OUGD404 - Studio Brief 2 - Evaluation

For this project I have attempted to push my design practice to the boundaries of what I felt was physically possible. I started the project with an alternate approach and design concept however changed the direction of the project half way through. I was reluctant to do so at first as it made a large body of my work irrelevant however, I quickly learnt that it is never too late to change the direction of a project. As soon as I changed my concept my ideas started to flow bringing more of my own personality and interests into the project. I think that it is important to follow a direction which brings in my own interests as I have noticed my enthusiasm towards the brief increases greatly. My inspiration to first change concepts was primarily from my simultaneous work on the secret 7 album cover design. As music is a huge part of my life, I decided to attempt to re-think the idea of a book and push what a publication can be to its limits. I have always been a great admirer of vinyl records however, they now hold more of a sentimental value which meant they were the perfect symbol to celebrate my favourite DJs. I firstly looked at ways to mould the record into quadrilateral shapes in order to make the book stackable in a shelf however, I realised that with a vinyl sleeve, the vinyl record itself could be legible as a book design. Consequently, I started to then experiment with ways to typeset the text in relation to the circular design of a record and ways in which I could bind a circular design. These were two of the biggest challenges I faced throughout this project, having a circular layout poses lots of unforeseen difficulties within publication design. I have since realised that this is probably the reason that not many circular designs are published or seen in libraries. Stacking the publication via a bookshelf is one problem, then there are the limitations of binding methods, grid systems being unavailable, photography being disregarded and block text being stretched. These are all difficulties which I had to overcome in order to design the publication within a circular blueprint however, within context of the contents of the book, I believe that I made the right design decision. Even though photography could not be included in the designs, I used the block text and simple circular shapes to visually communicate an authentic aesthetic of a vinyl record. The typesetting techniques used started to become very visual as well as informative which gave the page layout a highly typographic yet balanced composition, overlooking the need for photography. The black and white colour of the design has also kept co-ordinence with vinyl records and the slight hints of red has been inspired by the colour of the vinyl records red stickers. The only regret from my designs has been not having time to print my own vinyl stickers, having said that, I believe that the 'His Masters Voice' cover record effectively represents music as a whole as it is the brand identity for 'HMV' arguably the biggest record selling company. Another alternate route was to use white label records as they represent all Dj's however, I could not find any on the internet at the time of the publications production. Overall I believe that this publication has been a great success, mainly due to the fact that for the first time in my graphical career, every single element of the design has been a carefully thought about and structured informed design decision. No part of my final resolution is just there for visual appeal, every part has a purpose, is symbolic, representative, or foreshadows a deeper meaning.

Module Feedback -

I personally found that much of my COP lectures were supporting the various design principles and helping to develop and inform the development of my practice as the projects advanced. The study tasks were also a good opportunity to get tutor help and advice within the sessions when learning about the various principles. The open brief in studio brief 2 was also a good opportunity to embed some of my personality within the publication. The only down side to the project was the difficulties in digital print and having to wait for 3 hours for a drop in session. Another worker in digital print would have helped resolve this problem.