OUGD504 Design Production & Evaluation (Studio Brief One)

Design Production

For this brief, only a single sheet of A3 paper is required to print out two leaflets. This is a very cost effective way of producing the leaflets, as not only are they cheap, they are a decent size to be put in pockets/bags/wallets etc.

I printed the leaflets out on newsprint. This is a cheap stock, therefore it also kept the cost of the production to a minimum.

The colours had to be altered to CMYK to be able to print, which I think worked well with my leaflet design, as it made the yellow on my leaflet really pop and contrast really well with the black and the white, which it didn't do as successfully on screen.

This leaflet could easily be mass produced, whether that's using a normal digital printer or a Lithoprinter. A lithoprinter would be a successful way as only the ink, stock and plate would cost. It is also a beneficial method to print my leaflet, as I limited myself to using 2 colours and a stock colour, meaning that it would only cost to buy two coloured inks, instead of using full colour which would be CMYK and therefore cost a fair bit more. It also means that only two plates would be needed, meaning that would lower the cost of production even further.

Evaluation

I think my final design for this leaflet is definitely an improvement on the previous design. I believe it is a lot more eye catching and interesting to look at, and the placement of the numbers and type changing on each page is effective as it makes the leaflet more engaging. I think the bright colours would attract a lot of designers. I also think the use of two typefaces is great as it makes it look a lot more professional and again, interesting to look at. Researching into this project really helped the development of my own project, as I learnt a lot about printing and using CMYK on screen for the best results once printed. I also experimented a lot with the actual design, as I wanted to push myself away from designing purely modern, which I found really challenging as it's my comfort zone. This is something that I want to push further throughout the module, as although I really struggled with this aspect, I believe it really paid off and I find my leaflet design really satisfying to look at.

Another aspect of this brief that I really enjoyed was the experimentation of folds, as it is a concept that we started developing in first year and since then I haven't really had the opportunity to push further. I found this task really challenging as the instructions for each fold were quite complex and difficult to follow as most directions I found only used images and not written instructions.

I think a weakness of this brief was time management, as I decided last minute to change my leaflet design completely as I wasn't happy with it and I didn't think it was very interesting to look at - however, this could also be a positive, as people in the group critique said that it was successful other than the backwards folding, and I decided to change it on my own judgement, which shows I can critique my own work as well as relying on other peoples opinions.

I think a strength of this brief was the fold, as although I changed the design on the leaflet in the end, I stuck with the same fold, as I think it is really engaging and it's not a leaflet fold I have ever seen used anywhere else. I also think the use of block colour was a strength as I went for quite an experimental approach which is something I wouldn't usually do, and I think it paid off as the colour is consistent through-out, but not over-powering.