404 Design Principles design boards

OUGD404 Charlotte Price

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TYPE

Type is one of the major elements of graphic design and in this module it became obvious how vital type is when creating a certain aesthetic.

At first, using Helvetica in the Penguin book covers (fig 1) with the rest of the minimalist design seemed wise as the typeface is known for its simplicity. However the covers didn’t fit with the classic Penguin aesthetic, so instead of Helvetica, the typeface was switched to Gill Sans (fig 3) the

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typeface Penguin uses in all their covers. Applying the same principles to the exhibition poster (fig 2) and using a typeface very Ssimilar to the one the Tate Modern uses immediately made the poster appear as if it was a real exhibition.

These initial struggles have lead to a deeper appreciation of type and its major roles in graphic design. Typefaces help to create a solid visual identity.

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COLOUR

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Colour is an essential principle in design and heavily inspired the work created in this module.

The Pantone book (fig 5) was created after developing a swatch from a photograph taken on the University of Leeds campus. Pantone is a highly standardised colour system that is used in designing and printing, and the company even releases colours of the year. The colours for 2015 were Serenity (blue) and Rose Quartz (pink) (fig

6), and these were applied when designing the Penguin book covers (fig 7) to represent gender, as is the theme of the books.

Using his Homages to the Square (fig 1), Josef Albers was able to portray that colours when in different contexts and surrounded by different colour groups had varying ‘moods.’ When printing the Pantone booklet the document had to be converted from RGB (screen display) to

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CMYK (printing) (fig 3 and 4)

International Klein Blue (fig 2) is such a powerful colour and learning about its influence over art, design and other culture too, such as fashion, was eye opening to show the impact a colour can have in the world.

OUGD404 Charlotte Price

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FORMAT

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Across the module the products designed were all in varying formats. The poster was an A1 print (fig 4) designed to be folded down into an a4 folded document (fig 5) and so folding techniques needed to be explored when undertaking this task. The finished result is 2 formats in one and shows how products can multitask.

The Pantone leaflet (fig 1) was difficult to produce as the format needed to be altered. After a faulty

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leaflet (fig 2) the format was changed to a booklet (fig 3), which was easier to produce and looked professional when bound using a 3 hole pamphlet stitch.

The booklet was designed in InDesign (fig 6) an application for publications so formatting text into columns was relatively simple. For example, The justification of the text needed tweaking so the text would sit right and not be too gappy or misaligned.

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LAYOUT

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Massimo Vignelli, a reknowned modernist uses the grid in his work as he believes there is ‘nothing more useful to reach our intention’. An example of the grid in design is the Marber Grid (fig 1). This is a grid specific to Penguin Books, and it divides the cover into type and image. The way the type is arranged is iconic to the book publishers and brings consistency to the entire range of books.

However in the designs for the Women and Woolf

series the grid was altered (fig 2) so that the type would be more streamlined to better work with the miminalistic cover.

After the creation of the exhibition poster (fig 3) it was clear to see how the design uses a modular grid with defined columns (fig 4) and realising this helped to see how grids are used in everyday design.

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Due to the different formats between the designs for the Pantone booklet, the layout had to be drastically altered. Using the given manuscript grid layout within InDesign, the pages were designed within the margins (fig 7) and the book was given consistency across all pages. Creating paper prototypes for version 1 of the booklet was instrumental in creating the product. (fig 5 and 6).

OUGD404 Charlotte Price

OUTCOMES

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The Penguin book covers were books by Virginia Woolf with a common theme of gender and so given the series name ‘Women and Woolf’. The designs are based on the Marber grid but the grid has been slightly altered in order to fit the minimalistic appearance of the illustrations (fig 1, 2 and 3).

The exhibition poster (fig 3) is for an exhibition at the Tate Modern about unusual architecture and features a folded paper object - providing a focal

point for the poster. The poster follows the Tate style, using the typeface ‘Tate Regular’ as well as the negative space seen in all exhibition posters for the museum.

The Pantone booklet uses the manuscript layout of InDesign ( fig 5) and text columns to provide its aesthetic of simple text to let the pictures take centre stage. The finished booklet, printed double sided and bound using a 3 hole pamphlet stitch

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looks professional. (fig 4).