OUGD404 - Studio Brief 01 - How Do You Read? - Production, Final Outcome & Evaluation

Production - Before printing the publication I had not had a pagination induction. This resulted in the the page orders and the binding settings to be set incorrectly, which caused some of the pages to be printed in the wrong orientation (example of the first print can be seen below). To solve this I watched some online video tutorials and taught myself how to correctly format the pages for print.

The next test print worked out perfectly due to using the 'print booklet' setting in InDesign. This prepared all the pages so that I could print the publication in the same set out order. The final part in the process was to therefore choose the stock and sew the pages together.

In terms of the stock used I chose two fairly light white papers from Fred Aldous. Whilst they felt different, there was no clear visual difference between the two until physically printing the publication. As seen below, one paper printed a lot rougher with less vibrant colours than the other. This was simply down to the grain of the paper. The print on the right was much more suitable as the colours looked more accurate to the actual primary and secondary CMYK colours.

For the last step in the process I printed all the pages on this paper and then went on to sew the publication together with white string. The bookbinding induction provided me with all the knowledge and skills I needed when putting it together. 

Final Outcome - The final printed publication was photographed in a lighting induction. This allowed me to produce really high quality, professional looking images, which I want to keep doing in my practice. The whiteness of the publication contrasts really well against a black background and looks very crisp under a high exposure setting. After adjusting the tone in Adobe Lightroom the final images of the publication can be seen below.

Evaluation - Seeming as this is the first publication I have ever created I am very happy with the outcome. Study tasks were so important in teaching me how to effectively make the most out of grids and canons. They make the process of designing publications so much easier as you have a structure to work with.

The skills learnt in this brief were taken forward to create the second publication in this module. The fundamentals learnt have provided a crucial basis for other areas of design this year, including the branding projects and wayfinding work. Whilst the design principles themselves are important this first brief gave me a real appreciation of print and publication design. It is an area that I will most likely go down as a career choice.