OUGD504 Design For Print Final Images

OUGD504 Design For Web Final Crit

Our crit today followed the same format as the Print crit we had last week. We were split into two groups and assessed the other groups websites.

I set up my laptop with the website up in Google Chrome and also opened the Dreamweaver file if people wanted to look at it. The feedback I received in this crit was much more helpful than what I got in the last crit.

The questions I asked were:

1. Should I change the font for the body copy? Is it in sync with the title and navigation bar?
2. Is the content relevant for a news-based website?
3. Are there too many external links?

Person 1:

• Body copy for 'News' page is different to that on 'History' - make sure they are the same to keep consistent.
• There isn't anything on the homepage that explains what the website is - maybe even one sentence will do it? Links on history page may need to be more prominent.
• All the links are relevant so you should keep them.

Person 2:

• The body copy works well and is readable so don't change it.
• The links on the 'history' page look a bit out of place.
• The links are all relevant to the content so no need to get rid of them

Person 3:

• No, the body copy is clear and clean, I love the type for the navigation and header.
• Yes, it is clear, concise and informative, but is the history page relevant? Seems slightly out of place.
• Consider making navigation buttons larger, they get a bit lost as it is because they are so light.

Person 4:

• Typefaces for both the header and the body copy work very well together.
• The layout and images work well, but the links on the history page look odd.

Person 5:

• No, the body copy is clear and easy to understand which is vital.
• The links could be more organised on the history page, consider a drop down menu.

Person 6:

• I think the typefaces work well together, it is all very clear.
• The external links look a bit odd, and don't work in harmony with the rest of the site.
• Really like the aesthetic of the typeface used for the header and navigation, works well in conjunction with the subject.

Overall, I found this crit to be much more helpful than the one last week. I received plenty of relevant feedback which has informed much of the changes I need to make for my website.

Action plan:

• To alter the layout of the homepage to ensure that it is in conjunction with the rest of the site.
• Remove or change the links of the history page as most people said they look odd or irrelevant.
• Complete the information on the news page and the events page.

OUGD504 Design for Print and Web Concept

After analysing the brief I was able to define my concept quickly:

Visiting a restaurant has become more of a critical overview and analysis rather than the enjoyable occasion that dining out for a meal is intended. I plan to create a brand the promotes the idea of visiting a restaurant to be a celebratory activity and family occasion, somewhere that will appeal to people that lead very different lifestyles. It will be suited to a casual business lunch and to a family birthday celebration.
I plan to design the restaurant with a rustic theme, which promotes a natural simplicity in the menu and the interior. This lead me to the idea of designing a farmhouse themed restaurant, selling homely products, such as jams and chutneys, as well as serving meals.
This restaurant will focus on meals as a social occasion, and because of this will have a very comfortable interior, and will have a focus on breakfast/brunch and afternoon tea as well as on lunch and dinner.

Target Audience and Tone of Voice
The restaurant will maintain an air of authenticity in it's homely quality. It is the aim to attract families with older children, perhaps leading separate lives, who want to return to a reminder of family life. Similarly, it will be made affordable for young adults, perhaps those who have just begun to work in a professional environment and may want to go somewhere after work that reminds them of home.
I plan to create a comfortable environment in which visitors will want to stay in even when they have finished eating or want to read a book. At the same time, visitors will be 'foodies' who appreciate good food as well as the dining experience. In light of this, the restaurant will be child friendly but the focus will not be on children.

Method of Delivery
I plan to create the menus (meals and drinks), business cards, letterheads, and create mock ups of how the logo will transfer to crockery, jars (in which jams may be sold) and packaging of other products sold in the restaurant (coffee, homemade biscuits etc). Similarly, I will exhibit mock ups of the interior and exterior of the restaurant and staff uniforms. I will also propose a concept for a mobile app or a website for the restaurant.

OUGD504 Design For Print and Web Rewritten Brief

OUGD504 Design For Print And Web - Brief Analysis

For this session we were required to select and bring three ISTD briefs from previous years that we were interested in pursuing for Studio Brief 3.

We were first required to underline the words we considered to be most important in the brief, and after doing this exercise and examining some of the words we selected, we found that a lot of the words we chose were irrelevant or 'fluff', words used to pad out the brief and make it appear more interesting upon the first read.

After this exercise we chose one brief and were given some questions that we were to find a selection of answers to, allowing us to identify the areas we may have problems with and what we need to consider to fulfil the requirements of the brief.

After this we rewrote the brief, allowing us to shape it in a way that was applicable to the problems and considerations we discovered while answering the questions.

Rewriting the brief allowed me to create a clear concept for my brief and a direction I could follow to start developing my ideas. After doing this, I looked into restaurant branding, logos, menus and locations to help me finalise my own ideas.

OUGD504 Design For Print Final Crit

In todays crit, we were split into two groups. One was to leave their work and supporting material laid out in the studio, then leave for 45 minutes, while the other group came in and assessed it, giving feedback and criticisms.

My group was the first to crit the other group and I found that the stages members of the group were at was extremely varied, with some only just beginning the design stage of production, and others having finished their whole information pack.

When it was time for our work to be critted, I had prepared some questions that I wanted answers to regarding my designs:

1. Is the stock an appropriate choice for the booklets, or do you think it might be too thick?
2. Is saddle stitch binding appropriate for the stock and format of the booklets?
3. Is the content relevant and helpful?
4. Do these booklets work as a set of 4 (foiling booklet to still be produced)?

Below is the feedback I received:

Person 1:

• The thickness of the stock is quite effective, especially for the pouches, yet it does make the pages of the booklets quite stiff. Maybe consider a lighter stock for the booklets?
• In regards to content, it works as a reminder for people so would be useful. Have another read through before printing as I found some typos.
• I think these books would work as a set of three or four, especially with the packaging. Have you considered making them more aesthetically succinct so that they are a clear set?
• Saddle stitch is appropriate binding and works well with the digital print booklet.
• The size is appropriate to purpose making it easy to handle. The layout feels a little disjointed, find a way to bring the information together to make it more succinct.

Person 2:

• Saddle stitch is appropriate due to the thickness of the stock.
• The background patterns in the screen and digital print booklets is a bit jarring and effects legibility. Maybe use them more sparingly.
• Content works as a set but aesthetics are a bit random, try to link booklets together, maybe with colour scheme.

While I did consider the feedback I received to be helpful, I was extremely disappointed and frustrated by the fact that I only received two responses when there were other people in both groups with up to ten separate responses.

In light of this I think that the format of the crits were effective in receiving good and informed advice and criticisms, I thought that there should have been a more definite way to ensure that everyone received the amount of feedback they need to move forward with this project.

In light of the feedback I did receive, I decided to ensure that the booklets were in conjunction with each other by altering the layouts so that they reflected the same format. I also decided to make some changes for the stock of the internal pages. I wanted to keep the cover a thicker stock as I needed it to be thick for the embossing booklet, and having that cover a different stock to the others would make them appear less consistent with each other.

OUGD504 Design For Web - Development

For the making of my website I had planned to mimic the set up of other news websites, to promote and exaggerate the fact that this is a about motion graphics news. However, at the same time I wanted to keep the set up fairly simple.

I initially planned to have the title and navigation in Times New Roman in order to embody a newspaper.

However, after I coded in the title, it immediately made the page appear dated and dull. I decided to go more minimal, and then created my own typeface in Illustrator using Helvetica Neue as a base.

I copied this type over to the navigation buttons and was overall much happier with it's appearance. I inserted the buttons as roll over images, that had a stroke running through the middle when the mouse hovered over it.
I made the title a link to the homepage, which I expected would be obvious but would need to check during a crit.

I wanted to ensure that the general set up of the website was spaced out and clear, so had to take care with padding while coding the site.

I wanted the homepage to have the 'Feature of the Day' as the main focus, and to also bare some other links to highly 'rated' and highly considered videos. I followed my scamps and split the page into a left column and a right column, allowing the right to focus on social media and networking, with the main content of the page occupying the left column.

I used a blog on vimeo called Purely Motion Graphics which allows people to upload their work to the site to be commented on. I copied the embed code on one of these videos to be the 'Feature of the Day'.

The video was not showing up but in the Dreamweaver sessions Simon said this was likely to happen before the website goes live, so I moved on to the other videos.

For this, I chose to use rollover images that gave a brief description of the features, but was primarily a link to an external page that focused on the designer and the release of this feature.

Here I had a problem getting the page to scroll. After asking some people about it, I was under the impression that just making the container longer than the view of the browser will allow it to automatically scroll, but this still didn't work, even when I tried with different browsers.

I managed to find some help, and inserted 'overflow:scroll:' into the CSS code for this part of the page, which not only allowed for the content to scroll, but kept it restricted to that section as oppose to the whole page.

On the right hand column, I inserted a link to a Facebook fan page I had created for the website, in the form of another rollover image. I also added a direct link to the Purely Motion Graphics blog for people to view more information on the designers and videos. When I have finished inserting all the relevant content I will think about adding a Twitter feed here.

After coding the homepage I moved on to the history page. The content was derived from much of the research I did over the Summer, and some more specific to this topic once I chose it. I kept it quite brief, with the content on the left column.

For the right column I thought I could set a menu option that allowed the viewer to jump to each subheading of the history section. I did this by creating external page with the relevant content on them.

For the subscription page, I wanted to add some 'Textarea' and 'Text Field' options, to make the page appear as though it was a realistic form to be filled out. I did this by going to Insert > Form and found the text area and text field options.

I added a drop down menu that allowed for the viewer to select the area of motion graphics they are most interested, with the intention of that subscriber receiving the most information about that topic.

I set up the News page in a similar format to the home page, with rollover images that show recent releases and updates. These link to articles that give more detail on the chosen subject.

The rollover images were those that I had created in Illustrator beforehand.