In an effort to help expand my knowledge of what works effectively within an editorial spread I experimented with some more initial concepts. Although both of these examples use a black background, I have found in my previous experimentation that darker backgrounds help to convey the feelings portrayed within the actual article more effectively.

The first example would require a multi layer composition. The cover being made up of the first image, using white bars on a black background as a way to represent prison bars within captivity. I have also drafted cut out messages to help display the hidden factors of modern slavery. I do think that this way of working is effective and works well to fill up the space on the page, however very large problems will arise with consistently doing this effect.

Secondly I have tried to implement another initial concept into a spread to see how effective it is, the layering of the text and background works to give the piece greater sense of depth. The gradient, overlapping text is effective at jumbling the letter forms to such an extent that the viewer has to work a small amount to view the words, but not o jumbled that the word becomes entirely illegible.

If I were to do further development I would like to experiment with more, lighter coloured backgrounds in another attempt to make this style of finish work as I think this would give the text more space to breath as well as looking more aesthetically pleasing once printed onto paper stock.

Circular 19

This piece, created by Pentagram is the 2016 edition of Circular magazine, marking the 40th anniversary of the magazine. Since Circular is often filled with oversized typographic elements and a general, slightly chaotic looking aesthetic Pentagram recruited a large number of designers to create this issue. This issue also include page numbers thrown about the page often placed in seemingly random locations, the amalgamation of all the images placed onto the page make the work look distorted with many elements taking positions against any sort of set grid system. The crowded pages seem to contain echoes of the futurism movement, containing mainly imagery rather than text in the examples that I have shown many of the elements spread across the page border and so small amounts of the work is lost within the page creases. There seems so obvious colour scheme consistent throughout any number of pages, apart from the Gray background being prevalent throughout all of the pages containing heavy amounts of photography.

The work is composed using what appears to be many different elements, some of the work is digital, using purely photography, whereas there are parts such as within the bottom left example where black textures are placed onto the page, this looks similar to the finish given off by the process of screen printing, apart from that there does not seem to be any hand-drawn elements, the block colours and use of constructed typefaces looks to make the spreads look very digital in nature.

Within the spreads I have selected there seems to be a focal point of a single, coloured image placed, normally within the central borders of each spread, this is then surrounded by text and other imagery giving the piece a solid hierarchy system in place. The body copy and headings certainly seem much more structured, although still defy some of the grid systems at times, giving a stronger link between the text and the images, while still making the text easily legible. The shapes and images present do not repeat in any way, adding to the chaotic nature of the spreads, rhythm and pace within the spreads seem difficult to detect due to the chaos, however this does seem to be consistent so that in itself creates a very fast rhythm and pace, making the spreads look striking and even slightly confusing and overwhelming upon first viewing.

However, even through the chaos there is still a good balance of negative and positive space, enough of the page is left as plain background for elements to be located and easily tracked without it becoming too much work to read, containing mostly portraits and headings it looks to be an information page about several designers.

The spreads create a high intensity mood, provoking emotions of creativity and spontaneity, this may be due to the largely random looking positions that much of the elements on the page seem to take.

Overall these spreads show, very clearly that one does not need to conform heavily to the grid system in order to create a legible, but still successful spread. Perhaps the reason the work is so randomly placed may be due to the fact that the artist could have attempted a more structured look, but it looked to generic and seemed less interesting to look at, this certainly will attract those walking past, and make it more interesting to dissect the different elements on the page, successfully inviting viewers to look with more effect rather than to simply glance past endless paragraphs of highly structured body copy.

 

Charm, Belligerence & Perversity: The Incomplete Works of GBH

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This Editorial piece offers much contrast to the previous example, with the designers behind the spreads having a different belief, that “Typography should be accessible and easy to read”. The work focuses on one subject throughout, and so because of this the pace of the work remains the same, almost to an extend of it becoming predictable, however the design layout allows for a very large hero image on each spread, acting as the main focal point for each spread as well as giving each spread a new and fresh look, even if the text and background orientation remains the same throughout, this supports the designers beliefs strongly that the typography should be very easily legible, even to the the point where the point size of the body copy is extremely large, within these spreads I get a much stronger sense that this editorial work is catering for everyone, whereas the pentagram spreads seem to be more for those interested, involved and understanding of the more technical and extreme factors that can be applied within editorial design. While these spreads do not necessary stretch the boundaries of grid systems and layouts, the simple hierarchy makes the systems that are put in place easily view able and shows a degree of restraint and professionalism throughout.

Given the fact that the actual editorial itself is about the fact that if you gave one hundred monkeys enough time they would eventually create the work of GBH, the monkey themed cover seems very appropriate while appearing extremely striking upon first viewing, making it an highly effective cover, inviting viewers in and making it stand out among other editorial examples.

There doesn’t seem to be any specialist print techniques within these spreads, such as embossing etc, which adds to the simplistic and clear atmosphere that I feel is emanated from these spreads. Alongside the plain white and plain black backgrounds of many of the spreads. The work is made fully through digital means, the imagery that is present within is photo graphical and the remnants of the elements are the typographical headings and body copy. using a large, singular, central paragraph to display the text within each page, as well as keeping the same structure of an image on the left and roughly the same amount of body copy on the right side page. The spreads overall yield a much calmer mood, even though some of the photographs are very high detail the size of them makes everything easily view able.

Following on from my formative deadline for my editorial project I received large amounts of feedback in order to improve my current designs and achieve a higher grade. The feedback concerns all areas of my project, both design and research elements. I will mainly be focusing on the design elements of the feedback first, fixing the spreads themselves based on the advice given. My spreads pre feedback are shown below.

 

Things I will be looking into first will be ways to be more creative with the backgrounds I have chosen. Essentially filling all negative space within the first two spreads with a simply, crumpled paper background and creating tears to reveal the text, due to the effectiveness of the neon text and the strong connotations that it carries, as well as the fact that I have made it myself, I will eliminate some elements of the first spread and put much more focus onto the neon effect itself. Potential ways to do this could be; to remove the paper entirely and use shape letter forms that are created within the neon effect to help emphasise it, Alternatively I could potentially still remove some of the paper and replace it with much more subtle, lower impact imagery that will not attract as much focus as the off white paper sheet does. This could be achieved by somehow implementing night photography into the spreads. I think this is my strongest concept as I see the most positive and the least negatives. Having low impact photography not only allows more focus onto the neon text but will also allow me to input even darker, hidden messages into the photography, perhaps exploring more into the “Shadows” element, recalling back to the beginning of the project where I was attempting to create shapes using shadows from random objects to create a loose portrait of something resembling a person.

Formative Feedback PDF

Aidan CF_FF 19 (2)    

 

Delving into the potentials for photographical concepts, I want something similar to a lit abandoned shop with large windows allowing the user to see into it, Ideally the shop would have bright, white lights that give off large shadows where element could be hidden within. Upon first viewing of the photo an eerie atmosphere would be given off, like there is no obvious problem but something just does not feel right about it.

A way I could do this could be by photographing “In-Between” spaces. Places that are not usually a persons end destination, but yet they will always stop at/pass through. Examples of these places are Bus stops/Train Stations, Petrol Stations etc. Places that are not often considered but do exist and everyone uses them at some point in their lives, This would tie in well with my “hidden people” concept present within my spreads, enhancing the strength of my visual metaphors, overall increasing the quality of my spreads aesthetics, themes and atmospheres.

 

Above are my most effective outcomes of my photography, going to a nearby garage and capturing a structure with a large amount of big windows where there is plenty of space to look into, While these photos were not actually taken at night, the reason being that the photos i took once the sun had already set lacked much of the details that I wanted, so as a result of this complication I will overcome it by editing the photo within Photoshop much more heavily in order to create the illusion that the photo was taken after dark, I will also likely increase the contrast and other such areas to make the photo achieve a more eerie feel.

 

 

Above is my more refined and edited outcome of the original garage image, using many of Photoshop editing tools to create a much darker, eerie and night time photo, I also thought that rather than having the image have a clear, hard border I decided to fade the photo out to form a black background, allowing for me to now input the previously placed neon heading alongside white body copy which should contrast nicely with the remaining black present all across the background. The large void of black space gives me much more room that previously to include body copy, headings and pull out quotes. This now promotes me to look back at the article that I have chosen, because I now have much more space within the page I may be able to undo some of the trimming of the article in order to include more information and help fill spaces left by the black background. Or perhaps I will use more neon to illuminate the space and the background.

 

Progressing further on, I decided to include more neon text within this spread. However I felt they had the wrong impact when placed on the spread with the fully, bright blue colour, as a result of this I decided to place them under the same effects that the photo itself had applied to it, making the letters still glow, but have a colourless glow, giving them a less striking and more subtle effect. I found this to be much more effective. The scattered letters has worked previously as a good way of scrambling messages across the page while making the viewer look harder at the page in order to figure out the various words that are being said within the page, I also found that due to the way I have scattered the letters it looks as though the words are stemming from the structure within the photo itself, almost as if someone is crying for help and only the rough, random letters of their messages are being translated onto the page. I Think that this spread has been massively improved, the removal of the paper effect has not only made the negative space have more of a purpose and give it more impact. but it has also made much better use of the positive space within the spreads with a smoother and more aesthetically pleasing finish.

 

Inputting the body copy was kept simple, I avoided overlapping the body copy over the photo too much because of the large amount of black present on the left hand side of the spread, Although the hierarchy has been made simpler I feel it is now much more effective, with the larger amount of space opened up I am also able to include more sections of the article, allowing to fill the majority of the space without it becoming too overbearing. Potential improvements could be to edit the photo further to include barely visible elements of human shadows that would not be visible at first, giving the spread more impact and making them more enjoyable for the viewer to discover the smaller details present.

Spread 2

 

Following on from improving my first spread I decided I would ensure the paper effect was removed from this spread as well, as the pace of the previous spread has been changed so drastically by reducing the amount of neon I decided that an interesting concept could be to ramp up the pace as the viewer progresses through the spreads, having only the heading in neon within the first spread, more neon within the second spread and an almost overwhelming amount within the world map on the third spread.

Firstly, due to the fact that photography worked so effectively on the first spread I decided to see how the concept worked within the second spread. Choosing another low impact photo as so to not overwhelm the page.

 

 

Using a photograph of a hand clutching at a door, this will be now be edited to appear much darker and have the same effect as the photograph within the previous spread. Also as well as the fact that if I was to remove the paper the page could potentially appear far too empty, inserting a dark, black and white photograph would be very effective in filling the space with a purpose without appearing too overbearing.

 

Using roughly the same effects as previously I found editing and placing the hand easy and thought it suited the lighting and atmosphere of the page very effectively, due to this aspect being introduced on the page I simply moved the pull out quote out of the centre, which did not present any problems as the I find the small adjustment in position did not present any design complications. I think the pace ramps up nicely from the last spread, perhaps there is a small amount too much neon on this spread however I wanted to avoid there being too big a difference between spreads two and three due to the fact that that may cause consistency issues. further improvements could be done to present the body copy in a more exciting manner, but I think that the current placement is suitable and effective still.

 

As for smaller details being changed, I decided to change to a more legible, sans serif font “Roboto”, although this made the body copy more legible it did present a different complication because of the fact that this particular font has much wider letter forms which causes its increase in legibility. This resulted in much of the text paragraph becoming elongated, stretching past the boundaries previously set. This only caused a slight problem on spread two once I had edited the leading to be different from the default setting in order to give the text a greater amount of space to breath, paragraphs had to be adjusted and headings had to be re-positioned in order to accommodate the extra space taken up by the new fonts and settings.

Overall I think that the improvements and changes done to the spreads I have changed have all been positive, and all in different ways, various things such as legibility and hierarchy have been improved as well as design based improvements such as a greater feeling of visual metaphor and detail within the imagery of the spreads. I am very happy with my outcomes and feel the sense of pace has been mended alongside the introduction of more customised fonts make the pieces look more personalised and unique. However I do think that I could benefit from further initial experimentation within the earlier parts of the project in order to yield a greater knowledge of editorial image and structure in general.

 

 

With my work now submitted onto the teaching Mac within University I now have a small amount of time to reflect on the project as a whole and analyse what went well or did not go well, what I have learned, how I found the project and what I would like to do to further enhance my work.

What Went Well?

I think my favourite part of this project was very much the earlier stages, I enjoyed being given the opportunity to explore  plethora of creative techniques and options, I found other peoples advice very helpful in giving my potential solutions to the problems that I encountered, as well as giving me additional ideas to begin sketching and experimenting with. I found my initial ideas were extremely varied offering a large amount of optional paths to go down and enhance the ideas of each strand of ideas. I thought that I responded to feedback well within my blog and continued to react and improve my work with each available opportunity, I attended all of the optional sign up workshops allowing me access to many new skills that can now be used for future projects once the processes have been written up about, I particularly enjoyed the bookbinding workshop as it was a welcome change from my standard, digital based work where almost all of my time is spent. Finally I think the creation of my own typeface worked effectively, it did take a considerable amount of time to create and refine however the quality of the finish seems worth the time I spent making the typeface and I’m happy with the amount of space it takes up within my final three double page spreads.

What Did I Find Difficult/Did Not Go Well?

Some things within this project that I felt did not go very well or that I found hard to move past include; I seemed to be able to effectively create initial ideas for many different concepts however, I found it very difficult to really enhance any other ideas apart from those that included the neon and ripped paper finish. I am somewhat lucky that this proved to be such an effective idea, it would have taken me much longer and I may not have gotten my final spreads to such a refined state that I think they are in now if I was forced to go over the text more, pull out and refine even more ideas. I really struggled attempting to get a shadow manipulation photograph and in the end, had to abandon the idea completely and leave it simply as a previous attempted draft. I really did hope that I would be able to capture such an image, I think the detail would have made a perfect opening spread image, if I could then make that spread consistent with the other two I feel it would have made my work much stronger overall.

What Have I learned From This Project?

I have learnt many new skills and found much new knowledge throughout the five week duration of this project. Firstly I have widened my knowledge on typefaces by creating my own, I have learned almost all I know about Indesign throughout the last five weeks by designing my spreads using it with a combination of Photoshop and Illustrator, of which both of these programmes I feel my knowledge has expanded massively. I now feel I have much more techniques and processes at my disposal ready for use in many future projects that are still to come. As I attended all of the optional sign up workshops I was able to not only enhance my skills in Indesign and Screen printing but was also able to learn a completely new skill of bookbinding which although I did not use that skill elsewhere within this project, I already have plans to use it in some of my pastime projects on the side away from University.

What Would I Change?

Finally some things I would change/improve if I were to go back and do this project over again include; Further research into designed articles in general in the hope that it would give me some more creative ideas to then work into my own designed article as well as attempting more photography, I feel it would be quite easy to acquire a large amount of work through the medium of photography and so I think that in further projects I will use this medium to a much larger extent than I have within this editorial project.

 

After taking in all of the previous advice given to me through group and one to one tutorials and critiques I believe I have now created what is my final three double page spreads, ensuring to utilise effective hierarchy while maintaining easily legible body copy, headings and pull out quotes, as well as containing enough difference in appear so that the spreads are interesting to observe and read but similar enough so that each page appears obviously all from the same article I feel I have done this successfully, the use of my own self generated neon typeface stands out so much to the point where simply having that appear on every page be enough to tie all of the spreads together, this allowed me to play and experiment much more with what I could potentially do/get away with. For example; the rapid changing in amount of body copy and colour helps to keep each spread more interesting and prevents the overall look from becoming boring and  lacking creativity. I feel my strongest spread in terms of creativity and visual metaphor is the second page on the second spread, the use of the randomly jumbled letters that almost show full messages that are not quite noticed at first alongside the additional text within the heading literally makes the viewer “read between the lines” very carefully, I find this to be my favourite due to not only the Cleverness of the idea but the execution is done to a neat and high quality standard, the text shines brightly to attract attention and the background used (a photograph of a pin board darkened and slightly de-saturated) is dark enough so that it translates a mysterious and gloomy atmosphere, but still present enough so that it can be used to help the neon glow blend in more effectively and realistically.

I’ve found the colours used for each of the spreads to be vibrant when needed and attention grabbing, I really like the sharp contrast which help to bring out the glows from the brine signs more effectively. As well as contrast with the light gray paper, however I think the paper effect may work more effectively in my second spread if the crinkles are lessened or even removed so that the foreground becomes a more constant shade or a brighter white, but I would then lose the illusion of it being a piece of paper, perhaps more experimentation is needed for this section.

In terms of the typography, I feel the line length is suitable for the point size, this has been tested by previously printing the pages and seeing if the body copy is still easily legible, I would like to include more specialist features within particularly the body copy, balding text and italics etc. I think the now much larger titles work more effectively especially those that spill onto multiple pages. I feel doing this gives the work a greater sense of play as well as pulling more focus to the titles themselves giving me more control over the hierarchy. The amount of body copy feels very appropriate, certain pages do contain much more in a condensed space however I think I have handled that very well, the splitting of each section onto one spread alongside the changing of colour really works to split the article into sections. Finally the pull out quotes are used to try to appear as though they are selling the information that appears within, stating that the beatings slaves endure are open for sale as well as the second spread appearing to “advertise” the amount of slaves that are estimated around the world. The feeling of irony when these obscene things are presented as advertisements are shocking to the reader as well as the fact that they are placed using much larger and heavier fonts ensure that they are brought up within the hierarchy scale. The neon borders also help to exacerbate this factor. Although I have used more than two fonts I feel the neon typeface fits more into the part of the background and so the body copy and sub headings being different fonts doesn’t hurt the quality of the typography. I think the neon type looks much better when it is used with a much thicker line size, the thicker letter forms are much nicer to look at and give off more of a glow.

 

I decided to present these three double page spreads as one single article to a tutor for critique. Some things that I noticed even before my critique was the fact that there a very strong sense of consistency and pace between spreads two and three, however almost no consistency between those two and spread one, my initial plans to have a manipulated shadow image be the background for the first spread have not been completed yet, this is due to the unforeseen difficulty in this task, I feel I may be unable to perform this in a high enough quality before the deadline and so will have to look at either alternative methods to creating this type of finish, or making a different design entirely. An advantage to doing this would be that I would be able to make something that held much more consistent aesthetic and pace to the other two spreads. For now, as a way to visualise the concept I have simply roughly replicated the effect using photography and Photoshop in order to attempt to show what I want the end effect to look like, however this does not look as good as I want it too.

Many things were offered for improvement within the critique, alternative research methods as well as opinions on my designs themselves. Something that I noticed was a common theme throughout all of my critiques was the dislike of the brick background that I have used within some of my designs, although I personally do like the effect that it offers, I am willingly to try alternatives. Perhaps the inky darkness of a plain black background will assist to give my work a greater sense of mystery, a finish I feel would work very effectively given my chosen article.

An idea that was brought up that I would like to explore further into was the concept of windows as a visual metaphor for my article, I like this concept because not only do I agree with the idea but I also feel that I would be able to easily acquire a large amount of work that could be used as potential final outcome imagery. It would also give me an opportunity to step away from type-as-image for a while and explore alternative design ideas. Windows could act as a barrier, however one that could be seen through but not moved through, this combined with the use of curtains/blinds to obscure the imagery and typography placed within the page would not only give my work a more three dimensional aspect to it, but would also give me more potential avenues to explore in terms of visual metaphors for my article.

After bringing up that use of lights to reveal identifiable, but obscured at first shapes within the shadows that are produced some extra research points include, reverse graphics, where stained surfaces are cleaned in such a way that they reveal or create artworks within them. While this would be a very aesthetically pleasing concept to create, I feel it would be very difficult to practice, this as well as the fact that Illustrating is not my strongest way of creating work. However it would be interesting to try.

The use of neon signs was looked at, and although the overall look of the typeface was positive, the connotations that are linked in with the locations that neon signs are normally located were pointed out, however I feel this is only true when the neon type is paired with the brick wall background, so this only gives me further reason and motivation to try out different alternatives for background textures, although I would very much like to have a plain black background, the neon glows work very effectively when they have something to blend into, it gives the light a much more realistic look, making it look more consistent alongside photography while still being able to be used alongside illustration and typography.

Overall I found this feedback somewhat conflicting with previous feedback, however it was still useful in bringing up new concepts to explore as well as confirming certain thoughts about my designs that I had been pondering for a number of days, moving on from this feedback I will redesign the backgrounds for all the of spreads and see what effective outcomes I can come up with, I will most likely stick with the neon type however I plan to change the scenery surrounding the type in order to make it more effective, due to the large amount of time that I have put into creating my own inspired typeface I feel it would be a massive waste to not use it within my initial final outcomes.

I will begin sketching and photographing potential new backgrounds in the form of windows acting as barriers, thinking up new ways to obscure text to convey visual metaphors using this method. As well as looking into more easily achieved methods of capturing my initial spread photograph, this will most likely be by simply taking a photograph without a shadow and manipulating it to a very convincing finish within Photoshop, this also allows me to edit other parts of the photograph in order to make it more aesthetically pleasing.

Finally I plan to explore much further with the ripped paper effect, due to the positive feedback on the page that featured this concept I will create some initial designs that show the ripped fragments of paper possibly obscuring text similarly to the way I want the blinds of windows too, making it more obvious that the text is trying to hide from view and requires something or someone to rip off the covers to reveal this hidden truth that so many are unaware of.

I am very glad for this feedback, it has offered me alternate views on my designs and will help me to explore further ideas in the coming weeks, I plan to now return to my sketchbook to brainstorm some more ideas that can be illustrated and photographed further to be used in my final outcomes.

The majority of my feedback from the last critique was to do with the backgrounds that I had used as well as the first spread lacking imagery consistency. However many of the positive reflections that I received was about the text being obscured by the background, I decided to, with this in mind, to recreate one of my spreads to use the ripped paper effect more, however for this spread I used it to hide the text to a more extreme angle, at some points the paper literally blocks over and separates the different paragraphs. I was very careful to ensure that the legibility was still clear. In terms of hierarchy I presented the spread to many different people in order to gauge how successful it is, although the majority of the answers were very different, they all gave answers that resulted in the information being read in the correct order. What I like most about this spread is not the body copy itself, but the much larger words that surround the paragraphs like borders, as it would less like a natural tear if they were all perfectly square closely surrounding the text the large words help to create a sort of half border that runs under the paper, but not too much so that the words become immediately illegible. The weakest point of the piece I would say is the Pull out quote, I find it lacks creativity, by simply using the font that I used for the body copy but larger as well as the fact that it disobeys the grid layout. A way to improve the pull out quote could be by changing the font although this would potentially disrupt an efficient flow of consistency throughout the remaining two double page A3 spreads. A secondary way of improving the pull out quote could potentially be by correcting the placement of the paper tear in he background so that the quote sits more comfortably within the three column grid. A final method of improving the creative style within the quote would be to re select the quote and choose a shorter quote so that the point size could be larger, or a border could be incorporated.

This spread and the effects incorporated within were created using Adobe Photoshop, tools used include; brush tool, pen tool, paint bucket and move tool. Moving on from this, I would like to now experiment with how the neon type and neon effect will interact with my new, less textured background. Initial concerns are; the potential lack of blending between the neon glow and the now non textured background, this id due to the fact that the blending modes in Photoshop will now no longer affect the intensity of the glow surrounding the letter forms. I would now like to experiment further with the paper tear effect, trying out different placements to see what effect it has on the overall atmosphere, hierarchy and legibility of the double page spread.

 

Spread 1

 

For the first of my three spreads I thought it would be a strong idea to include my strongest potential image, using the photograph as a background for both of the A3 pages I thought would make it more striking to look at upon first glance. I attempted to create shapes that could be slightly recognised as different objects within the shadows of the object, although at this time I have not managed to acquire the desired photo and so for the time being I have created a prototype using Photoshop as well as a self generated image of a face in shadow using Adobe Illustrator. The colours and shades of the photo look nice, I have edited the purple shades of the bottle to try to make it blend into the other two spreads more. However I still feel the consistency is not strong enough while this remains one of the double page spreads. I feel this was meant to contain my strongest imagery however at the minute this appears to be my weakest of the three and appears to be somewhat of a detriment to the other two spreads. Some ways that I could improve this would be to darken the edges of the photograph or even to invert the image so that there would be a dark background meaning I could potentially use the neon font as the light would have something to blend into, this would assist in tying together the three spreads, however I feel I would struggle to get the shadow to show in much detail once the colours were removed or the photograph itself was darkened. I may have to redo this spread to make it stronger in the future, or alternatively choose a less difficult method of photography to capture the manipulated shadow photograph.

As for the typography I attempted to keep it consistent with the body copy and sub headings, in particular on my final spread the body copy appears in small amounts and moves vastly across the page, due to the fact that I have too much body copy within this one page I could not do this however I have attempted to replicate this with the placement of different sub headings and the introduction paragraph appearing on the right hand side page, I feel this will help to disrupt the hierarchy and throw the reader across the pages multiple times while still reading the text in the order that I desire.

I think the typography is more successful than the imagery however the concept for the photography is much more ambitious and so i’m more looking forward to what the outcome will look like once that is taken, even if it still does not correlate well enough with the remaining two spreads.

Spread 2

 

For my second spread I have used made it much more consistent with the third spread by using a large amount of the the brick background as well as my self generated neon typeface, I like this layout much more than my first spread, the text looks more like it belongs where it has been placed as well as the imagery being much stronger, although the background looks slightly plain it does give the neon glow something to effectively bounce off due to the sharp contrast between the two layers, I feel a dark background helps to convey a feeling of dread a mystery as well but I think this feeling could be enhanced if the background had a less obvious texture than a simply and outstanding brick wall, even if it does also help the neon font and glow to appear more realistic. I feel the imagery on the left is strong enough to warrant it taking up the entire A3 page due to the strong hidden messages that it portrays, it not only introduces the reader into the new type being used but the hidden “In The Open” line that is not noticed at first helps to represent the new type of slavery that has crept into existence, by making it look like a neon sign that has perhaps been turned off I hope it effectively  represents the voices of those within the silent mass of slaves who’s voices are muted and go on living without those who can assist noticing the dire situation that they are forced to endure. 

The cries for help assist in making the turned off neon sign effect more concrete, however I don’t personally like the effect being used more than once or twice, I feel that one single use is enough to translate it’s meaning and so too many uses make it obvious that it it simply there to fill up the remaining space on the page, this is where having a less textured background could be useful, rather than having a somewhat bland brick wall taking up half of an A3 page, an eerie, inky black background slightly shaded over with a low opacity  cloud effect could translate a more mysterious atmosphere and would hopefully not appear as simply boring and bland negative space, the empty spaces themselves would serve a purpose to slightly set the reader on edge by staring into nothing over staring at the relative safety of a close up brick wall.

The second page introduces the next section of the article, titled “The Bondage Industry”. Also utilises the neon text and effects but also introduces many new aspects while slightly changing the layout of the body copy all in an effort to keep the article interesting to look at and read while at the same time, not changing it too much so that large portions of consistency are lost and the separate spreads no longer look like they belong to the same article. In terms of imagery the same heading and background style are employed however a new ripped paper effect is added to help attempt to distort and even hide the text behind so that it assists in translating the feeling of the “hidden” aspect of this new, more modern kind of slavery, having the text attempting to hide itself from view behind the two paper “curtains” that are behind peeled back forcing the majority of the heading and body copy to be revealed alongside the ugly truth that the text states. Overall i think this spread is more effective than the first however I still feel my final spread is more effective and more interesting to look at, some improvements that could be made to this spread include doing something more interesting for the bottom half o the first page rather than repeating an already used effect, or I could potentially extend the writing so that it fills the page. I would like to do something more creative and consistently themed for the pull out quote on the right hand page, further experimentation and sketching is needed to refine and perfect my middle spread.

Spread 3

I find when looking at my final spread that it is my favourite of the three, still using a large amount of the neon effect, however it is used in new ways, rather than simply to write text the illuminated world map helps to give it a new, fresher and more interesting look. The heavily contrasting background helps to grab the viewers attention to certain areas as well as move the reader through the page in the correct way. I would like the heading to be much larger so that it stretches across both of the pages, making the spread appear more as one large image rather than two individual items on a double page spread. The body copy is once again quiet sporadically placed, placing the paragraphs beside the countries that each paragraph is talking about, the text within the centre than reads WherE!? I have attempted to translate the fact that slavery is everywhere in the hope that the reader reads the text firstly as Where? then reading HERE!, as if they are asking where is slavery? it is here! Where the reader is reading, it would be where every reader since since the article states multiple times that slavery is present in some form everywhere in the world, and certainly everywhere this article would be shown in volume.

Although this is my favourite spread of the three, I still feel it could be improved massively with relative ease. By once again removing the brick background, as well as possibly changing the colour of the neon effect to help to differentiate it from the previous spread a bit more, making the heading larger would make the spread as a whole double page more interesting to look at. I also think the pages could be made better if i including one or two pull out quotes, this would be most effective if the pull out quote incorporated the neon effect somehow. Finally I would like to fill some of the empty spaces with small amounts of additional body copy as I think it would work to achieve a better sense of hierarchy by including things such as sub headings and pull out quotes, although overall I am already quiet happy with how this particular spread turned out.

Following on from a point made in my previous work critique, I have decided to delve further into the neon type format. After a long search at the different kind of “Classical” neon type available, I did not find one that looked similar to what I have envisioned in my head. Because of this I have decided to create my own neon typeface, made using Adobe Illustrator and being inspired by the previous typefaces I have looked at and analysed.

To start this process I first began by sketching out some initial ideas of what flicks and flairs I wanted certain letter forms to posses, In order to set my typeface apart from regular sans serif fonts it would need to be obvious that it was meant to represent the text often found on old neon signs. I thought that the answer to this would be to include some loops on the letter forms similar to those seen in the top left example given above, these help give each letter form a more “neon style” finish. Once my sketching was done I then moved on to creating the finalised versioned digitally on Adobe Illustrator.

I decided to use Adobe Illustrator rather than Photoshop due to the ability to create lines and shapes in a vector format, I was unsure of what size these letter forms would need to be in once I placed them into my article itself so the ability to resize them without any loss of quality was vital. The creation of the letter forms was relatively simple and went mostly without problems or setbacks, with the large amount of inspiration I had collected I found combining different ideas easy and using the pen tool to create a smooth curves of the letter forms happened quite quickly. While creating the letter forms it did occur to me that certain letters are symmetrical and I could simply create one side of the letter form then duplicate and reflect it to make it perfectly symmetrical, however I decided against doing this. I did this due to the fact that I am almost certain that this typeface will not be used for body copy and I, currently, only have plans to use this effect for large, sign type titles where every small detail of each and every letter form will be easily visible, I think that having some small imperfections on some of the letter forms would help to make my titles appear more personalised and therefore, look more convincingly like a classical, hand made neon sign. Examples of these small imperfections can be found in places like, the slightly asymmetric curve atop the O as well as the curves on C’s and S’s, although this is only a very small design choice and it did extend my design time considerably, I think that because I plan this font to play such a key role within my article that I think it is worth spending the extra time to get every detail how I want it to look like.

Inputting My Typeface Into A Design

My first attempt at inserting the typeface into a design is the outcome seen above, as well as using the self generated typeface I also included the neon effect seen in my previous design, although this typeface is much lighter and thinner, I find the effect to work more effectively at appearing as a realistic neon sign using this typeface. The brick texture in the background helps the glows within the background blend more realistically. A complication that occurred which I did not foresee was the fact that I would have to manually assemble the generated letter forms within Illustrator, this took quite a considerable amount of time because of the inconsistencies within the kerning and Leading, however I found that these also did not have to be perfect, rather than using rulers and grid lines to ensure that each letter form was pixel perfect distance apart I simply used my eyes to get a rough but still very accurate finish. The barely noticeable difference also help to translate a feeling of hand made, classic design. Although this did have to be much less noticeable than the previous asymmetricality within the letter forms themselves due to the fact that wildly inconsistent kerning can be extremely distracting and heavily detrimental to the overall design. That being said I still feel I have done a high quality job and I am very pleased with the overall result, although I have previously made a typeface I still feel I am completely new to the aspect, lacking much experience of any vital rules that may exist within the creation process. However if I were to create another typeface I would spend much longer not looking for inspirational letter forms, but instead spend a considerable amount of time researching other people’s creation methods in order to possibly solve my problem of imperfect kerning and leading, as well as hopefully acquiring some useful tips along the way in an effort to speed up the process of creating the letter forms themselves.

I think this effect would benefit from being used in further designs and more experimentation with point size and placement to see where it can be used most effectively, I also plan to experiment with the different colours that could be used with the neon effect. However for everything i have used it for so far i am very pleased with the result and feel it does in fact correctly correlate a much more classic look than the previous neon type effect that i created earlier on in the project, this experimentation was well worth the large amount of time it takes to create messages for.

After presenting my ideas to a group as well as David some feedback I received included; avoiding illustrating Plassat himself as that would be far too literal and cliche, the wire cutter art is a good idea however I have much stronger concepts that I have presented. The HIDDEN concept is strong however as I thought the wording is far too literal however the concept is strong, as I also like the concept it is likely that I will delve further into the concept of “Hidden People”. Finally the neon sign concept is strong however it is recommended that I look further into it and consider combining it with another, alongside a recommendation to look into a more classical neon typeface.

After receiving these recommendations I am glad that illustrating Plassat was ruled out due to the fact that I feel I may lack some of the Illustrative abillites to be able to draw a portrait high enough quality to take a place on the very first page of the article. Due to the majority of the recommendations being to do with my typographic work I plan to explore type as image much further and look into new ways that the neon type could be used. I am going to do this because, although I do like the style of the neon effect I will need to delve further into the article if I am to find three double page spreads worth of metaphors that the effect would be relevant to as well as keeping the consistent enough to look like they all belong to the same piece of text. Overall I am very contempt with my feedback, the ideas I was most confident and happy with have been praised and pushed even further so I am excited with what the work I will continue to produce with the remaining weeks I have left for this project.

My next step is to look into different neon typefaces and either choose one, or potentially, create my own, giving my work a unique twist as well as exploring a new aspect of graphic design that I have not had any previous experience in.