OUGD603 — Brief 09 — Yearbook - Boards

Evaluation:

Pitches and presentations have always been a downfall in my creative practice. I find it really hard to speak in front of large groups of people, even in front of close friends I feel anxious and nervous so it was going to be an expected struggle to pitch a concept in front of the tutors, and all of our competition.

I feel like these struggles have been pushed aside and even though I still feel nervous, I can deal with it a lot better and power through discussing my opinions, thoughts, ideas, and work. This has shown in our successful pitch that won the opportunity to work the yearbook this year. I have developed a lot of confidence thanks to this brief and become a lot closer to my colleagues while working with them on it.

The conceptual development of the response to this brief is something that I am extremely proud of, using well informed research, and inspiration from an event that happened in Leeds, we have worked together to think of something unique, functional and exciting.

It is unfortunate that we haven't been able to work this further for hand-in and we have only gotten to the art-working stage but the group voted to hold it temporarily to get everything else finished to a good standard and to hand this in as a winning concept.

I am excited to get back to work on this project and deliver what we hope to be the best yearbook that our programme has ever had.

OUGD603 — Brief 09 — Yearbook - Art-working

After I downloaded my portion of the yearbook submissions, I got to work on placing images in the required composition and scaling them ready for print.

I got in contact with Joe and urged him to take a photo of his 'Time is an illusion' mural that is on the studio wall as this let out of place in the dimensions available and we could get a great photo of the finished piece! As soon as I get that photo I will be able to exchange it.

Once that was finished I began on filling out the half-pages too, this was very tedious but extremely simple to do.

OUGD603 — Brief 09 — Yearbook - Saturday Club

On Saturday 09/05 we all met up at the university at 10:00am to begin working together on the final layout designs.

We began with the full spreads where we worked out margin & gutter ratios and dimensions which would frame the work in a structured format at the same time as letting the work jump out in the most effective way possible too.

We struggled to tackle the pagination because of the project reference codes that would take up the sides of the images, however when considering the half-page insert within the spread, we realised we could show the page number beside it on the bottom of the page with a consistent margin to the outer-edges of the pages.

We also had the idea to contain the student's name on the top of the right side of the spread which would be hidden by the half page insert when the student's name is visible there. This means the name of the designer is always on show.

In respect to the half-page insert, we chose to use Avenir Black & Heavy because it was as close as we could get to what we actually wanted without costing a fortune in licensing fees.

We were originally going to have much bigger type (19pt) but because of the word limit we issued in the e-mail, we found that we had to pull this down to 12pt or some student's bios would not fit.

This wasn't as aesthetically pleasing but much more functional and didn't sacrifice too much appeal in the process.

On the back we split the available space into four sections, this held all of the information we needed and left some breathable space in-between too.

Now we had a functional design we were all happy with in both format and aesthetics, we divided the yearbook entries between us to art-work and got things started.

OUGD603 — Brief 09 — Yearbook - Imagary & Information Request

To begin our design-work, we needed to collect everyone on the course's imagery and information to place within the spreads and half-page inserts in the student's desired layout options. We requested a personal/design bio of up-to 725 characters including spaces as it worked well within the dimensions we had along with other information such as experience, achievements and contact details.

We also designed a series of layouts which each student could choose from to present their work in, this made the layout a lot more personal to each and gave them the opportunity to design a spread with their own work. We requested one of these layouts to be chosen which fit our guidelines and recommendations along with the images they wanted to present in 300dpi, TIFF format and CMYK.

'Hi guys,

For this years yearbook we need all the correct info and imagery off you. This includes;

_Up to 725 characters (including spaces) about you as a designer and your design practice.
_A list of Experiences (and location)
_A list of Achievements
_Contact details (Mobile, Email, Website)
_Please find attached specification for the imagery required.

The deadline for this is Friday 1st May

Cheers,
Harrison, Jasper, Laura & Alex'

We also attached a pdf with full instructions on what to send us.

Instructions

Select one of the four layouts you feel best displays your work.

Layouts can be a single project with 4 images or

Four projects with a single image each

(For example layout C or D)

When sending your work to us first state the layout you have chosen and save the photo with Your Name/Project Title/Layout Position.'

OUGD603 — Brief 09 — Yearbook - Reviewed and Amended Book Specifications

As a group we all met up after our meeting with Jason to work out how to cut costs in the creation of the yearbook so we can fall under the budget. Harrison mentioned reversing our bind aesthetically so the spine is beneath the grey-board cover, this would make it far less labour intensive and drastically cut the costs of the finished product. We sent it over to Danny to be passed on and enlightened on whether it was realistic yet.

'Hi Danny, hope you're having a good weekend.

The guys and I met yesterday to discuss the meeting with Jason and to make amendments, I have attached two images of a book Sam made for cop3 which is how we propose to bind ours with just the title and logo along the spine (the rest of the information can go on the 2/3 height dust jacket). We also discussed number of pages and decided 102 (for peoples work, 120 gsm), 10 (for the index at front, 80 gsm) and half page inserts which will be same stock as the index pages. Is it necessary to add breaker pages to promote the course at all? Let us know if there is anything else we have missed.


Cheers,
Harrison'

OUGD603 — Brief 09 — Yearbook - Budget Consideration

After we had pulled together everything we were covering with the yearbook in respect to print finishing, content and nature of the bind we e-mailed Jason at Evolution Print to explain what we wanted to do and see if it was possible.

Danny got back to us very quickly and told us that we were exceeding budget with what we were wanting to do and recommended that we rework it to be a bit cheaper.

'Hi Harrison,

Got all the costs back from the printers based on the specs that were submitted. 
The total budget is a bit over what we've been given so I was looking to see if three of the groups - including yours - were able to adjust some of the details so that we may bring that price down. I could ask Jason about where savings might be made, but I think it's better that you - as designers - have a say in what might be done rather than risk someone else suggest the losing of an integral element. One other thing that came back was the concern from Evolution about the half pages marking the book. You happy that this isn't an issue? I'll run it by Jason again if there's a genuine concern.

Anyway, could you have a look at it and get back to me?

Cheers,
Danny'

We met up to discuss what to do and came away with two different outcomes, we could either remove the quarter-bind and leave it as an open spined book and/or remove the dust-cover from the equation.

Harrison:

'Hi Danny, 

I've talked to the group and we feel that by keeping the greyboard cover but removing the cloth bound spine we could cut costs. Our only concern is that if it is open perfect bound it would be really flimsy, so our way around this would be to have a perfect bound book with grey board mounted front and back if you get me?? And possibly get rid of slip cover. 

We were always wondering when you thought would be best for everyone to send their work and info by, we were thinking by next Friday would be best so kind of give people a week once we've finalised character count and image spec. What do you think? 

Cheers'

Danny:

'Hi Harrison,


Jason is dropping by at 3.30 tomorrow so we can look at the figures with him and see what we can do. I mean, there may be ways we can save by doing things like putting on the slip covers ourself? I know he said that there are sometimes options like this.
I don't think we want to alter the integrity of any of the proposed projects but if we can trim a few costs, that would be great.


Cheers,
Danny'

Hopefully we won't be cutting back the design too much as we were really happy with the direction we were going in.

OUGD603 — Brief 09 — Yearbook - Print Specifications

After Jason's visit to talk about print specifications, Danny contacted all the groups asking for the necessary details.

Danny:
'Hey all,

Just wondered if you had chance to sort out what kind of print specs you are after so I can see if they are do-able within the budget? I just need to get stuff to Jason to look over and do the math.

Cheers,
Danny'


Harrison:
'Hi Danny, 

In terms of print specs we're looking at;
_80gsm half page inserts for everyone's bio. (Single colour black) 
_Same 80gsm full pages at front introducing the indexing system (single colour black)
_Greyboard front and back cover (single colour black)
_Quarter bound with fabric
_Half page dust jacket (single colour black)
_Double page spread per person (CMYK) probably a standard un coated stock around 120 ish 

I think that's everything we discussed, If you feel I've missed something else just give me a shout. 

Cheers,
Harrison'


Danny:
'How many pages is it again? And what was the size you specified? 

Cheers,
Danny'


Harrison:
'The format is 170x240 and we're still a little clueless about number of pages. We know that everyone has a double page spread and insert, but the amount of pages at the beginning of the book all depends on how many projects/images are submitted and indexed. The more images people submit the more pages there will be at the front of the book. So that's kind of something we find out once everyone has submitted their work for it??? 

Cheers'


Danny
'So if we say 94 pages (double page for each student) plus, maybe a further ten as a guide? (+ half page inserts, of course)'

Harrison:

'Yeah that sounds about reasonable, we are also having breaker pages with different features such as visiting professionals, awards etc.. Kind of a marketing tool. I forgot to mention but it's not a great deal more pages I don't think. 

Cheers'

Hopefully everything will be under budget as this was our primary worry!

OUGD603 — Brief 09 — Yearbook - Talk with Jason form Evolution Print

I took some very brief notes to refer back to when we had our meeting with Amber and Danny which is yet to be scheduled.

Jason said that last year, everyone produced perfect bound books.

Mixing stocks is doable as long as pagination in worked out.

450gsm is maximum thickness.

There is papers that are coated / uncoated each side.

 80gsm half page inserts are doable.

Quarter bind is doable.

For perfect bound jobs, they require the indesign document in single pages to determine the spine size.

ASAP — Max deadline 22nd of May?

OUGD603 — Brief 09 — Yearbook - Presentation 2.0

As always I was a bundle of nerves to be presenting in front of the whole course our concept ideas for our year-book this year.

People already had a bad-expectation because of what they got from our previous presentation and what others had said without fully understanding what we were doing.

It was our job today to make sure everyone was completely clear on our idea and how it would work as a yearbook as well as outside of one too. Explaining concisely that our archiving system would not identify them as a number or code but only aid the discovery of their work via the systematic contents page in the form of specialism reference codes.

The overall reactions were as expected but not as bad as we thought they'd be. We wanted to keep the questions period conversational between the course so they were absolutely aware that we were deciding all elements as a course and everyone's thoughts and ideas would be considered towards improving the finished book.

By the end, everyone 100% understood the concept and the direction as well as what it consisted of. In reflection to the presentation I feel that with the more effort of preparation I did before - helped with my nerves and keeping on topic with what I was discussing/explaining. We all did a great job explaining the concept clearly and we sold the idea to the course well.

We have organised to discuss different elements of the yearbook on Friday at 13:00 so people can put forward their ideas, concerns and help develop the yearbook into a finished outcome we are all proud to be in.

OUGD603 — Brief 09 — Yearbook - Biography + Spreads

As part of the presentation we needed to show some examples of page spreads as well as the half-page insert between it.

Because I have photographed my work, I was chosen to be the example.

Me, Harrison and Jasper went to the library to seek some examples of layouts for images only and we really loved this example of hairline margins to use up the spread-space effectively.

I picked out some completely different pieces of work so we could see it at it's least organised or consistent and gave it a go with a few different variations of layout but after seeing it we felt like it needed more framing to tidy it up.

We looked at some more books and thought that a combination between a higher spaced gutter (example 1) and more intimate margins (example 2) would hold the page a lot better.

Using a set of 12mm outer / 18mm inner margins / 7mm gutters I created another grid system that would aid in framing the individual photographs and allow breathability between them.

This worked a lot better and the rest of the group agreed that it presented the photographs more dynamically without feeling overcrowded.

The next part was to design the insert for between the spread to hold the information on.

I worked out my bio info and then began designing possibilities using the dimensions of the insert which would be half the normal pages (8.5 x 17 cm).

Bio:

I am a graphic designer with a strong passion for the concepts and construction of independent brands, fused with an interest in the impact that can be delivered by type & image in the form of both physical products & screen based media.

Interests:

Bikes, Beers, and Burgers.

Experience:

Intern at Analogue Creative.

Selected Clients — Kinoko, Tokyo Fixed, & Restrap.

Achievements:

Dialogue Exhibition (Leeds 2014)

Contact:

hello@a-dyson.co

+44 (0) 7788 587 307

www.a-dyson.co

Me and Jasper went into the corridor and quickly took my photo to use and I quickly edited it to black and white half-tones.

Our final decision was on the option below. We felt that the space was well distributed and it had a cleaner and well constructed appearance that linked to our creative practice and professionalism as a course.