OUGD501 - Module Evaluation

Essay
My essay question was ‘How the Digital Dominate World has an Impact on Printed Publications and their Future.’ Print is a very interesting topic to me, and as a fond lover of books, magazines and print publications I thought it would be the perfect topic. Upon starting my essay research I was very confident that print was dying, and definitely declining thanks to the digital age and the rise of technology such as smartphones and tablets. Print seemed to be replaced by digital versions, eg newspapers, eBooks, emails. But during my research into the topic I discovered that I was completely wrong, print is not dying. It is actually thanks to the eBook that print is now seen as something more of a luxury item and a thing of beauty; print has become more appreciated and respected. Premium magazines are becoming more popular. The cover of a book is the first thing that you see, and the first opinion you make about a book, they say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but we do. As a designer and a visual person the cover would be the first thing that was judged. Well-designed covers add value and appreciation to books. Ebooks are yet to branch out in design, and no digital publication is yet to be pushed to its full creative design potential. They are very new things that have been kept very practical and simple, they are something that has not been fully explored. I came to the conclusion that the most successful way for print and digital to work is to coexist. It is not an either or situation, E books are not a better format replacing an inferior one; they offer a whole different experience. The best way to work is to bring together both the strengths of digital and of print.

Overall I am very pleased with how my essay turned out, I enjoyed writing it. One of the main struggles I had with writing my level 4 essay was planning, I didn't plan any of it and just seemed to add points and quotes as I came across them. It lacked structure and was a mess because of this. So this time I put a lot of time and effort into planning my essay, deciding what should go where and to insure it flows well. Another strength of my essay way that I did a lot of research before I even started to write it, to make sure that I has a good understanding of the topic first. In my level 4 essay I was researching and writing at the same time, and because of this I didn't really fully understand my topic and what I was writing. I am terrible at essays, but I think that I have improved a lot since first year.

The main weakness of the essay is the tone of voice; I just don’t feel that it has a professional feel to it. In the future I will try to spend more time structuring my writing to sound more mature and professional.

Practical
My practical work was a response to the people that believe print is dead. I created a magazine called spread, the celebrated the beauty of printed publications. I wanted to create something that people would want to keep and collect, similar to people’s attitudes towards vinyl records. It would be aimed at more niche audiences.

On a whole I am happy with how my magazine has turned out. One of main strength was time management. In past projects this has always been an issue for me. But while designing this I planned my time more efficiently and completed it well before the deadline. Because of this I found I was not rushing and have more time to experiment with the layout and be confident that I designed it to my full potential.

I came across a problem while cutting out my spreads, they didn't line up when I cut them out. I wasn't sure if this was because I had cut them out wrong or if the printer caused them to not line up correctly. I left my printed quite late, if I had of given myself longer I could have reprinted the magazine and insured that it was cut out with more attention this time.

OUGD501 - Essay Quotes

Essay Key Quotes      

•  “Just as the Industrial Revolution was driven by combining the steam engine with ingenious machinery, the Digital Revolution has been driven by two great innovations: the personal computer and the Internet.” (Walter Isaacson, 2014)
• “A society that used to communicate via the postal service, expecting someone to respond to a letter in the number of days, now expect a response to an email is a matter of seconds.” (Jeff Gomez, 2008)
• “A blank piece of paper and a computer screen when it is off have something in common: both are empty, devoid on content, ripe with possibility. A myriad of things could cover each; words, number, pictures, philosophy, comedy, tragedy. The possibilities are endless. But while you can only fit so much into one piece of paper (only so many words and so many numbers no matter how small you write), a computer screen can be an inexhaustible source of endless information. A computer screen is a gateway forever replenishing itself by either scrolling or replacing old information with new.” (Jeff Gomez, 2008)
• “Books as physical objects matter to me, because they evoke the past. A Métro ticket falls out of a book I bought 40 years ago, and I am transported back to the Rue Saint-Jacques on Sept. 12, 1972, where I am waiting for someone named Annie LeCombe. A telephone message from a friend who died too young falls out of a book, and I find myself back in the Chateau Marmont on a balmy September day in 1995. A note I scribbled to myself in "Homage to Catalonia" in 1973 when I was in Granada reminds me to learn Spanish, which I have not yet done, and to go back to Granada.” (Joe Queenan, 2012)
• “Publishers are leaning heavily on the idea that these are “premium” magazines, with deep reporting and full-page photos. Music reviews site Pitchfork even hopes that printing its quarterly magazine’s long-form features and illustrations on high-quality paper stock will encourage readers to collect them just as they collect vinyl records. But rather than eye the big general-interest numbers of Time and Rolling Stone, digital publishers are creating their magazines with lower circulations and content aimed at more niche audiences.” (Ricardo Bilton, 2014)
•  “You might describe them as coffee-table books, except they're not aspirational signs of taste. They're beautiful objects, whose arrangement of content, photography and paper stocks convey a different view of the world. The design and textures are an invitation to be touched, flicked, handled. Most of all, in keeping with our age of Instagram, Pinterest and social network photo sharing, the content is visually driven.” (John O’Reilly, 2014)
• “People who possess the physical copy of a book, not merely an electronic version, believe that the objects themselves are sacred. Some people may find this attitude baffling, arguing that books are merely objects that take up space. This is true but so is Prague and your kids and they Sistine Chapel.” (Joe Queenan, 2012)
• “If one magazine dies, it’s not the end of the industry, do I need to tell you how many TV shows have come and gone over the years? Yet nobody said that television was dead.” (Samir Husni, 2014)  
• “The physical artefacts are beginning to feel more precious, more like gifts. And I can see publishing going the same way. Maybe what we’ll lose to digital publishing is the cheaply produced mass market printing on poor quality paper. And what we gain is a new appreciation of well-designed, higher quality hardbacks.” (Rob Hart, 2013)
• “It's simply a matter of defining the different role and purpose of print and online, print does certain things very well. There's a sense of reward – almost luxury – of devoting time to the printed page that you can't put a price on. But at the same time, there's an immediacy and 'shareability' to the online world that's just as valuable in its own unique way.” (Sarah Cremer, 2012)

OUGD 501 - Design Boards

Context of Practice 2 - Spread Magazine

OUGD501 - Cover Experimentation

The title spread comes from the term magazine spread, i thought it would be relevant to a magazine about printed publications. The image is one of the techniques that is used to create a layout grid.

 I wanted the cover to me very simple, nothing too over complicated because the main focus point of the magazine should be the images. I thought the white was too plain so I experimented with adding in some colour.

Final cover. I went with this layout because i thought that a full page of colour looked too much, and also it was the most balanced. Similar to how magazines use the golden radio in layout design I have used thirds when designing this. 

OUGD 501 - Images I will be including

The photos I will be including on each page. I tried to group them into similar colours or topics to ensure that that the magazine flows better.

Page 1

Page 2-3. black, white and red. fashion

Pages 4-5. pink, black and white

Pages 6- 7. pink, black, white, cream and blue

Page 8-9. pink, black and white

Page 10-11. white, pink and green

Page 12-13. neutrals

OUGD 501 - Layout Research

Whether you're designing a page for print, or a website, there are some common principles you can apply to ensure balance.

The primary objective of any page you design, whether it's for a printed brochure or the latest web app, is to communicate information clearly and effectively to the reader. One of the best ways to ensure that the key messages are delivered to the reader is to create a balanced layout.

Page layout typically involves a lot of placement, rearranging and formatting of elements. Many designers approach this process organically, feeling their way to a pleasing end result. While this can lead to some excellent happy accidents, there is a risk that using a free-form methodology can result in a lack of visual balance on the page.

A good page composition should be both pleasing to the eye, but also communicate those key messages clearly to the intended audience. We've collected together some top tips to help you ensure your page layouts have balance. These approaches will work well to provide a structure for balance, regardless of the medium you're working with.




01. Use a grid

One of the easiest ways to ensure your page has a degree of balance is to use a grid system. Grids used to be the sole preserve of the printed page, but much work has been completed online in the past few years to help migrate the concept of the grid across to the digital medium.

By using a grid to inform the position of different elements on a page, you'll create a connection between the different elements that make up your page. This can help provide a sense of order to your layout, providing the reader with a clear structural reference to fall back on. This is important because when all your page elements have a feeling of connectivity with each other, the overall effect feels more comfortable to the reader, helping to put them at ease, and facilitating their access to the important stuff: the content!

02. Choose a single focal point

One of the most effective ways to provide a sense of balance is to choose a single focal point for your layout. A good example of this in practice is the use of a large image as the biggest single element on a page.

A strong visual can provide a powerful way to lead the reader into your page, and also supplies a useful structural element around which to arrange the remaining content in your layout. If you have multiple visual elements, use the proximity principle of Gestalt Theory to group them together, aligning them in the same way.

It's also worth keeping in mind that you can use a headline or pull quote in the same way; a good display headline can offer as much visual interest as an image, while continuing to provide the structure that will help you ensure a balanced layout.

03. Use the Rule of Thirds

One of the best ways to provide a sense of balance is to use the designer's favourite Rule of Thirds or Golden Ratio. Put simply, the rule of thirds says that if you divide your page into thirds both vertically and horizontally, the points at which the grid lines intersect provide the natural focal points of a composition. By aligning your key elements to these four points, you'll achieve a more pleasing composition than if you, for example, perfectly centre elements on your page.

In itself the rule of thirds won't magically provide your layout with balance, but by extending the principle it's easy to use this tendency towards a natural focal point to help inform the balance of your layout. A common approach is to place the most important elements of your page in the upper (or lower) third of the page, with the primary focal point aligned to match one of the intersections.

04. Use white space

It's common for novice designers to make use of every single bit of space on a page, stuffing in content until every gap has been filled. The more experienced know that sometimes the best bit of design involves leaving elements out, rather than shoehorning them in.

In the printed medium, the most common way to make use of white space is by enlarging the page margins and gutters. On the web, simply providing plenty of breathing room around elements can help make the layout feel composed and balanced. Using negative space works best when you have a clear structure that anchors content together (such as that provided by a grid), as the risk of white space can be a sense of disconnection between page elements if introduced haphazardly.

05. Repeat design elements

Another Gestalt principle, repetition can provide a strong sense of connected design and balance to a composition. The idea is that by identifying and re-using a motif or design treatment throughout your layout, you can provide a reference for the reader so that disparate areas feel connected and part of the same overall composition.

You can also use this technique to provide a focal point in your design, while retaining an overall balance, by intentionally breaking the pattern of similarity introduced through repetition.

06. Use hierarchy

One of the key approaches to achieving layout nirvana is a clear sense of structure and hierarchy. We've already touched on structure, but it's important to also convey the relative importance of different pieces of content on your page. A headline, for example, should almost always be more visually important than paragraph content.

Look at the different elements that make up your page and decide which is the most important. Use this element to provide a structural hook for the remaining elements on the page,

07. Use scale, contrast, and harmony

Finally, the use of scale can be a very effective method for achieving a good visual balance in your layout. By making some elements larger than others, a sense of order and hierarchy will emerge. This helps create a comfortable layout because the viewer will automatically look at the larger elements within the layout first, progressing through to the smaller elements as they read.

This principle also works with increased contrast, so that by isolating an element on the page through contrast will make the eye focus on that point first. This provides a way in to the page, and again gives a useful structural point to develop your layout from.

Both scale and contrast work best when they apply to one element, making it stand out from the other parts of your layout. Use the principles of harmony to make the others feel connected and accentuate the focal point.

http://www.creativebloq.com/netmag/create-balanced-page-layouts-7-pro-tips-121310009