Brief 1- Evaluation

I am happy with my final outcome of this brief; however I found it very difficult to generate ideas for it. The workshops have been partially helpful; the first one helped me actually think what my design process was and what was involved.

I realised how complex my design process is and there are many stages to it, the first main stage is to research, whether that is primary research, taking photos and interviews or secondary by using the internet it is all important to gain a greater insight into the subject. To actually start the project I will always print off the brief, I much prefer to have a paper copy to refer, highlight and make notes on. Sketching and mind mapping my ideas is also a big part of my design process, it enables me to get my thoughts on paper. I then start to moc a couple of ideas up digitally to see how well they would work. Then I gain feedback from a crit, this is a crucial part of the design process because this can throw my ideas completely upside down by other people’s opinion or give me a great idea when you have hit a brick wall. This could take me back to experimenting which could is a great thing because now I could get my best idea and roll with it. I then design and finalize my best idea, get even more feedback from my peers, change and evaluate.

I was very unsure how I was going to get all of that information into a leaflet about my own personal design process; also my process is almost never straightforward and changes every project. I needed to display my mad yet quite organized approach to design.

The next workshop was useful again, it was very simple spending time to fold paper in different ways, not necessarily just for leaflets, but also looking at more abstract folds. I looked at some napkin folds and experimented with them by using paper and some of them worked out really well.

I then chose the best fold I wanted to work with. The fold I chose was not your normal leaflet fold, but more of like a desktop leaflet that you could constantly refer back to. I chose to make a desktop leaflet because I didn’t want it to be something that you just look at and put way/ in the bin, I wanted to make more of statement with it. Making the template for the leaflet was pretty simple on inDesign, but where I found the most difficulty was where to put the actual information and figuring out which way the leaflet folded ect.  I did a lot of test prints to make sure the information was in the correct position. I had a lot of problems with positioning things. Originally I was going to have each fold a different colour or a gradient colour so it got lighter as I reached finalising my design. It proved very difficult adding colour and pattern to the design; I discovered a lot of problems with folding. As well as looking at having each fold a different colour I looked at having each one a different pattern and changing the pattern density.  I experimented with drawing my own patterns and adding them on to my design, I was happy with the patterns but once I added them to my design and printed them I didn’t think it worked at all. At this point I had hit a brick wall with the brief. I had a crit and this helped a lot! I realised that the patterns were completely pointless, I needed the design on a much thicker stock and maybe larger. In the crit I had a great idea to actually print my design on to a pattern rather than trying to fit the pattern around the design. I needed something colourful and slightly disorganised as I love colour and my design process is sometimes crazy, so I decided to experiment with watercolour. This worked really well, I only needed to place the type well and in the correct position, this still proved difficult. I printed more test prints to get it perfect. My final design was printed on A3 catrigage paper with added watercolour I did think about using watercolour paper, this would of made the water colour look better but wouldn’t of folded very well. In terms of type because the colours are very bright I chose to go for a simple Helvetica in black for the type to stand out and be readable.

Overall, I am happy with my final outcome for this one week brief and I feel like I have learnt a lot from this brief. I think I have defined my design process well, I am happy that I tried something new with my folding techniques, originally designing it was quite daunting as there was a lot to consider, but I am glad I stepped out of my comfort zone.