Category: Dissertation Design

Although I have stated throughout this process that the spreads would be printed onto old packaging after discussions with Meg I palsied that printed an entire dissertation on old packaging like cereal box cardboard wouldn’t be easy. We discussed how this might be printed onto recycled paper instead as this would still link back to the them of the dissertation. I thought that this would be a better choice for the final outcome rather than just saying that it will be printed onto old boxes. In order to show this I thought that I would change the texture of the cardboard to recycled paper texture instead as I’m unable to get it printed at the moment.

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I have also had Shannon and Meg look at my spreads to help me notice anything that might need changing that I have missed from looking at the work alone for so long. By getting my work annotated by people has been really helpful throughout this year as I have felt as though I am in that studio when I haven’t been able to get into the studio. From this I was able to look at the hierarchy and type detailing of the spreads. I have tried to focus on the rag making sure I didn’t have any weird shapes or spacing. Also, I have spent time ensuring that in-text quotations have hanging quotation marks as this was something that I learnt in my time when completing ISTD.

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With these final small type detailing changes I feel as though the project has come together massively and represents the content of my dissertation in the way which I wanted it to. If this was to be printed I also liked to have included some pages which are made from recycled materials such as plastics and cardboard to act as accent pages. In order to show this in contents I have printed some of the spreads out which I have photographed to show the scale of theme rather than using a mockup which wouldn’t show the desired context of the project.

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After receiving feedback from David I quickly became aware of the developments that I needed to make to my editorial spreads. My thoughts about type detailing and hierarchy were clear that they needed to addressed as at the moment the piece seems to be shapeless. From the feedback I was able to go away and research typefaces designed by Under Ware a typefoundery. I explored two of the typefaces Sausa Pro and Bello Script, in the tutorial me and David discussed that this gave branding and packaging essence more than the current typeface that I was using. We also discussed looking at the work of lettering artist – Leandro Assis – who has worked with companies like Netflix to create lettering. His work reminded me of pop art and the essence of packaging labels. I thought that this would be an interesting contrast to the existing typeface which I chose due to the similarity to the typeface being used in the labels that I was analysing.

In the typeface Bello I discovered beautiful glyphs that I could use to help create Digital style hand lettered labels. I decided to keep to the current colour scheme as I didn’t want to change it too much however, I could experiment more with this later in the process if I decided. Using illustrator and procreate I explored layouts of the labels taking inspiration from Leandro’s work. I found in the end that the best layouts used a simple wrap effect to help create the effect that they were physically on the packaging. With more time I would have liked to have printed these of and physically photographed them however, this wasn’t possible at this point.

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I have also taken on feedback by changing the typesetting details. Mainly changing the point size of the bodycopy for 9pt to 10pt on 13pt leading. This made a lot of difference to the piece by giving the type more space to breathe while still not being overwhelmed. My next point of call in experiment with the pullout in text quotations to try and create more dimension in the piece. I would like to also see if there is more visual research I can undertake to enhance my editorial spreads making them stronger.

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Since the feedback I had from David and some of my peers I have focused on creating 5 spreads using packing labels as the visual language and packing itself as the substrate for the piece. Since I wanted the cover of the piece to be a piece of packaging using the cereal box I have printed, photographed and edited images to make the box seem like the cover of the piece. By doing this it has helped others to see what I was aiming to achieve through my dissertation design.

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I have tried to create spread which are experimental by using photography of labels for house my pull out quotations. This was one of the suggestions that I was given in the first tutorial on dissertation design. I have used photoshop to clear the original typography from the labels and created my own. At the current stage I found that these weren’t working but I have been struggling to get them to work. I’m hoping to get some tutor feedback on these to help me develop them further moving forward. These labels do help make the difference giving the piece more context moving forward. I think I need to focus on the type detailing moving forward as well as the hierarchy as this is something that I’ve learnt about in depth this year through my ISTD.

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I have also explored using information design on one of the spreads to help visuals some of the text that I am talking about. I’ve used the visual language of the recycling symbol to help me do this by using a gradient which covers 60% of the symbol in green highlighting 60% of packaging was recycled in 2017. I think that this has brought the spread to life and given it some depth but something is still missing for me at this point and I’m hoping moving forward that I can improve this.

Also as mentioned before I would ideally have liked to have this printed on recycled piece of packaging such as cereal boxes. I wanted to show this through the use of texture to try and create a sense of substrate. Using a scan of the texture and editing in photoshop I have been able to overlay the texture to the spreads to show that this would be printed on cardboard that recycled, it’s subtle but I feel that it would work in showing the context of my idea.

After speaking to David and the group in the last tutorial I thought about how I could use packaging like the substrate for my dissertation design. This would link back to the idea of recycling as if I’m using old packaging this is a form of recycling in it’s own right. I wanted to see how it would work if I could print onto the packaging. At this point in time I wasn’t able to print professionally onto the old cornflakes box so I used a medium to transfer the ink using paper and water to remove unwanted paper. This was an attempt to get a physical idea of how it might look. I found that it worked extremely well and I thought that I could use old cereal boxes as the substrate for the piece.

After rethinking about how I could use packaging ( in this case a cereal box) as the medium for the outcome I thought that it would provide a nice cover for the final outcome. I sketched out ides of how this could work with the title going over the front of the box, I still wanted to final price to look as tho it was a piece of packaging therefore I skecthed out the layout of the box the changed parts of the layout to work with the elements of my dissertation. The nutrition table that was on the back on the cereal box I have changed to become the table of contents for the dissertation- having this on the back meant that people would know what was inside the actually editorial piece.

In order to see if the layout would work with the idea I printed off the sections and used the reference box to stick the cut outs onto. I found that this was beneficial beaucae I was able to pin point elements that were working and elements which needed to be developed. I thought that this idea of using the box as the cover gave a stronger sense of the project context but also is experimental in approach.

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The next stage is developing the spreads in the editorial I have been thinking about using labels as a way of displaying the pull out quotes in the section that I am showing. I think that this will give the outcome more context moving forward and allow the final spreads to be playful rather than feel too much like annual report.

My Dissertation focused on recycling and sustainability labels on food packaging. I analysed their effectiveness to communicate to consumers as there is this common perception that they are confusing. For this I felt that it was appropriate to use the shapes and labels that I looked at to inspire the visual language for the project.

As we are only required to produce a cover and 5 double page spreads I thought for the starting point of this project that I would focus on the introduction chapter as the content of this would fit nicely across the 5 double pages. Before starting I looked at examples of layouts and formats to help me to ideate what the outcome might look like. One of my favourite format was this project where the books where hidden inside a piece of packaging and this was then opened in order to read the books. This got me thinking about using packaging as an inspiration for my own outcome.

Spending time sketching out initial layouts in my sketchbook help me to think about the composition before going into indesign. I wasn’t sure what size to make the editorial so for the purpose of the tutorial I thought I would work on B5 format. This would allow me the room to work while not being to large or small. I found that I was drawn to the idea of using photography within the editorial as it linked to the idea of product photography and seeing the most important labels there. This led me to take some photos of packaging and then edit them to be used in the spreads.

In indesign I played around with layout and colour decided that green would be best as it has close links to the theme of sustainability and therefore the audience would be able to create that link. I wanted to experiment with using the symbols as a visual language therefore I have started to play around with them. However, I think that further down the line it would be interesting to incorporate into the spreads more.

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Tutorial Feedback

• The symbols on the 5th spread works because of the simplicity.
• There is opportunity to be creative and recreate the styling of the labels. – Printed or Photoshop
• Theres clear hierarchy
• Watch the typesetting in some places – rag in places.
• Push the imagery further opportunity with the label.
• Need to decide on whether it’s formal or experimental.
• Maybe think about using packaging as a substrate – what would the page look like if it was on the back of cornflakes box. Or what would it look like adding green or type over the top of packaging.

I will take these comments on board and start experimenting with idea that have been suggested to me. I think they will give the diss design a stronger context of the project.

This morning we had a workshop with David where we took part in a type and layout challenge. We had to work in small groups and create a A3 double page spread using the text provide to us. However, at each stage we were given various constraints on what we were and weren’t allowed to do. This made the challenge harder at the beginning as we are used to using weight and point size in order to show hierarchy. Even though I have started editorial design this year through ISTD I think this workshop has given me a refresher on the important elements within editorial design.

I worked alongside Meg and Daisy for this task using teams and screen share to get everyone input into designing the outcome. As we didn’t have a lot of time to create the different outcomes we decided to try and focus on type detailing, hierarchy and layout rather than reflecting the theme and style of channel 4. If we’d had more time I think that we would have tried to do this as well.

Above is the first version we produced after reading the through the text. At this point we were only able to change colour we had to keep the same typeface, weight, font size and leading. I personally found this one of the most challenging versions to create, especially since the tables in the texts through us off because none of us really understood them. We used colour however to try give a sense of hierarchy at this stage. We also paid attention to one length and detailing.

When David reviewed ours he thought the type detailing was good and just need more attention as we had some widows in the paragraphs. He wanted us to pay more attention to the table transforming it from the table that we had been given in the original text. This was going to be our focus point for the next development.

In the second version we focused on creating a table that was more exciting. In this we were able to start playing around with weights of the typeface to create hierarchy so we used within the paragraphs and fixed the type detailing errors that David suggested. At this stage the table stretched across the whole page and this was something that David picked up on and said we could pull the columns closer together in order to use less of the space. David also suggested we think about hierarchy because there is no sense of hierarchy within the table maybe using colour could help.

For the final iteration the only constraint that we had was to keep the typeface the same. This meant that we were able to develop it a bit more in terms of hierarchy. We made the decision to try focus on getting the table to work better we were happy with the type setting on the first page. We added colour to the table to try and show the headings clearly. With more time I personally felt there was more that we could have done to the table and it was something that David mentioned when we reviewed the outcomes for the final time. With more colours it could have been easier to read but the spacing between the column as rows appeared to be better.

I found this workshop helpful and considering we had to adapted it to work over teams I thought that it worked really well. Our communication skills were worked hard as there were times when we would point at things but as I was making the actual edits the I couldn’t see what they were talking about but it meant that our skills to communicate as a team really improved. It has started to get me to think about editorial design once more and thinking about how I can create spread that are using all the elements required in a good editorial piece.