Tuesday, October 18, 2016

OUGD504 - Studio Brief 1 - Blogging for Level 5


Gathering research material from the library to assist with identifying how designers format photography showcase style publications is a crucial starting point to learn from. All of the sources gathered aim at displaying similar fields of work to the OUGD504 project such as pop video, magazine and poster designs. Identifying how these are displayed will form a crucial part of how the double page spread layouts will be designed. Notice that all the publications use similar minimalist techniques in order to keep the subject matter the focal point on the page. This could be a useful technique to adapt within the project to celebrate the 80's-90's rave typography without any distractions to the audience. In all of the publications the content is highlighted using a white background and small concise and consistent blocks of text. This indicates that it might also be helpful for the project if a grid system is designed.

Other considerations taken into account by the publications designers are the size of the book; stock choice; binding methods and amount of pages. It can be assumed that this has a direct relation to the amount of content in the publication and the cost of production methods. In particular, in the book 'Pop Video, The Art of the Pop Video' the smallest possible composition has been produced with little negative space being left on the page content, this is to make the publication as cost effective as possible. Looking closer at the front cover design and binding, it is noticed that the outside of the publication is printed on thin paper stock and has a waterproof cover encasing the design. This could be due to the target audience of the book, it seems as through the author has directed the publication towards students to create a cheap and durable book for studying. Other factors the designer must have taken into consideration when designing for this particular target audience are:

   Strong and sturdy binding methods to keep the book stable and enduring
   Small font point size to include as much text as possible on each page keeping the design cost effective
   Small image size, also keeping the book as practical and efficient as possible
   Waterproof cover to keep the book durable with students scruffy lifestyle
   Thin stock and light weight could make the book easier to carry around for students
   The cover only uses black, white and a pink stock colour

It is identifiable that the colours on the front cover design allow only two inks to be used instead of the four inks used with CMYK. This is another cost effective technique which has utilized stock colours in order to use the least amount of printing plates as possible.

Further analysing and testing has identified that the book has not used A4 layout, this could be to keep the book more cost effective when trimming and composing the book in the final printing and cropping stages. The size used could have been considered due to the large paper sizes that have to be used during the printing stage, using this shape and size could have been more resourceful in terms of paper used.

The initial concept for the OUGD504 publication was to create a post modern layout design in order to resonate with the content however, after analysing these publications, keeping the design minimalist will be the most proficient way of displaying the content whilst keeping the layout looking professional.


The Pop Video book below has been particularly inspiring in the way which it separates its content into sections. Its use of blue full colour pages breaks the book up into more organisable groups similar to that of chapters in a book. This has inspired the idea of possibly organizing the projects typography in year order and having the book cataloged as a timeline. This way the viewer should see a distinct transition from the postmodern designs of the illegal raves to the more mainstream commercial designs in the 21st century.


  • Describe - Saying things are the way they are
  • Analyse - Questioning things, why things are the way they are
  • Evaluate - Summarising and reflecting on the potential and limitations, how appropriate in reference to the context, the purpose, the target audience
  • Contextualise - The situation which purpose situation 
  • Theorise - Ideas about the world as a statement, theorising design in relation to theories and principles and reenforcing design decisions 
  • Narrate - Step by step timeline of the project

Identify the impact of subtle differences in the typeface, in the right alignment or left alignment. What does it say? what personality does it portray? What are the justifications?


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