OUGD401 - Speaking from Experience, Printed Outcomes

Printing the flashcards was not too difficult but I did need some help on getting my head around which way the back side would print. I used a heavy matt stock for these to make sure they're durable.

The Posters are on a satin stock to fit with a normal poster design. I printed both the green and blue of the posters and the flashcards to give a choice of the two, you could either mix and match or keep them both the same. When printing I was warned that the colour may not match as well as they do on the screen because of the different stock choice but once they were printed there is barely a noticeable difference and you can still tell both are linked.

OUGD406 - Exhibition Group Task, Final

We went back to present again but our experience in presenting let us down. One of the points left from the first was to show how we would present the work.

We laid out a floor plan and a mock up of something we would present on one of the dividers. We were told that our horse would be the one to finish without a jockey as our only idea was to do with food. The branding was brilliant and consistent but there was nothing else to the idea and we most probably got lost. Personally I believed we tried to bring a lot of aspects in that we had been asked, we added a lot of interactive points to our theme and even added in things to entice people to come and see what was going on. True we could have pushed the money idea more but our other themes weren't liked and this was very much favoured we were told our idea was definitely a contender but only after the decisions were made were we told that our idea didn't have much to it even adding in the few points made to improve from the first presentation. I do believe we could have done more to push the money theme but we did stick to a theme and branded well, as a group we all worked exceptionally and really came together to make sure our work was completed and to a high standard. I have taken a few points away from this brief that I hope to help with future work.

OUGD406 - Licence to Print Money, Final Design and Critique

This is the final printed and cut down design of my notes. I have made something to mount my work on and in so that you can line up the notes and view them as a set. I chose wood to mount my work to stand out and contrast the design already on giving a more natural look and a neutral look.

I showed this idea to a few of my peers before producing it. They said this design would work the best out of the ones I had sketched out and would also be the easiest to display and create. The other designs featured hanging my work and other materials being used to create the thing I was mounting my work onto. I looked into using acrylic and thick plastic stock but I thought it would look like I was trying to mask it, it would look too messy. The wood would look cleaner and like I said before more natural.

OUGD406 - Licence to Print Money, How to Mount

I have had some dilemmas with how to mount my work. The brief specifies 2 banknotes to be mounted landscape and fit within 21cm X 26cm my notes fit these dimensions but I would like them to be displayed as one set lining them all up behind one another to get the full effect of the piece. I can either choose one or two of my favourite designs, mount them in a frame and hang them or design a 3D mounting system. The idea I have in mind would be to take two pieces of plywood and connect them together so that there is no movement, I would add cut outs into the wood 2.5cm away from each to slot my notes into this would mean that the notes would still fit within 21cm going backwards as well as across.

OUGD406 - Licence to Print Money, Screen Printing

I had to share my screen as it was slim pickings for what was left but I just masked off the part I wasn't using. Firstly I tried printing all the notes at once in one colour to check that all of them worked and nothing needed to be re exposed. I then commenced with printing my experiments but the screen began to get clogged up, I had to clean the whole thing and wait for it to dry. This process alone took longer than 30 minutes which, I decided was too long to wait each time I wanted to print a note if I wanted to get a good 8 done on different stock. I took the method of masking the screen off after I had printed with each note separately without cleaning the screen until the very end because it would save so much time. 

These are some of the outcomes I produced the stock that seemed to work the best for the set to be taken as they were designed to be in a series were the transparent ones. I particularly liked the frosted plastic stock I used but as you layered it up it would start to lose detail. The white plastic stock felt nice and I could see it being used as a futuristic design as most countries notes nowadays are turning towards a plastic banknote, the only issue with this stock was that it becomes creased very easily. My most favoured stock was the acetate it managed to do exactly what I wanted from my designs. Lining the designs up behind one another produced a very pleasing outcome as if all the planets were aligned with the Sun.

OUGD401 - Speaking from Experience, Final Design

This is what I came up with for my final design. I placed the pictograms around appropriately next to the correct statements. I decided to go with both green and blue as my final designs they're both considered calming and soothing colours brilliant for a reminder of how to stay calm and manage your time effectively. This design is to be displayed in a student bedroom or kitchen or any room they deem appropriate for this reminder to be placed. The poster has been designed at A3, students won't want the poster to overpower their walls but they will still want a reminder bigger than A4 so A3 was the right size to go for.

At the start of this project I wanted to design a pocket sized flyer with reminders of how to manage your time. The flyer design didn't seem to work as it would be too clunky, the design would be ruined and wouldn't look ass nice unfolded as a poster. Since I designed a reminder for the room I decided it wouldn't be too much more work to design flashcards that the students could carry round with them wherever they go. I firstly designed the cards to be A6 but thought that A7 would be more appropriate to fit into a pocket or a wallet similar to a business card.

Here are some more variations on the colour for my poster.

OUDG406 - Speaking from Experience, Pictograms

I sketched out some quick ideas for my pictogram designs to fill some of the space on my poster and also make it more attractive and engaging. I wanted the design to be bold and not over complicate the rest of the poster. The designs are to go alongside the writing not overpower them.

I moved to the digital design of my pictograms and carried on with the basic theme. At first I left the design to be on it's own but it didn't work as well on the poster they felt too open and disorganised. I moved onto adding the designs to a circle format as they all came together a bit better making them all fit to a theme and it also made it easier to fit them all to a similar size.

OUGD406 - Speaking from Experience, Digital Designs

I took the ideas through from my sketches to a more refined digital format and like I said with the initial designs I favoured the webbed look more. After looking through some of the suggestions online of how to manage your time effectively I added them into the digital versions.

I decided that the design was too plain so added in some bullet point type circles onto the design. I made sure the lines cutting through the type did not make it illegible so made the colour gray rather than white and place it behind the type. I still think there is something missing from the design maybe pictograms this is something I will be looking into next.

OUGD406 - Speaking from Experience, Colour Choices

http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html

The website above is very helpful for understanding colour choices. I looked into what colours make you feel what, my idea is based around managing your time well, I don't want to stress the students out more put them at ease.

A few different sources all suggested the same thing, green and blue seemed to be the best choice for my theme. They're both soothing and calming meaning they're both perfect for my designs, I need to experiment with the both of them and see which suits the theme best.

OUGD404 - Large Publication Digital Copy

Like for my small publication I have included a digital version of my large publication. I have again tried to keep the design simple. Colour was not needed throughout the publication and also does not fit because my graphic novel so far has not featured any colour. The typeface I used matched that of the one I am using in my graphic novel and therefore fit very well. Type size was considered, using size 10 for the body text and 24 for the titles, this was to keep consistency and help legibility. I tried to stick to some of the rules we have learnt over the past year about orphans, widows and rivers running through text but some of the time it couldn't be helped. I used page numbers to work with the contents page to help find your way through the publication. The alignment and grid system fit to a top left alignment. The introduction and some of the images are centre aligned to grab your attention as you will notice the difference.