Technical Studies Level 2 Graphics 2 Danielle Leigh BA Design Year 2
Contents 1.....................................................................Introduction 3..................................................Technique
in Practice: CV and Publication
5...........................................The Importance of Colour
7................................................The Structure of Grids 9..............................................................The Typeface 11................................Integration to Other Documents & Preparation for Print 13...................................................................Outcome
15.....................................................Graphics
in Practice
17............................................................Poster Design 19............................................Web Design and Beyond
Graphic design is all around us. It is an essential part of design, whether combined with other products or on its own. It’s job is to communicate clearly and quickly. Despite this, there are many elements that make up a good graphic, which is why I chose to do the Graphics 2 workshops; to find out more about the world of graphics and to enhance my understanding of what goes into a good graphic and a well-organized document. 1
Introduction
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Colour is immediacy. It’s the first thing you see when you look at a publication. It sets the mood and feel of the medium before the viewer registers the pieces’ message, or whether they choose to continue with the publication. A graphic’s use of colour is often dependent on what mood or what message the piece is trying to convey. In the CV I needed a colour scheme which grabbed the viewer’s attention and made them want to read on. I began with a range of colours, which I was going to use for different sections of the CV. After experimenting with the different colours in different amounts, I found that it looked too cluttered so decided to cut down the amount of colours. I looked at a select few colours to focus on, however I thought they were too dull to catch the attention the piece needed. Finally I decide to just use white and a single colour in different shades to create a simple and clear piece which catches the viewers attention.The bright blue colour does this, while still giving a friendly feel to it. I decide on blue as it is a calm, relaxing colour which give a friendly atmosphere to the piece while still being bright and eye-catching. The white gives a good contrast to the strong blue and gives clarity.
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The Importance of Colour
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The grid is the foundation of any publication. It creates a structure, which becomes familiar to the viewer so that the publication has a flow and the viewer can find the information the piece easily. The grid often depends on the format of the publication: a poster, book and website are each read differently to one another, but often there are some structural similarities. Most grids have columns, margins, intercolumn space and a baseline grid, no mater what the publication. It’s this structure that is the skeleton of a piece. For the CV, I used both Adobe InDesign and Adobe Illustrator to have the freedom of moving different elements into a grid to create the flow and structure I wanted. I used clear margins to frame the document, only breaking this with the image at the top and the comment at the bottom. This brings attention to them by breaking the familiar structure, but not so much it disrupts the flow of the piece. There are intercolumn spaces between the different elements to ensure clarity of information. Each element is also set up to create flow by aligning elements.
The Structure of Grids
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A typeface is an important part of a document, it can tell you what type of document it is or what kind of attitude it gives off, and it’s legibility can decide whether or not the reader finishes the document or not. The way to recognise a good typeface is to see whether it has different letters for it’s italics, good kerning or legible eyes in letters like a or e while in bold. The typeface should be clearly legible if it was designed correctly. I kept this in mind when choosing my font for the CV. I wanted a font with a friendly feel but which also was legible. I selected a few fonts based on this then compared them. The font ‘where stars shine the brightest’ gave a charming and simple feel, however it had no uppercase letters, so this would make the document feel unfinished and unprofessional. Simplicity was similar but was too thin so I was worried about the legibility. ITC Lubian Graph BT gave a lot of choice and was a great typeface, but the structure of it with the prominent stems meant that it didn’t give the friendly feel I was looking for. I decided on Montserat as it gave the feel I wanted and was spear and legible. It also could be used on the web, so I thought that it could be used in future for a website.
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The Typeface
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To ensure that a whole document has a flow and familiarity, there must be themes and structures to follow to link each page of a document together. The CV was the base for the whole document so I used the rules and structures set out in the grid, colour scheme and font as a basis for the document. I broke up some of the main structure with diagonal blocks of colour to highlight the page titles and headers and then guide the eye down the page. It also gave a more contemporary feel to thew piece, moving away from the uniform monotony of horizontal and vertical line that you often see within the columns and rows of text and images. I stayed with the same colour scheme and font as the CV to ensure continuity. It also allowed the CV to be easily integrated into the document, even though it was a stand-alone piece which would usually be seen without the document.
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Integration to Other Documents & Preparation for Print
I then moved on to preparing the document for print. I knew the specifications which I wanted it to have: colour to the edges to the paper and a simple stapled binding. To do this I inserted crop marks to show the edges of the pages and where to trim off the excess. I ceased bleeds so that the colour would go past the crop marks and be crisp to the edge. I then arranged the pages so that they would be in the correct places when the document was finally bound. As I knew the printer I was using was not specialised for professional publication, I compensated by multiple test prints and rotating pages where necessary. This resulted in a final professional looking publication.
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Outcome
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Poster Design
In one of the projects I worked on, I was required to design a series of water health posters which would look as if they had come from and official or government source. To create this official look, I created a brand identity using colour and font. I used a green/blue colour as it is authoritative in it’s strength of colour, but still retains a calm friendly tone with no aggression, which you would see in strong colours like reds. I then used the sans-serif font Comfortaa in its bold form for titles and headings and in regular for the main body of text. The font had a great legibility, which was needed for an official poster, and it also had a friendly feel to it because of it’s rounded edges. Combined with well-photographed and photoshopped images, the posters gave the official look they required.
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Web Design and Beyond When creating my portfolio webpage, I wanted it clean and simple so that it would feel professional and wouldn’t distract from the images. As my CV was linked to my portfolio page I wanted to continue some of the same themes that ran through it. I decided to focus on the colour scheme and the font. The decorative lines, menu bar and headings all used the same blue as the CV to link them, and it also had a more contemporary feel by breaking the standard greytones which come with a minimalist webpage. I used the same Montserat font as the CV as it linked the two pieces together and it also gave the same friendly and clear feel I wanted. After studying more about graphic design, I feel that it will aid me in creating more professional looking and considered graphical documents. I hope to develop these skills further so they can help me in my career and other opportunities. I would love to learn how to create book publications and look more into detail about printing production and the more profession side of graphic design and print. I hope that the placements I take during the summer will teach me the skills I would like to learn, but I would like to look more into it on my own too. I hope to use and develop these skills more in my third year, along with other skills like making and prototyping to become a more rounded and multi-skilled designer.
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