Week 4

In class today we had the opportunity to look at the work of all the groups, and were encouraged to consider their successes/failures in terms of a worksheet we were provided with. This was very useful in terms of inspiration, assessing problems in other's work that may also be apparent in ours, and gaining an understanding of the expectations. My one gripe about this is that it would have been useful if people left notes, as we then would have been able to get feedback from a pool of maybe 100, which would be insightful, even if all of it was not constructive.
Next we were paired up in order to critique each others work using the worksheet. We were also given some 1 on 1 feedback from lecturer. This all helped me to identify faults in my own work, and possible solutions. The overall response I have got is positive, which is encouraging, though I feel I still have a way to go, and am wary of the big theme page. I also think I need to finalise my copy text, as I have a little less than 100 words, and I believe 100 is the minimum? As far as I understand it my next step is continuing by creating the other pages, and refining the ones I have done.

Week 3

This week we looked more closely at grids and composition. We began drawing up compositions using the grid for our spreads. The best of these were used to generate our mock up spreads. Feedback on my work helped me to make a decision as to the style I wanted to work with for my brochure. This meant moving away from more heavy illustrative work involving drawing in photoshop, and going for crisper, vector based pictures created in illustrator. I feel this is the right decision as my drawings tend to have a messier quality that I don't think conveys the professionally I strive for, and in terms of time management work in illustrator is much quicker and easier to manipulate. Other important feedback was that it might be difficult to have title fonts changing over spreads, that multiple, narrow columns make the writing unnecessarily difficult to read. The photo of the tires perhaps interferes with the illustrative qualities of the helmet/track, and is unnecessary, so I might look at another element to replace that. Twisty lines are good. I do worry thought that for the top mock, the design is too minimal for the feel/energy of the theme.


At this point, having clarified and tested the direction I wish to take, and having finished most imagery, I am feeling confident about the place spreads but have concerns about the theme ones as there is a lot of text to work with and it is all difficult to fit, let alone organise in a visual style.
Work is now to complete 2 destination spreads and 1 theme spread for Monday.

Week 2 pt. 2

In class we showed our collage work for a group crit in which we talked about the success of imagery in conveying the feel of locations and why that is (contrast, colours, scale, leading lines etc). I had slightly misinterpreted the homework, as I had taken it to mean a layout mockup or something similar, but trimmed up the work to just include imagery. Ultimately my work was quite rough, and I was unhappy with it. I found I had difficulty working with photographs, and after a discussion with lecturer decided I would be better taking a more illustrative approach. This is firstly because I think I have better skills with illustration than photographic work, and also because it gives me the opportunity to 'exaggerate' which I hoped would make me more enthusiastic about the project. It also ties in with my target audience, as I feel illustration, if the right style is used, is more engaging for younger audiences and can better portray the energy of the theme. The work I've looked at in my research all favours that kind of approach. The one element of my work I did like was the use of lines, which I wanted to keep.

We also did a group exercise where we matched adjectives to designs. This helped is in identifying why certain approaches convey certain feelings/ideas, which is useful in developing visual cues in our own work.

My next step was catching up by generating imagery, as further steps are difficult without it since the imagery should inform the design.

Week 2

I know I probably should have posted earlier, but I'm still a bit confused about which steps are important to upload here, so I'll just mark roughly where I am now and go from there.

I've now officially visited all three of my locations, and collected photos, as well as brainstorming 2 pages for each on icons/colours/emotive qualities etc. My next step is narrowing down the artistic style I wish to use for my design. 

I've already done some research and collected images of styles I like, and have made a couple of rough mock-ups (though I am not too keen on either of them). I honestly feel like I'm a bit behind at this point though, I'd like to have a better idea of the direction I want to pick, and more mock-ups. I find I struggle at until I latch onto something I like, but hopefully inspiration will strike. It's hard to advance the project until I've really filled out this step. I think what I need to do is work on volume, and try out as many approaches as possible.

Because of my target audience (youth/family) I probably don't want anything too slick or minimal, a more exciting and vibrant look would work better, especially to convey the feel of excitement/fun that should go with my theme (indoor sports/rec).

In class we did a drawing exercise where we were expected to make drawings on an object from our location with a receding time limit, using different tools. This helped to generate a lot of material, which even if we chose not to use later on in our work might inform our art/design.

Week 1 pt.1

We began by brainstorming, allowing us to come up with a range of ideas and options for our project. Generating a vast amount is important as it allows us different paths to take, rather than narrowing ourselves down to one immediate idea.