OUGD505 1920s Publication

Brief

Produce a body of work that explores the relationship between content context and product in relation to your individually identified subject or theme. You should aim to produce a response that clearly and effectively exploits the function of your concepts in relation to: A Brief History of.... A collection of..... An Introduction to..... Things you need to know about.... An exhibition of....... Your work should practically and conceptually explore the possible products, ranges and methods of distribution that may be suggested by your content or reflect your own creative ambitions within Graphic Design.

Background / Considerations

This brief is in three parts Part 1:  Based on the introductory workshops develop a practical, visual and contextual investigation of a specific subject of your own choosing. You should aim to develop research from a range of primary and secondary sources in order to fully explore the opportunities for informed creative development. Your research and development of this part of the brief should be documented on appropriate blogs and will be presented as part of your interim concept pitch. Part 2:  Develop a body of practical and contextual research that explores the relationship between TWO of the following areas of design. Publishing & Editorial Information & Way-finding Branding & Identity Product & Packaging Retail & Promotion One of these should be your primary focus of contextual research with the second allowing you to relate this discipline to the broader creative and professional contexts of graphic design. Your contextual research, critical observations and reflective evaluations should be documented on your Design Context blog and summarised in the design and production of a 16 page Design Context Publication. Part 3: Develop and produce a practical and contextual response to your research that brings together your research into content, context, specific design disciplines and appropriate media/formats. Your response should explore the relationship between product range and method/media of distribution as well as specific audiences, contexts and appropriate tone of voice.

After learning that our research was going towards a publication on our chosen topic, it became apparent to me that I needed to break down a lot of the research I had done as it is such a vast topic.

I chose to break it into the following categories:

• Art Deco
• Film
• Dance
• Jazz
• The prohibition/speakeasy

These topics would each have a short chapter to themselves. Based on my research, I had chosen to design a magazine style publication that would capitalise on the excessive nature of the era. I initially looked into the layout design and chose a selection that I felt lent themselves to the topic.

I chose a selection of layouts that differed from one another but bore similarities that could tie them all together. After doing this I assigned each layout to a topic, allowing for the formats to alter based on the density of the chapter. I chose to show the headers in Metrpolis 1920, a typeface that I think is a accurate modern interpretation of the design fad of the era, the use of angular and geometric shapes:

In terms of the cover design, I wanted to maintain this glossy exterior, while creating a design that would work with the typeface I chose. I came up with a simple angular pattern which I then repeated a few times making the design appear more dense.

I also allowed for the design to pull the focus into the centre, where I could then effectively place the title of the publication.

I chose to capitalise on the excessive nature of the era and altered the design to a gold colour with a black background, and I am considering foiling the cover to maintain a glossy aspect to it.

I used this same design in slightly less dense variations throughout the publication, altering the opacity so as to ensure it didn't demand all the attention of the reader.

I chose at this point to vary between a black and a white background, as this was another design tendency of the era.

I was initially unsure of how I wanted to incorporate images into the design, as I worried that they may be overwhelming when combined with some elements of the design itself. However, I found that much of the information given in the publication required images to be fully explanatory, so I used a small selection of images that i felt appropriately backed up the information.

On those pages that required more imagery, I either used less or none of the original pattern.