The finish line

I took my printed brochure into class and received some good feedback with a few changes to make. I completed those changes and documented them in my workbook. I went and got it printed at Full Stop as they have a quicker turn around time and I wasn't entirely happy with the job The Big Picture did for my last print out and I am much happier with the job Full Stop has done. The colours are much more vibrant and the pages are lined up almost perfectly. I am very happy with the outcome of my brochure and really enjoyed the project.

Almost there

After many hours on Indesign I am nearly there. I am very happy with the overall result so far. I took it in to The Big Picture to be printed which went well except they struggled to line up all of the pages perfectly before they stapled the booklet together. It is very minor though so I am still happy with the outcome and am looking forward to getting my final critique in class on Monday.

Front and back cover

I tweaked my front cover design a little by adding colour blocks behind the drawing so as to match it a little more to my introduction page. I also created my back cover. To me the scrunched up bag concludes the brochure nicely.

front cover

Back cover

Testprints

I went to the printers today to get a test print done. The colours turned out well but there were a couple of streaks through my design that were not visible on screen so I will have to be careful to check the quality of the printing when I get my final brochure printed.

Cover design

I began the process of coming up with a cover design. To start off I looked back through my book at the cover thumbnails I had drawn up. I used my favourite one as a guide and re-created it using photographs and text. After further developments I decided I didn't like incorporating the paper bag in the sky so I decided to trace the photograph of the person and scan it in and overlay it onto the paper bag texture which I felt looks much better. I also changed the font to one that looks stamp-like as it reminds me of stamped paper bag lunch bags. It also has a bit of a grunge feel to it which represents the urban setting of Wellington city. The images below show the developments the cover has undergone.

Mockup #2

I created the introduction spread using the map that I had created on Illustrator. I am really happy with the way this spread has turned out so far. As far as my other spreads are going I have further developed my three location spreads using the suggestions I received in class yesterday and I have definitely noticed an improvement. When I brought my designs into class today I received some good feedback. This feedback included lightening the colour of the paper bag so that the design appears more cheerful and inviting. Also watch the fully justified text as there are a few words with big gaps between them and I was also told to not be afraid of using negative space in my design as well as to consider the visual hierarchy of my spreads.

Map

I used Illustrator to draw up my map. I decided that depicting and labeling the main streets on my map would be important to the user who is trying to find my locations in the busy Wellington city center. I used coloured shape overlays on my map to show where each site is. I felt using shape overlays rather than pinpointing my sites was the way to go because my sites (the waterfront in particular) cannot be pinpointed, they are general areas around the city.

secondary communication point symbols

I created my symbols on Illustrator. Originally my three communication points were going to be: wind exposure, amount of seating available and whether there are public toilets available. Before I started drawing up my symbols I re-evaluated my communication points and decided to change the seating available symbol to amount of shade available. I made this decision because all three locations had lots of seating available which is a given for any site being recommended for eating your lunch in. I felt as though shade available would be more useful to potential brochure users.

Re-creating my spreads on the computer

I created my three spreads on Indesign as closely to my original thumbnails as possible. Once they were  computer generated and printed out, in class we were able to spot the aspects to the designs that were and weren't working.
Overall the heading typography wasn't working as it is hard to read. Also it was suggested that instead of using paper bags on all three spreads I should mix it up and use perhaps the edge of a lunch box for one etc.

- Green graphic is too simple
- Text lined up with image
- More negative space around body text
- Body text is too many characters wide so needs to be broken into two columns.
- Photograph is good but could perhaps show more of the park

 -Better image needed
- More negative space on either side of body text
- Colour scheme is working well
-The folds in the paper bag are good

                                                                                   -Too much blue, perhaps more of the primary colours could be used
-The text needs to draw the eyes attention
- Text to be broken into two columns                                                                                    - Photograph and swirly lines are working well

Thumbnailing spread 3

I completed my page of thumbnails for spread three. This time it didn't take many thumbnails until I had an idea that I liked. I think this is because the layout structure was already fairly well refined from the thumbnails I had perviously developed for the other spreads. Now that I have completed thumbnails for all three spreads, my intro spread and a cover I am ready to start recreating some of these on the computer.

Mood Boarding

Before starting my thumb nailing of spread 3 I made another inspiration mood board. I stuck it onto the adjacent page to the blank page soon to be filled with thumbnails. My mood board contained overlapping photographs of the Waterfront and adjectives that I thought described the atmosphere and environment. I found this really helpful with coming up with relevant and coherent thumbnails when I did it last time for my Civic Square spread. 

Thumbnailing spread 2

I finished a couple of pages of thumbnails for my Civic Square spread. I eventually came up with a spread that I felt really reflected the site. I then experimented with scanning a paper bag that I had folded in different ways to create different patterns with the creases. I thought creating folds in the paper bag texture for this site in particular was appropriate as it reflects the organized nature of such an urban area.

 I think the triangular folds are more effective at reflecting Civic Square's nature as they are more creative and look a bit like the bricks in Civic Square which are laid down in diamonds.

Photos

I went out to my sites to take some good quality photographs to use in my brochure. I was able to get some really good ones and I was out around lunch time so I got lots of photos of people eating lunch in my sites which was ideal.

Mood Board

Before starting my thumb nailing of spread 2 I made a little inspiration mood board. I stuck it onto the adjacent page to the blank page soon to be filled with thumbnails. My mood board contained overlapping photographs of civic square and adjectives that I thought described the atmosphere and environment. I did this to help me with coming up with relevant thumbnails that really convey the atmosphere of my site.

Thumbnailing 1st spread

I began Thumbnailing my 1st spread which is the Mainland Park spread. I need this spread to represent the essence of the site which is busy, organized nature, commercial and a pocket of green in the city. After several pages of thumb nailing I finally came up with a design that I liked and thought suited the site. It is made up of a fairly uniform layout with one organic shape in the background. I drew up this thumbnail large on my page and annotated the features as well as looking at some possible colour schemes.

In class text exercise

In class we were given several A3 sheets with the same information on them written in several different font sizes and some were written black on white and others were white on black. With this text we had to create different layouts on the grids provided. All layouts conveyed the same message but how effectively the message was conveyed was all in the way the text was placed and sized to create hierarchy and guide the eye. I found this exercise really helpful as it showed me how powerful text can be in conveying meaning. This will be really helpful in my project when it comes to working out effective layouts within my spreads.

Thumbnailing

I chose my favorite introduction spread thumbnail and developed it a further seven times until I resulted with two final favorite designs to take to the computer. This time when developing these thumbnails further I had 100 words of text laid out on an A5 page so I can see how much of the page my introductory text will take up. I also cropped a Wellington map so it just showed all three of my sites which allowed me to see the approximate width:height ratio the map will need to be on the page. With this information in front of me I was able to create much more accurate layout thumbnails.

Personification of my sites

Before I started thumb nailing the spreads for my sites gave them each personalities to help with generating designs and themes. Midland park became a suited business man with a love for nature, Civic Square became an environmentally conscious female student in her 20's who enjoys drinking coffee to go in the sun and The Waterfront became a young sporty, carefree adult with a sense of adventure. I think having these personifications there to refer back to and reflect into my designs will be very helpful with keeping on track and focused on the specific personalities of my sites.

Title Brainstorming

Brainstormed a name for my brochure. When thinking of a name I had too keep in mind that my brochure is about outdoor lunch spots in Wellington and I need to reflect both of these points in my title. I also wanted the title to be light hearted as my subject matter isn't overly serious. In the end I came up with "Lunching Around the Capital".

Thumbnailing

I sketched up a couple of pages of thumbnails for the first spread in my brochure which is the introduction page. The introduction page contains a map of the locations, introductory text and images. I looked at a few other designs while sketching out the spreads to help and inspire my ideas which I stuck into my workbook also.

Mock Up

Using plain paper I created a mock up of the 12 page brochure. I did this to help get my head around what the brochure will physically look like. This will make it much easier to start thumb nailing the inside page designs.

Thumbnailing

Thumb-nailed a whole heap of cover ideas. I started off with using imagery of someone lying down on the grass with their lunch and then moved on to trying to create imagery that made the viewer feel as if it were them lying on the grass. This will hopefully capture the audience better when it feels more personal. Having done the thumb nailing brings me another step closer to really refining my design and transferring it onto the computer.

Getting Creative

I took a symbol from each set of patterns I had generated for my chosen locations and turned them into stamps. I then stamped these symbols onto photographs of my locations. I used different compositions, scales and colours to try and start to combine the photographs with visual motifs and symbols. This should be useful for when I have to start designing and coming up with themes for each of the spreads in my brochure.

Montage

I created a montage using all of the images I gathered from my primary location research. To do this I divided an A4 page into three sections (one for each location). Then I lay out all of my photographs from each location in their corresponding segments. By doing this I was able to see the colours each location created and the most common recurring colours which I hope will help when coming up with themes for my brochure design work.

Primary Research

Went out and visited all three of my locations today to soak up the atmosphere and collect lots of visual material. It was good to visit all three locations in a row so I could really notice the differences between them. The water front is definitely the location with the highest energy and civic square with the lowest energy and more of a relaxed lie on the grass sort of atmosphere. Midland park felt more commercial and busy with its users staying for shorter periods of time.

Synthesising visual research

When looking over the imagery on each of the research pages I have created for my locations I noticed distinct visual differences between the locations. For example the most noticeable aspect to the visual research I had collected was; each location had a colour that really dominated the images. Midland Park's colour is green, Civic Square's colour is orange and the Wellington Waterfront's colour is blue. I think having noticed these colour trends early on will be really useful when it comes to creating the design work. I also compared texture in each location as well as light quality.

Reconsideration of idea

After going over my research in class today with my group we realized how similar all three of the parks I had chosen were. When asked, I was unable to think of any significant differences to the three parks I had chosen. Subsequently I decided to change two of my locations to other "non-park" lunch time spots in the city. My "final" locations are Midland Park, Civic Square and the Wellington Waterfront area.

Research

Spent the day walking between my chosen parks and spending time in them. Was able to write notes about the experiences I had in each park and details I noticed such as the kind of seating each park provided and how much shade was available.

Idea

Decided upon my idea which is to design my brochure on lunch spots in Wellington city. I thought parks and little green pockets in the city would be nice places for people to stop and eat their lunches. With that in mind I came up with Te Aro Park, Glover Park and Midland park. I chose those parks because that are all very central but also well spread throughout the CBD.