I just would like to say first of all that I think I missed the point on this Module as a whole. I understood what I had to and what was required of me, but I think I approached the opportunity with the wrong mindset. I produced decent finals for the booklet brief and ok visuals for the packaging. I should have had more fun with the good brief, towards the end I saw what I could have done differently and through making design decisions later than I usually would that hindered my use of creative processes, such as testing foil blocking, thermo inks and screen printing, which I would have loved to have a go at.
My research was appropriate to the concept I had, I felt I had a varied amount of it which did filter through to my reasoning behind the concept and paved the way for informed content. For example, through carrying out research into ink consumption and the cost of printing artwork online was less cost effective than buying a physical copy CD. That evidence was concentrated down and made its way to the final designs in the form of content. I think some of my research could have been more 'radical' as the brief outlines, but I carried out research I felt was relevant. I didn't want to do something that wasn't going to be made use of.
My investigation into production processes for print was good. I had a lot of copy for the magazine which I had correlated from my research and broke down into language I understood. Although it felt like I had a lot of copy at the time, it still sat well in the layouts. Each method or process I wrote about was relevant to my practice, and was carefully selected to include some methods I knew about already and some I had not known anything about previously, so as I was writing the guide, I was learning. Even though I had learned a lot in the workshops, I didn't want to write a guide of 'how to' in Photoshop, etc.
I managed to contact printers and that was an 'experience', some were nice enough to help and some just weren't interested as soon as they knew I was a student. I got a detailed quote for the magazine which I included on the blog. On the other side of the scale, I was disappointed not to get a quote for the packaging, which is partly my fault as I left it far too late to start looking, but then I expected at least one printer to return my emails, perhaps I should have been hounding them on the phone too. As a whole, looking over the module, I felt I did enough work on that side of things. I actively seeked out appropriate processes for the packaging brief, which I illustrated on the boards along with a choice of substrate that I deemed suitable.
Onto the ideas and I started out as I always do, and naturally filtered my ideas so I'm not just churning out rubbish and wasting paper. That said, I know I can't develop an idea that is in my head either but I feel as though every idea should have some quality to it, something that can be worked with. I did alot of writing too, instead of sketching, which I thankfully got out of the way eventually. I tend to write down ideas before I visual them, which is ok to a certain extent but it just got out of hand and I needed to be stopped and told to refocus my attention to visualisation of all these words I had on the page. The development after I had my idea took off quickly and I yearned to get to the computer to work on but I made sure I had something solid to work on before I attempted to use the mac. For example, I sketched loads of little icons for the 'AI' before I started developing digitally. Last year, I would have probably go straight to digital, so I pleased with the progress there.
I do take pride in my work so the documentation and organisation as well as presentation is major factor for me. I dare say I am always organised to an extent but the way I lay work out and how I come across in crits could do with improving. I need to start organising work so it has a clear line of development. Sometimes there is no definite line of enquiring and that means my development work is left until late or is fairly thin, because of my urgency to create an idea digitally, that said digital work is my strong point so I work to my strengths. In the instance of this module, and because of the good work I did on the logo development, that seems to have worked out quite well.
The success of my final products on the one hand (the booklet) was pleasing, and on the other, not so (packaging). I can't quite put my finger on why though. I think, with more development, the packaging could have been successful to its target audience. I worked on the 'good' brief from a different perspective, which I know will come up probably every time I get a brief in industry. Last year most of the target audiences included me, so I only had to please myself. The packaging, by other peoples opinion probably was seen as successful but it just didn't really appeal to me, and so I instantly think it could have been improved. The 16 pager, however, was successful and I had a few good verbal comments on it too.
What I would do differently next time
1. Take time when sketching. (my sketching is shocking when I rush)
2. Give myself little deadlines within module deadline (By the final week I was so stressed about everything I still had to do, which impacted on the final product)
3. Plan in advance, especially with printing (had a nasty shock with the print resource and had to change my plans, in future book in advance)
4. Make sure I have input on my work as much as possible without being paranoid (I had more tutor input in this module than most modules last year and it helps)
5. Buy some folders to organise the montain of print outs I have (I was badly organised compared to some people so I worked against the clock to get the extract looking like I had all my work in order)
End of Module Self Evaluation
Presentation boards
These are the final presentation boards I will be submitting for the print module.
16 page final design
This is my final 16 page booklet. I am pretty happy with. Much more than I was with my packaging. I wrote all the articles myself and even left a pouch design at the back to put print samples in.
First mock up
This is my first little mock up of the box, I plan on printing some things seperately, like the spot varnish and the back panel which I think will be another sticker. I realise it is quite simple but this is what I intended the finished packaging to be like. Bold colours and ample ammounts of illustration would have suited me but not this product. It needs to stand out in a subtle way. It needs to be attractive and not in your face.
Yes, its simple but it's solid.
Spot varnish
This is a sample of the pattern that I chose from my development. I started out just drawing patterns that have similar curvature to a CD, then I looked at some jewell cases for inspiration and noticed the little CD holder part that holds the cd in place. I thought it was a fitting symbol to promote the product and the rest is history. I am unsure if this will be too complex for the vinyl cutter in the print resource but if all fails I'll create something a little less complex.
I plan to have this pattern cut out from sticky back plastic before sticking all the individual pieces to my packaging and erecting it from the template. I hope this works because it could look really good or really bad.
This is the kind of effect I am looking to acheive, which was designed by Aron Design
Print Finishing
I wanted to just talk about print finishing in regards to my 'good' project. I've identified that I want to use a spot varnish on my outer packaging, which would encourage the luxurious notion attached to my product. However, until now I haven't really thought about a second print finish I could take advantage of.
I decided to look at print finishes and what would best suit my product. As I've read and no doubt discussed before is the importance of print finishes, and they should not become an afterthought to make something look more disirable alone. They should be used intelligently and should provide a link a to the concept.
This is when I thought about the posibility of using a heat sensitive ink that would change when touched. Thermochromic ink is a high sensitive ink used on that can be used on a variety of substrates from paper to fabric. I want to encourage interactivity by using a thermochromic based ink which will feature on the outer packaging in some way. My initial idea was to print on the actual packaging but this may prove tricky at this stage of development, so I intend to either use it on a band that would wrap around the product or on the distribution material like the stickers or posters.
What's working now.
I'm well on my way to completing the good project. I can see the end in sight but it's going to be another non-stop week. I previously stated that I would not use the identity I had developed due to the feedback I got from it. Some said it was too masculine and too techy, and this is some what of a unisex product but is also packaged in the way luxury chocolates would be, and I found from my research that they had a certain look which differentiated them from other chocolate products on the market.
However, after a tutorial with Lorenzo, I was encouraged not to throw the towel in with regards to this identity. Instead, I agreed and decided to distill the identity and work with it to achieve not only a logo I felt fit with the aims of the product but also something that could be used in a distribution campaign. At the weekend I revisited this identity in an attempt to rework it to include the graphical element once again.
In the end, I plumped for this identity, which features a metallic spot colour to add to the luxurious feel. I decided to use a serif, appose to a sans serif to help draw both the 'Audio' type together with the 'AI'. This works better than it did but I'm still not totally happy with it and I probably never will be.
From here, I am now developing the packaging, which will be predominantly black with a spot varnished pattern on it. There will be an sticker on the bottom with details of fictitious nutritional information as well as a little blurb.
The distribution method will focus on stickers and posters. The stickers will be stuck on monitors around the computer in an attempt to change opinion and get the target audience of music downloaders to respect the format and engage with it.
Look whos finished the magazine publication
Really happy with these final spreads. I even put details about how I would print them at the back. I have contacted a few printers to get quotes for this publication and I am awaiting reply. If they don't come back to me, I'll have to look online.
Anyway here they are..
p.s I am tired and really need a break.
More 16 pager spreads
Finished some more spreads. I've really tried to make each spread individual and have a different feel hence the reason no spread appears the same as some magazines. My imagery isn't the best as I didn't have access to a slr camera. These are looking good, so hopefully I'll get the remaining two or three spreads done over the weekend.
Feedback appreciated.
Luxury Gift box development: Branding
It was suggested to me in the crit that I should perhaps create a brand or logo for my product, which would act as a launch pad for the revival of the physical format. The target audience remains as downloaders but the look of the packaging has to be sophisticated and luxurious. I played around with a few ideas for a name. First was 'Luxury Audio' which seemed like more of a description than the name of a brand or product.
Concept Amendment: Good Brief
In light of the crit I had, the delivery of this brief has changed a little. I still plan to target downloaders to persuade and also inform them of the benefits of physical format.
The difference now is that this will be a product for sale rather than a mailshot. I am quite pleased with this outcome as it means that I have a little more of a budget to play with now I know that profit could be gained from this venture.
I am now playing around with a single idea and looking at different ways of approaching. I plan to create a luxury gift box, which would package the album(s), much like a luxury box of chocolates. I will go into more detail once I have developed my ideas further.
I will now begin to look at the gift box/chocolate market to get inspiration for design ideas.
16 page - development
I took some photo's for this brief. I want show examples of work and also have relevant imagery to articles I've written. I started by photographing the pantone swatch books from the tutors office and ended up in the print resource too looking for printers to photograph. It would have been nice to take photographs of a printers workshop but I have not got round to it, and I realise that is my fault. Instead I have decided to use diagrams wherever I don't have relevant imagery.
I didn't want this to be like a workshop handout showing examples of how you use software to set up overprinting, for example. I just wanted to show understanding by writing articles on each subject I felt was important to me or interested me. A lot of my work is for print so it was difficult to leave out some subjects but this was necessary as these initial layouts have space to breath.
I have done prior sketches to these but I wanted to see how these workout before committing to any ideas. Seen as though I have decided to not have a uniform layout throughout in a bid to engage the reader with every page I thought I would produce a few of the layouts and then draw out some more.
Comments welcome as ever.
16 page printing guide: content
I spent the last couple of days going through my research and reflecting on what I had learned in the past few weeks, and I am quite pleased with what I have written here. The final word count sits at around 3,000 words, and me being academically challenged has found it difficult to write about.
I didn't want to write out step by step guides on all the things to do with colour as my words show my understanding of the processes involved in designing for print. I don't expect people to read the full amount of content but I am simply posting this as part of my research findings, and put what I've learned into context.
I did pick and choose what I featured in my articles based on what I found useful to me, and I had to leave it things like trapping, and colour half tones to accommodate for space and not have too many topics on one page.
Now I have my content I can start to decide on the scale of my publication, putting together layout ideas (columns, margins, gutters, etc) , as well as calculate how my type will fit and the page, etc.
so here is my full content...
1
Print.
An introduction
2–3
Index
• An introduction to basic colour spaces
• Pantone & Spot colours
• Creative colour processes
• Help! I’m preparing colour for print
• An Overview: Printing Processes
• Feature: Lithography in practice
• What Substrate?
• Print Finishes
4-5
CMYKVSRGB
The two most common colour spaces found on a computer are RGB & CMYK.
But why do we need them and what is the difference?
The RGB colour gamut can reproduce 70% of the colours that can be seen with the human eye. The RGB palette is made up of red, green and blue light and is known as an additive colour space. Everything from monitors to digital cameras use an RGB colour space, as the gamut is wider than a CMYK colour space. This means the images we see on screen are made up of a wider spectrum of colours and produce a more saturated image due to the intensity of the colours. RGB is primarily used for web based graphics.
CMYK is a subtractive colour space used by mixing Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (Black) colours. This colour system is used solely for print and its gamut is much smaller than RGB. The restrictive gamut means a smaller number of colours can be printed. There are ways in which we can print specific colours outside the CMYK gamut known as Pantone® and Spot colours (page 6-7). By mixing all 4 process colours together we can make a deep black, known as registration black, which is used predominantly for registration marks.
It is important to know which colour space we are working in if working for print or web. For example if we were to produced a document for print using an RGB colour space, then the colours within the document that were outside the CMYK gamut would be converted to the nearest colour within the CMYK colour space.
6-7
Pantone & Spot Colours
Pantone and Spot colours are commonly used by graphic designers to ensure that a certain colour will print accurately if it falls outside the CMYK four colour process colour gamut. A spot colour is any colour generated by an ink, which is either pure or mixed from other inks. Special colours such as these require a specific colour mix and are often used if a vibrant colour is required. Pantone colour swatch books feature all the colours in the pantone range. These colours can sometimes be matched accurately to a process colour. However, if a colour is critical, for example in a corporate identity, then a spot colour ink chosen from the pantone sample book can be chosen. Each pantone colour has a reference number and is recognised on software such as the Adobe Creative Suite.
Pantone colours are supplied in solid, pastel and metallic colours amongst others. There are also different types of colour depending on the substrate (16-17). These include coated for a glossy stock, uncoated for an uncoated stock, etc. This is because different substrates can make the same colour appear differently.
8-9
Creative colour processes
Tints
Leading on from our discussion surrounding pantone and spot colours, we can use these colours creatively to make a 1 colour print seem more complex through the use of colour tints. We can make tints from any pantone colour and also Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black when used in isolation. For example the diagram shows a 100% Cyan ink which has a 10% reduction which makes that 90% Cyan. The next box down is then 80% cyan, and so on until it reaches 10%. I would not make any more percentage reductions after this point as the colour becomes too opaque. We can repeat this for any single colour ink.
Mono & Duotones
We can use other creative colour processes such as Mono tones, and Duo tones to change the look and feel of an image, and this can be handy to use if we have a set colour palette to work with. For instance, if we are to produce a poster with just two colours like (insert colours here) then we could also produced imagery that only uses these two inks. This means that the print job would be cheaper than using a full 4-colour process. Below are examples of Mono tone and duo tones. Effectively two different colour Mono tones overprinted (pg11) would create a duo tone print. We can also create Tri tones and even Quad tone prints. We can also use selective duotones by manually selecting parts of an image using spot channels to colourise that part of the image.
10-11
Overprinting
Overprinting is a basic function that can add graphic effect. The best overprinting examples are usually done with typography as they use solid colours. As the graphics are layered upon one another the colour will change depending on the colours that are overlaid. Overprinting in graphic design for print is common on posters. By default objects and type that overlay one another usually ‘knockout’, i.e. the colour printed on the layer above will always printed instead of the colour below it. Design programs such as Illustrator and InDesign have overprint functions, and software such as Photoshop can achieve a similar effect by using blending modes. Overprinting onto black would not make any noticeable difference to the black colour. Although, when the other 3 process colours are overprinted onto black, the black becomes stronger colour. Overprinting using images, vector graphics and gradients can also be achieved with good results.
Help! I’m preparing colour for print
There is a list of pointers that can help you prepare a document ready for print when using colour. These prepress checks are a must for all designers because if it is wrong you could incur the costs.
1. Delete all unused colours – The colours in your swatch panel should correspond to the document you are working on. If you are working on a two colour print job and using 2 spot colours for instance, make sure that the rest of the colours like Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key are deleted from the swatch panel.
2. Ensure all you want to print is in black and not registration. For instance if you are preparing artwork that is a solely black, you will need to make sure the artwork is in black only. Sending artwork that is fill with registration will utilize the full four colour process.
3. Ensure all you to print in registration, is in registration. This is the opposite of the last point but registration prints as a much richer black than using ordinary black ink.
4. Ensure all spot colours are accounted for. If you do use a special colour, this is fine but don’t send artwork with unused spot colours. Spot colours can be assigned to be print as spot varnishes and other print finishes. Make sure the printer knows of this.
5. Ensure all images are converted from RGB to CMYK as colours can appear differently to how they looked on screen. The colours that were accurate on screen may now be out of gamut and would be substituted for the next nearest colour.
6. Ensure any colour swatches that you imported from one program to another hold the same value. Make sure that any pantone uncoated colours are to be printed on uncoated stock.
12-13
An Overview: Print Processes
The four main industry standard print processes are known as Rotary Printing, which includes Offset Lithography (pg 14-15), Flexography and Rotogravure, Digital Printing, which is prints digitally which prints in a similar way to your printer at home, Screen Printing, which uses screens to print from by layering inks and is often used for t-shirts and generally anything that is difficult to print digitally, and Pad Printing, which takes ink from a plate and transfers it to a pad, which then can be transferred to a variety of substrates either 2 or 3D.
All the four processes are set up to print differently and better suited to particular jobs. For example if you were to print limited edition run of posters on a thick stock, you may decide to print using screen-printing. Screen-printing is suited to limited print runs but can produce a better quality than digital printing.
Screen Printing
Screen printing is a print process which consists of ink being forced through a screen, traditionally made from silk. Today, the screens are usually made from a synthetic fabric, which is more cost effective and longer lasting. The screens are coated a photo emulsion, which hardens when subjected to UV light.
Setting up printing screens can be costly so it is not cost effective to produce a screen for a one-off print job. A new screen has to be produced for each ink colour you decide to use and the design you are printing will have to be transferred to the screen by exposing it to UV light for a number of seconds. For example, if you were to print a full colour image, you would need to separate the colours into cyan, magenta, yellow, and key channels digitally using graphic design software such as Adobe Photoshop and then printing the four colour separations separately onto acetate sheets ready for exposure. These are printed in grayscale because they only act as a stencil for your final design.
The screen is exposed and where light cannot penetrate through the stencil the emulsion does not harden like the rest of the screen. After this process, the screen is washed and the emulsion that has not hardened falls away to reveal your artwork on the screens ready for printing.
Digital Printing
Digital printing is more familiar to us as we take advantage of it everyone day if we ever want to print anything from a computer. Digital printing works in the same as our printers, just on a much bigger scale. Digital printing can be a cost effective way to print a one off, and can also be used to print large scale banners. Most large format digital printers can print up to A0, which is twice the size of A1. Canvas and PVC banners are usually printed digitally due to them being produced in 1’s and the fact digital printing allows us to print them in any length.
Pad Printing
Pad printing is a printing process that can transfer a 2-D image onto a 3-D object. This is accomplished using an indirect offset gravure printing process that involves an image being transferred from the printing plate via a silicone rubber pad onto a substrate (surface to be printed). Pad printing is used for printing on otherwise impossible products in many industries including electronics, appliances, sports equipment and toys. The plates can either be etched using a laser or hardened using UV light. The latter technique lasts much longer than the laser etched plates, so would be more costs effective for large print runs.
Rotary Printing
Rotary printing is common in the world of newspaper and magazine printing and has three main types all of which suit one print job better than another. The principle of rotary printing is nothing new but more viscous inks and improvements in technology means a better quality of print, better accuracy and faster production means it will be used for many years to come. Two large cylinders known as the impression roll and the gravure cylinder turn in unison to allow the paper to glide through. The gravure cylinder will be partially submerged in a large inkwell. This drum will apply the image to the substrate via the plate that is wrapped around it with the artwork etched onto the surface. The materials used to make the plate depend on the printing process being used.
Rotogravure
Rotogravure is a common commercial relief printing process in which an image is engraved into a copper printing plate (that’s why the plates are so durable) and is pressed directly against the substrate. Small cells are engraved into the plate that holds the ink ready to be transferred to the stock. It is a high speed print process that delivers a high volume of production and has the widest print presses. It is used for substantial print runs, such as newspapers and magazines.
Flexography
Flexography is printed using the surface differences in the plate. The process creates a rubber relief of the image, which is inked and pressed against the substrate. It was developed for printing packaging and traditionally gave poor results but now it competes with the likes of rotogravure and lithography, particularly as it can print a wide range of substrates due to the flexibility of the plate. It is often used for medium to large sized print runs. This print process is used for printing onto 3D objects such as soft drink cans and food packaging.
Rotogravure and flexography print processes uses lower viscosity inks than lithography so the drying time is much faster.
14-15
Lithography in practice
Invented in 1796, Lithography has grown with the times from using fat and oil to now where the image is made of polymer that is applied to anodized aluminium plates.
Lithography is the most versatile print process and the most commonly used for short to medium print runs. It produces good photographic reproduction and fine linework. It works by taking an inked image from a printing plate and then transferring or offsetting it on to a rubber blanket roller. This is then pressed against the stock or substrate. Lithography plates are smooth and works on the basis that oil repels water. When the plate passes under the ink roller, non-image areas that have a water film repel the inks which stick to image areas.
Lithography is considered to be the most commonly used process because plates are easy to prepare and the cost of printing is relatively low. Lithography printers can either be sheet fed or have a continuous web feed. A Sheet-fed method would be used for a small print jobs including flyers and brochures, where as web-fed presses would be used for newspapers, magazines and reports because of the high volume.
The problems incurred by using lithography are that the plate can start to suffer due to usage on high volume print jobs particularly when using a web-fed system. This can have cost implications as more plates would have to be produced. However, if used effectively the cost can be significantly lower than using a gravure technique.
16-17
What Substrate?
Stock is a major factor and can make or break a piece of printed design. In short, you as the designer, should always try to make your artwork look as good as it possibly can whilst keep the cost under budget as much as possible.
There are many varieties of paper stock but two main ones are coated and uncoated stocks. One of the first decisions a designer has to make is whether to print onto a coated or uncoated paper depending on the budget. Paper characteristics that affect printability include its smoothness, absorbency, opacity, and ink holdout. The substrate we use can affect how our work is viewed. For example, if we were to design a flyer or brochure discussing organic produced, we would look to use a natural stock that had not been chemically treated like the usual printing papers we can buy. The substrate would probably remain uncoated as well. Uncoated stocks generally absorb the ink much better than coated stocks.
There are other finishes to chose from such as wove, which has a uniform surface made by a woven wire roller that presses the paper. Woven substrates are coated and are suited to stationery and book publishing. Laid paper is a premium quality paper with a textured pattern of parallel lines similar to hand-made paper and is suited to business stationery. Bond stock is an economic uncoated wove paper often used for copying and laser printers. A higher quality bond stock can be used for letterheads.
The weight of the paper stock you select also comes into question depending on the printed materials end function. The system for measuring how thick the stock is GSM (Grams per square metre). The higher the GSM value the weightier the stock will be. Choosing the correct GSM to fit the purpose and the budget can be tricky at first. If you were to produce a leaflet on a fairly small budget, for example, you would have to select a paper that was opaque enough to be duplex printed without holograms appearing on either side, however, it also has to be flexible enough to fold. Selecting coated or uncoated papers may be decided upon whether your artwork is full of colour. Folding a coated paper with a solid colour may crack and be unsightly where as using an uncoated paper may not work because it could be distributed in a place where it could become wet or dirty.
There are many, many more types of substrate we can print depending on the print process we decide to use from recycled paper stock to wood free paper stock.
18-19
Print Finishes
Print finishes can add a special touch to your printed artwork whether it is through the use of foil blocking, spot varnishes, die cutting, binding, and embossing among others. Although the application of print finishes signals the end of the production process, these techniques should not be considered an afterthought. They are an integral part of the design at a planning stage.
Foil blocking
Foil blocking or foil stamping as it is sometimes known, is a process by which a coloured foil is heat pressed onto a substrate via a heated die. Foil blocking can add to a finish’s desirability particularly if it contrasts well with the colour of the document. For example a metallic silver foil blocking usually works rather well on a solid black finish. The process is versatile and can be used for typographic areas and can be used in conjunction with embossing to add a professional and high quality feel to a heavier card stock like a book cover.
Spot Varnish
Spot varnishes can be applied in the same way that ink is applied to a stock. They come in various forms depending on the substrate they are to be printed on. The varieties include gloss, matt, pearlescent, textured, neutral and UV varnish among others. They are used to give a glossy finish to a certain area and often work well when applied to typography to make it stand out against an uncoated stock. The can also be applied to images because they make the colours appear more vivid, and in turn appear much more saturated and sharper.
Spot varnishes, in some cases, can also be used in place of an ink. For example if you were to have a completely solid black finish on an uncoated stock, you could apply a spot varnish instead of a colour to typography and the shine of the varnish would make the typography stand out when light was reflected off the front of it.
20
Back cover
Continues from front
'Good' Crits
I had my first real crit and the ideas were free flowing. We spent over 3 hours critting 5 pieces of work and I think we could have talked more still. Everyone in our group, I think, went away with valuable information and clear direction to what they wanted to achieve. I thought I had an idea that I would run with and then after hearing feedback and suggestions one of my other ideas has come to forefront.
Originally, this morning I planned on delivery an idea for a mailshot which would be posted to people who pay for music downloads, and persuade them to buy physical format cds. I had only come up with the idea yesterday and I was feeling it could work for a while but the group decided that the idea wasn't doing much for them, and that it could be a little confusing.
They suggested going with an early item which was to package the CD in a luxury box of chocolates but modify my original idea a little and then use that as a product rather than a mailshot. This works miles better, as I don't have to think about the cost implications as much as this will have a sale value.
This is definitely a eureka moment for me. My next step is to look at chocolate box packaging and gift wrapping. I will be posting a new concept statement in due course.
Concept statement for Good brief
Concept:Hard format music is good because it encourages a physical interaction with printed material.
In a world where we rely heavily on computers and online technology, the focus in the music scene has shifted heavily towards downloadable music singles and albums. As much as I find them useful to listen to music on the go and finding out about new artists easily, I also find hard copy format invaluable. The tangibility of the whole product appeals to all of our senses. The feel of the stock, the smell of the ink and the visuals on display in the well executed lyrics booklet, all of which aren't available 'online'.
Then comes the music. As I have proved the CD does boast a higher quality of sound compared to your average itunes download. MP3 is a lossy format which does lose quality depending on the number of times it is copied. Mp3 tracks of course take up space on your hard drive and have to be backed up if you don't want to lose them.
Target Audience: I have decided to target the people who pay for downloads to inform and persuade them to return to the Hard Copy format before CD's become a thing of the past.
My research shows a love for hard copies still but increasing demand for downloads means that the rise in digital sales already has or will take over the physical copy sales. My questionnaire also only included people with creative backgrounds so my responses do seem a little biased.
Delivery: I plan to deliver my concept by creating a mailshot. The reason for this approach is due to the behaviour patterns of my target. If they don't shop for CD's, there would be no point in producing a product or point of sale display in music shops. I can only assume that my audience are at home downloading music.
16 page document - Content
One thing I should have sorted by this point and I hope to clarify in this post is the content of my 16 page document. The basis of my publication will be defined through print processes and colour, which has formed most of the seminars and workshops up to date. All that new knowledge will feature alongside my further research to make an informative piece that shows I can use the processes and that I know what I am talking about.
I don't think it is enough to just talk about them in uniform way without some stock, and colour experimentation but I realise I am limited and can't use things like foil blocking and spot UV inks, etc. I can include as part of my pdf files though because it will be viewed on screen. For stock limitations I may scan in stock if I need to show how the ink would work with a stock other than a bright white.
The content for my publication is as follows:
Colour - CMYK and RGB | Pantone & Spot colour | Mono tone, Duo tone, Tri tone, Quad tone | Colour half tone | Overprinting, Trapping | Tints, Gradients
Processes - Lithography | Screen Printing | Digital Printing | Flexography | Rotogravure |
Stock - Coated, Uncoated | Specialist
Finishing - Foil blocking, Cutting, Embossing, Laminates and Varnishes
I hope I have covered everything in that.
Type workshops
Lack of blogging on these workshops so I thought I would post something as I have learnt quite a lot from them and I enjoyed them quite a bit too. I am definitely choosing this as my module focus for later in the year but that's enough of that.
Here I am looking at spacing but character spacing as appose to negative spacing on a document. The bottom line is kerned correctly. I started with the biggest space between the 'R' and the 'A' and then kerned the rest to fit with that. Kerning like this is common practice with a single word. However, you wouldn't kerning singular characters if you were to use a more than a few words.
Once I had grasped this concept, I moved on to playing around with a sentence in the same way. As a rule the eye is drawn to the largest font and then to which ever is the next dominant in terms of size, weight, case and position and perhaps even form.I was told that this worked but I am not sure. It just looks like a bad movie poster, I think.
After this I started looking at whole paragraphs of type. Even though I had jumped from singular words to paragraphs the considerations still stayed the same. The size, weight, layout, space, form, and now alignment came into consideration. Left aligned is much more of a formal justification often seen in broadsheet newspapers, etc. However fully justified text is usually found traditionally in books and most tabloid newspapers and magazines. Leading is also key to setting up paragraphs of text and should act as a direct result of the size being increased or decreased.
This is my first attempt with setting out a 4 column document with what I felt was appropriate leading and type size to fill a page. By the end I had selected a fully justified text alignment with a smaller typeface and larger leading. I found this easier to read and felt that the larger leading made the text more appealing to read.
The final session brought more layout work and now I was using a whole body of text to fit into various documents with a varying number of columns.The first example shows a 10pt font on 13pt leading, without line spacing and added 4mm of indentation, which is about 3 character widths, and I'm told that is the safest option when indenting. This meant the copy fit perfectly into the three columns and the leading was appropriate. If I wanted line spacing I could reduce the size or the leading to accomodate. However, there should be no less than 5 words per line and and no more than 11 or 12.
Once I had cracked this I could move onto adding imagery to my layouts and playing around the type and number of columns to achieve different effects but keep the readability.This example is a standard two column document without line spacing and the appropriate ammount of leading for the size of the font. I thought this attempt was ok but after doing a few more I thought this seemed poor.
These two examples were much better and finally seemed to be coming together, and I had kept the readability. On the first example I reduced the top margin and allowed the image to bleed of the page. The document started of as a 5 column document but I felt the columns were far too small to be able to hold the text. I reduced the gutter and that changed the look of the document.The second example shows a four column document with an image over three columns. Because I had sorted out my type fits I could then be flexible with how small or large I wanted my image. I found that the more columns I had the smaller the type and the bigger the image would be to compensate.
That is it for type for now...
Colour Workshop
The 3rd session looked at using colour as well as preparing artwork for print in InDesign. The colour palette used in Illustrator and Photoshop is mimicked in this application for ease of transferring artwork from one to another. Importing graphics such as photoshop duotones will also transfer the colours used for duotone into the colour palette. This means we can then use these colours to create a layout and ensure the design will always be a two colour print.
What is Good? Presentation
So I have my concept and statement and what I am trying to communicate. I've carried out really successful questionnaires and I've got an abundance of imagery and some key facts. How do I go about fitting that into a 2 minute presentation? Well I have stripped out a lot of waffle and I have a slice of my research to give a decent overview, and make people think I know what I am doing for this project. I haven't headed massively into design as I don't know what the next step is in this project.
Here is one of my slides which I will present tomorrow to a group of students. I was abit aprehensive and worried earlier on as I felt that I didn't have anything new to tell anyone about CD packaging, but I have some good results to back up my argument, which is the main thing.
Computer workshops
Today's workshop has continued to focus on colour for print in photoshop, and this is my first duotone composition. A duotone is made from two colours, usually spot colours, both of which would be on separate plates. I used a blue and yellow pantone colour to achieve this effect. I also manipulated the axis controlling the colours to separate the highlights and shadows. Doing this makes for a clean image with more clarity.
