Brief Statement

My starting issue was that I feel many young designers focus to much upon creating visually appealing design rather than something with meaning and content.

I addressed this issue by creating a project slip that encourages the designer to go through the process of design and to engage with the thinking and the design decisions before heading to the computer to make rushed/purely visual decisions.

This slip helps designers make more conscious design decisions, therefor adding value to their work as the content will back up their chosen form.

Finalising & printing and production/finishing

After coming up with the layouts I asked some friends what they thought and I got some constructive feedback of things that I should improve on. I experimented more with the margin sizes too and generally how it looked.

I asked for some feedback, was to improve on the content and then think about the layout after, then it should fit together better then.

I used information from the book of forms to try and help me fit the problems I had with the design and the newer content.

I decided to make the categories more flexible by adding spaces for people to add their own information as well as remembering important information e.g hex & cmyk conversions.

I sketched out some more layouts and systems and then came up with a basic flow of how the form should look.

I printed off all the of 10 layouts I made so that I could see the progression and to see if I lost any good points earlier and failed to continue them at the end.

The final layout… until I decided to change it again… below it the final. DEFINITELY

Packaging; as my design piece is a pad within its self I dont feel like it needs overly complicated packaging and that it is quite self finished. I decided to put some card at the back to strengthen the piece up as well as have space to write what the piece is as well as my email address. I chose a lighter blue (75% cyan) as I don’t want to try and compete with the more important information on the front. but I did stick to the same typeface and grey.

 production was quite difficult, I should of gone to bryan shaw to glue the edges, but im pretty sure you can only bind one at a time, plus I didnt have my prints ready in time. The method I used did work though.

13 note books. Better images to follow. Ready for assessment.

Creating, Changing, Printing, Editing, Repeating.

 

I havent really been posting the last couple of days as I have been working on the feedback that I received on Friday so that my work is ready for printing today/tomorrow.

 Max gave me some really good feedback due to no one else turning up at our time slot, so I got a full hour of feedback which was great. There were things like consistency of the lines and ways that people should answer the questions, also the content, how the categories went together.

Max also recommended this great book which is originally a German book, but I found a translated verison on amazon, and managed to get that the next dat.

 

I tried sketching out some layouts that came from his feedback, but I find it difficult to write exactly the content into the layout as obviously you don’t know the point size of your own writing, and you usually over or under compensate.

I used one out the slips to amend the layout on, I tried to figure out a strong vertical grid so that the layout would seem more structured and consistent. I also made notes onto another slip so that I knew exactly what Max was referring too.

I played about with content again, and tried to categories the information into a more logical way, such as screen elements together and print together.

The best book ever. It had examples of good/bad forms as well as smaller details such as colour and typefaces, things that people should consider when designing a form.

Notes I had taken from the book that I felt may help/aid my design, however I did find that with the book, it had so many examples and variations it was slightly over whelming as I wanted to use all the techniques.

I chose Meta for my form, so it being in the book must be a good start.

Clear forms, well set out.

My form variations, I have been working on them and changing them around, but I have found it difficult, mainly due to this middle column, so I need to change the columns into an odd number I feel. I have gotten more feedback since these layouts, so I will work on this today, hopefully be printing today/tonight!

Design Development

I’ve updated my layout so that the text within the boxes feels a lot more spacious also I made all the text the same size at 9pt and removed the bold/11pt headings as I felt that they didn’t need explaining.

I tried out a couple of different colours to see if the blue would work ( in terms of ‘Blue Print’ ) also I tried grey to try and be neutral (even though that is not entirely possible)

I printed 4 out on an A4 sheet (using the sheets from before – 6 different kinds – 80gsm, 120 gsm, 160 gsm ) slightly smaller than full size  ( 89%) 

Obviously there are different kinds of card/paper in the stack but it was good to get a sense of the thickness of the pad.

I then put PVA glue along one edge like the previous blog post mentioned. Hopefully this will work…

 

Work in progress

Materials – Paper.

On Friday I have to show a complete prototype so I have been looking at materials. I’ve been looking at a variety of paper/cards to try and get an idea of once they pieces are in a stack how tall/thick the pad will be also trying to work out the costs of the materials.

I am still looking at the idea of blue prints and the use of blue paper, however printing onto this means that the person may struggle to write on it depending on what pen they have, also the only way to print would be using screen print if I wanted to print white… if not just black ink.

This is 80gsm paper, 20 sheets, 33mm. I think this is a good amount, also 20 sheets means 20 projects which is a far amount, also anything heavier may make the pieces seem more valuable rather than something you should be free to make notes on and think about what you are doing.

 

Prototype Development.

I looked at the hierarchy of the information I set out on the page before of design elements and split the information up into three areas, which resembled the process of setting up a document ready for design.

I decided that A6 would be a better size than A5 as it would fit in all sketch books as well as not take up too much room on  desk or bag, plus it is big enough to see clearly… any bigger and you may as well use a sketchbook. I also looked at how I could split up the page into sections for the information.

I made mini mock ups of the page layout and played between two ideas of how the information would sit next to each other.

I considered more about the size of the page, how many columns it would have and the typeface. Also starting to think about colour too.

On illustrator I created a quick mock up of the layouts I drawn before. Printing them out full size helped me notice all the issues there was with the layouts as well as get a basic idea of what my should could and should look like.

I tested the page out using a red pen to try and get a sense of how someone would use it and now I know where I need to go from here.

FF Meta

planet-typography

FF Meta was originally conceived as a sturdy, basic sans serif typeface, very legible for text at small sizes, with angled terminals and other visual “noise” to give the face a pleasing, slight informality.

In FF Meta, strokes have slightly varying width as the Spiekermann’s goal was that in small sizes, thinner strokes should not “drop out” but, on the contrary, become undistinguishable from the thicker ones.

Typeface for forms

fontshop

Designing complex forms is one of the tougher challenges in information design. It requires more than the usual command of graphic design and typography…A well structured and laid out form can considerably speed up its processing, whereas in the worst case poor design can negate the function of a form, effectively rendering it worthless.

typophile

As for font types, look for sans serifs, which work well at small sizes. A large x-height is also useful. Look for those fonts with Bell in the name … they were designed for the phone books, and as such work well in small sizes. As far as font choice, I have done literally HUNDREDS of medical forms in the past 20 years or so, and Helvetica Condensed or Univers 47 & 57 have seen the heaviest use.

graphicdesignstackexchange

Technical documents are often set in sans-serif. There are a couple of reasons why this is preferred over its serif counterpart: Serif typefaces are usually designed to be as transparent to the reader as possible. In a novel, reading should be a fluid activity, and the typeface must not call attention to itself.

Technical documents are often filled with important notices where the reader is supposed to make stops, and be the structure must easily “scannable” with your eyesight.

Sans-serif allows for a greater range of weights, from thin to black. Technical documents often have deep, nested hierarchy, and having many weights at your disposal allows you to transmit this hierarchy. A pair of good choices for technical documents are:

Whitney is a very complete typeface with a very wide range of weights. It also provides “lining figures” which are great for tables and such. It also has built in numbers and letters encased in circles and squares, which are very handy when making annotations.

Thesis is a serial typeface (it has serif, semi-serif, mono, semi-sans, and sans-serif choices), also in a very wide range of weights. It’s monospaced font allows you to write code in the same great looking typeface.

Whitney: clear for signage, compact for print.

A type family originally developed for New York’s Whitney Museum, Whitney contends with two different sets of demands: those of editorial typography, and those of public signage.

Typefaces for catalogs and brochures need to be narrow enough to work in crowded environments, yet energetic enough to encourage extended reading. But typefaces designed for wayfinding programs need to be open enough to be legible at a distance, and sturdy enough to withstand a variety of fabrication techniques: fonts destined for signage need to anticipate being cast in bronze, etched in glass, cut in vinyl, and rendered in pixels.

While American “gothics” such as News Gothic (1908) have long been a mainstay of editorial settings, and European “humanists” such as Frutiger (1975) have excelled in signage applications, Whitney bridges this divide in a single design. Its compact forms and broad x-height use space efficiently, and its ample counters and open shapes make it clear under any circumstances.

 

Design elements / Specifications

I’ve been trying to break down the design process and the kinds of decisions you have to make when you are using InDesign, for example typeface, size, weight, grids, images, colours etc. However I’ve tried to keep it quite condensed also, so that there is not an overwhelming amount of choice, and if there is a choice thats missing there is a space to add “other”.

^The amount of subcategories under my suggested headings

First mock layout, I want the whole thing to be light hearted and not really strict and super serious as it’s issue I am just commenting on, also people remember things that are funny over things that are serious and authoritative.

I just need to work out the hierarchy of the page / note layout – as well as within each category. I feel that an A6 page/Note size would be fitting for this piece as I want there to be enough space for people to add their own text and notes, but I don’t want it to be something that tries to replace a sketchbook. Also I think A6 would be the smallest possible size of sketchbook.