OUGD504 - SB1 - A-Z: Type in Context - Final Concept & Time Plan

The previous crit session made it much easier to choose a final pathway for the publication. I came to the realisation that there is not enough photographic content to develop the first concept fully, despite being received as the more interesting route to go down. The final pathway is therefore going to be a combination of idea 1 and 2, with a heavier lean towards idea 2 (typography). Below is the final pathway that will be taken.

Concept

The main concept is to produce a publication that analyses the effectiveness/ineffectiveness of signage around Seattle. However, to make the book a bit more engaging and diverse in terms of the content, aspects that are unrelated to typographical analysis, such as culture and lifestyle, will be written to accompany some of the letters. This provides a variety within the publication that will appeal to a slightly wider target audience than just creatives. By integrating idea 1 into idea 2, the publication can be broken up with some landscape photography and urban shots taken on the trip.

Purpose & Target Audience

Due to combining the two ideas there will be 2 target audiences. The first is creatives and budding designers that are intrigued to read about signage in America. This is the main audience as the written and photographic content will heavily focus on the analysis of signage and type. The second is people that enjoy travel/lifestyle magazines and are interested in reading about Seattle as a city. In this sense, there are 2 main purposes; for the first audience, the purpose will be to inform creatives about ineffective/effective signage and essentially how to avoid the mistakes seen in the photographs taken. For the second audience, it is more about leisurely reading than being informative. Whilst a lot of the content will focus on the analysis of signage, the photographs taken will be a lot more prominent than the text. This will be done so that people who are not interested in design can flick through the book to observe the photographs and culture/lifestyle content, whilst creatives and designers can look at the signage in more detail and read the analysis in more depth. This balance between the two audiences will have to be achieved by carefully considering the type and image relationship.

Tone of Voice

As already mentioned, Luke highlighted that the tone of voice needs to be consistent throughout, as some content relative to the first idea is more comical than the content written for the second. As the signage analysis content has already been written, the cultural/travel information that will be included will follow a similar tone of voice. From analysing various travel journals and magazines it is evident that there is a trend in the tone of voice, where the content is quite laid back and not too serious. This tends to make publications easier to read, as a serious tone of voice can become easily disinteresting. Thankfully, the content already written for the signage is in this style - the main task is to complete is to generate the cultural/travel content in a similar voice.

Time Plan - As the main concept has now been decided on, I need to consider how I will plan the remaining 3 and a half weeks of the project. Time planning is crucial to ensure that the final outcome is as strong as possible - I really want to produce a high-quality book that I can be proud of in the project. The rough plan is as follows:

10th - 16th October

◦ Complete the written content and edit the rest of the photographs taken.
◦ Sketch out some layout ideas, informed by the initial research.
◦ Research into some design rules and guidelines on book production.
◦ Start designing the publication in InDesign.

17th - 23rd October

◦ Complete the layout of the publication and begin finalising the design.
◦ Consider what printers will be expecting - marks, bleed, colours, ink etc.
◦ Create some test prints.

24th - 30th October

◦ Make any needed design refinements.
◦ Physically print and produce the final publication.

31st October - 4th November

◦ Take professional photographs of the outcomes.

◦ Present the final outcome to a crit group to receive some summative feedback.

◦ Complete design boards and write an evaluation for the entire project.