriate for my audience, or whether I should be including more, what colour stock I should use, also I had the idea that I was going to have a kit with many different things in it, including a publication, post it notes, pens, pencils, desk tidy, to do list and motivational posters. Coming out of the crit I found that I should use the antique white stock, also that the desk tidy might not be a viable idea for my kit, as it may make the kit too bulky and may not be successful, therefore I think that I will forget about the desk tidy and concentrate on the publication. Also the people in my crit said they thought I should do my pug as a screen print, where as I was going to do a motivational quote screen print.

Layouts for poster;

I thought that before screen printing I would experiment with different layouts of the image and text, to see which looks better, so that when I am printing I have an idea of what I could print and where I could print it. I also found that I could narrow my colours down to four, as I would have previously have had to print 6 colours. It I print the two different colour of the beige face and brown nose, it will give the bit in between a different brown anyway, therefore look like I have printed a 5th colour.

Screen Printing;
These are the different solids for each screen, ready to expose.

Here are the prints after they have been done.

I experimented with different layouts when printing, and found that I prefer the pug in the middle, the 'procrastination is the thief of time' on top and 'stop googling pugs' on the bottom. I think that it is the most aesthetically pleasing, also it was on of the prints that worked the best, with the lining up of the pug. I was able to experiment with the placement of the type, as I just taped up the rest of the screen that had been exposed so the ink didn't go through.

I also experimented with different coloured stocks, and found that the darker one is very effective, the pug looks really good, the only thing is, I had to go over the print twice so that colour looked better, but this meant that I covered up the mix of the colour, between the nose and face, therefore there isn't a lot of different in the colour. Although the light colour on the darker paper is what makes the print so effective, it doesn't work as well as the others as the colour on the face are too similar, and there isn't a lot of distinction between the colours.

When printing I found that it was difficult for me to line the screen up properly each time, as I was experimenting with layouts, I didn't use masking tape to keep it in line every time, which meant that sometimes I printed them a bit off, such as the eyes and mouth are too far down in this print. Although I did more prints than I needed just in case this happened.

Also on this print I obviously didn't press hard enough, or let the ink start to dry up, as there is spec in the type and their shouldn't be, although I found that to be a good effect, next time I will include something that looks like it has been hand done and worn in my design, as I think it is a good effect.

How to bind the publication;

Although I haven't experimented a lot with how to bind my publication, I found a way which worked really well. Binding my publication this way will be easier to see all of the information and illustrations, also it means that I will be able to perforate my pages so the first years will be able to tear the pages out and put them on their walls. First years living in halls find that when they get to halls their walls are bare, and most people I asked said that they just wanted to put things on their walls so they weren't so bare, this is why I think it will be a good idea to be able to tear the pages out. Finding out how to bind my publication as allowed me to start properly designing the publication without worrying about how it will work in the end.

Designing the publication;
I know that I want to include the blogs which the first years should be looking at, as I think that that is a very helpful thing to have in this publication, but I first thought about having just the names of the blogs and the websites where they could be found, but that it might look too dull and boring, also if I want to have the students tearing the pages out and putting them on their walls, they will need to look appealing. So instead I am going to experiment with using the logos of ech of the blogs I want to tell the first years about.

Created 12 different illustrations for the blogs means that I can have 4 pages with 3 blogs on each of them, this is definitely a better and more creative way of telling people which blogs to visit than just looking at the names. Also the logos of the blogs show a little sneak peak into what the blog is about, therefore when the students are bored or procrastinating from their work, or even just looking for something, they will be able to see what kind of blog they want to visit by just looking at the logo, for example mmminimal, is minimal design, it shows this in the name and also the logo uses a sans serif font with minimal grey tones.
 

As my illustrations took the longest to do, I thought that I would do them first, then add the content and type. I had a good idea of what I wanted to put on each page, and every time I did and illustration I put it on InDesign on each page in the order I wanted them so that I could organise how it would look and how many pages I would need.

 

With the 'do not do' side of the publication I am just going to have an illustration and an instruction of some sort, but with the other side showing the first years what they should be doing instead, I think that it would be better if there was more information, explaining why they should be doing it, or information about what they should be doing. Also I don't want to include too much body copy as it might not appeal to my target audience, they are people who are more visual learners, as they are on a graphic design course, I think that they would appeal more if there isn't large amounts of body copy.

I put three blogs on each page but thought that it may look better on a wall if the blogs were all on the same page as one big fold out, but then when printing I found that it would be very hard to do, and printing on it double sided, it might not work very well. So I decided to put 6 on each fold out, so that it isn't as long, and I could just produce two of them. This works a lot better, although I need to remove the black lines and have crop marks instead, so that there isn't a line.

As I am wanting to perforate the pages so that they can be torn out and stuck on the students walls, I need to get the placement of the text and illustrations on the page correct. I did many print outs of where they should be placed so that when the publication is bound it looks like it is in place, also when the pages have been ripped out, make sure that everything is centered, as it doesn't look very professional when the pages are all wonky.

After getting the placement on the page correct, I started to apply it to all of my pages using grids and margins on InDesign, so that they are all in the same place, this will keep the publication contistant through out.

Cutting out all of the pages takes a lot of concentration, as on this one, I cut it at the wrong angle, therefore I need to concentrate more when cutting, also make sure I cut off the lines, or else get rid of them, or make them lighter so they can hardly be seen.

Spell check! Only after printing out the front cover did I realise that I wrote 'it' instead of 'is', therefore I need to make sure I spell check my work, this is why I went through the rest of my publication to see if I had made anymore, I didn't find anymore.

Pages that are printed and ready to bind.

When I perforated this it was almost tearing off part of the letter, therefore I had to reprint some pages and change where the type was placed.

To do list;
I want to produce a to do list which is simple, in the same style as the publication. Something that can be disposable so that when you have finished with the list you can just bin it. Because in little notebooks which are to do lists you find that it doesn't rip out very well, and you end up with pages full of old lists.

I thought about having days of the week on each page, or having different things on each page, but then I thought that the whole point is the the to do list is simple and disposable. Having lots of pages that are the same will keep the consistency. To make the to do lists disposable I will perforate them so that they can just be ripped off.

When putting the to do list together I thought that it looked a bit too plain, and should make a front cover. A simple cover, that is straight to the point, jot it down, tick it off, rip it out. The navy blue cover looks a lot better than the antique white cover, as it is more aesthetically pleasing, it also is the same stock as the cover of the publication.

The idea I had for my publication was to have one side being what not to do, and flip it over and it is what you can do to change things. Although when binding the publication I found that it wasn't as effective as I thought it would be, and if anything it take away from the design, rather than adding to it. If I am wanting to create a publication with simple content, the publication itself should be simple too.

Concentrate when making the wholes for binding, as I started to pierce the holes the wrong way, which meant I had to re print some of my pages again.

Packaging;
To get the measurements of the box I have to make a plan of where everything will be going in my kit and then measure the height, width and depth that is should be. I want the kit to be the same coloured stock as the publication and to do list so that it keeps consistent.

I started by making a mock up of the packaging so that I could see if everything fits inside okay, also I wanted to test out the stock I was using. I want to keep the kit consistent therefore tried to make the packaging with antique white, although it looked nice it was very flimsy, and won't serve its purpose very well. I then went to go buy some card, and made sure that it is the same colour and the publication, which worked a lot better and is a lot more sturdy.

Where the belly bands are placed on the packaging is also very important as it adds to the aesthetic of the kit, and I think that it works better in the bottom picture.

Final publication, to do list, kit and poster;

Evaluation;
If I were to do this brief again I would have done more screen printing. It is a print process which I really enjoy, and although I did use screen printing in this brief, I would have wanted to use more, maybe produce a few more posters, or maybe print the whole book, although I would have to change some of the colours and make it a bit more minimal, so that it would be more simple to print.

What I like about this brief is my choice of stock, I think that the antique white and navy blue works really well together, it also doesn't offer a suggestion to a certain gender, it is very neutral. Also my intentions for this brief was to use a limited range of colours, and I actually used quite a lot of colours, although it worked well, and wouldn't have had the same effect if I were only using a few colours. Although it would have been easier to screen print with more limited colours.