End of Blog.

Evaluation.

Another brief completed and my last project done. I have to admit that after our first meeting with industry those many weeks ago, I along with many others really didn't have high hopes for this brief, and felt quite down heartened as it was the last project of our uni life! It felt like there a load of little projects that had been thrown together for us to choose from, and nothing was jumping out at me asking to be tackled. However, it wasn't until later on that I realised this wasn't meant to be an easy brief as it was our final major project.

By not giving us an abundance of information or nudging us in the right direction it felt like we were being sent up the creek without a paddle, but it was to test us and to test our resolve and see how we coped in a real life industry situation, and as soon as I came around to this fact I was very much up for a challenge. I chose to take on the general promotion project to try something different. I have found that my instinct on most projects is to pick a topic or subject that is new to me and challenging, and I think most of the time it has paid off because I strive to not let it defeat me.

It was really interesting looking into the design of annual reports and accounts and finding that they don't have to be as boring as you think. I was particularly surprised by how good some of the infographics I came across were and think that is a great part of design to get your head around. Looking at my own work, I am really happy with the approach I took and decisions I made along the way. I think not going for the usual booklet form of an annual report really paid off, and as soon as my idea of "We take a small voice...and make it heard!" came into play everything started to piece together and I think time permitting I could have put together a whole annual report instead of just a snippet.

My only grumble would be the lack of information supplied by the brief setters, this made it hard at times when you stall trying to make up the copy and especially on the accounts, but I didn't let it stop my design process and think that I got around that hurdle without too much damage. I pushed myself style wise this project too. Experimenting with new ways of bringing type and imagery together with great effect I think.  Overall, I am really pleased with my outcomes in this projects and there's not much I would change in hindsight. The only thing I believe I could have pushed more would be the accounts & figures section, where I could have perhaps done something more impressive, but all in all it has been a successful project for me and a good way to end the course.

Annual Report & Promo printed.

I printed my annual report and extra designs and make a final mockup of the finished product. And because it is my final major project I wanted to do it justice for my end of year show, so took pictures of my final printed designs, here they are...

 

Final designs.

I think that's the lot, all the boxes have been checked, and there is no more designing to be done. Here are my final designs, including a last minute back cover.

 

 

An added extra.

I wasn't going to cover this option in the brief (in the same way that I bypassed the flag for a flagpole part...) but after seeing how my promo material turned out I thought it'd work well to create an invitation to invite all the volunteers and helpers at silent cities to a celebration party. Following along the lines of taking something small and making it big, I thought of "A small way...to say a big thank you!", and then I could send a large A3 invitation out in a tiny box or envelope to support this tagline. It works very much in the same way as the promo, but for a different purpose. I just love the idea of illusions and uprising people, and although it's nothing amazing, it is extremely effective and is an idea you can base a whole campaign around. I was sucker and went for balloons, but it is a party invite after all!

Developed promo.

I decided to revisit my promotional material nearer the end of the project, it is an additional design, so thought it would be good to see where my annual report went so that I could link this into the same style. I have kept my initial idea because it went down so well at the midway crit, and obviously because I now use this idea in my annual report. Here is my latest design.

 

I think the look of this has come out great, but what I am really pleased with is how well the concept works and fits in with the rest of the project. It would be cheap to produce, there aren't many other companies who hand out folded up A3 flyers and it serves it's purpose by catching the attention of, informing and challenging the recipient. And I even made sure there was still some orange in there just to please the industry people!

Accounts designs.

I've been working hard on the accounts designs for this project and finally think I'm done with them. I really struggled to find any other charities accounts that I could use for design purposes, so I ended up making them up again, but apart from that I am pleased with how they look. This is the first time I have ever designed with figures or ventured into infographics, but there really is so much that could be done so it's something I will definitely look to improve on in the future.

If I had more time I would have liked to experiment with more 3d elements, but all together I am happy with how these have turned out. This is only one page with a handful of designs on, but I can see it being extended because when it is more than just numbers it looks a lot more interesting and people are more likely to take notice. And as I said the figures may not all add up, but would have taken twice as long to even the books as well as design them!

More changes.

With my idea to put the re-cap page with the accounts and make it more about statistics, I decided work needed to be done here. I finally made a choice on the typeface and went with the same one that I have used throughout, this just means it would look out of place and continues the same across all of my designs. I also added some more information to the page, along with a graph or two just to bulk the stats out more and make it visually more pleasing. I kept the orange with the numbers because it worked so well and is important for the silent cities look, got rid of some extra type that was unnecessary and also integrated the chevron pattern in the same way I did on the about page. Here is what I've come up with, think it works much better now.

A new order!

After the revelation that my final page didn't work as well as I had planned, I started to have a little re-think. And then I got one of those lightbulb moments and was kicking myself for not reaslising earlier. I don't know what made me think case studies and accounts would look good together, but I realised it would look 10 times better if the years re-cap was with the accounts, and I could even make it into more of a statistics page, then all the case studies could go together on the third page. I put them together quickly to see what it looks like...

 

This just seems to make so much more sense and I don't know why I didn't notice it before, but guess thats just how design goes sometimes! So my new order is going to be:

- Front cover
- About us
- Case studies
- Statistics
- Accounts & figures

Now that I have cleared that up, I believe there is more that I can do with my statistics page and I also need to carry on working with the accounts, but feeling good about this latest change.

Final page layout.

I thought I would use the one design I have so far for the accounts section, and put it together with the case studies to get an idea of what the final page with look like.

 

And I am really happy that I did this now. the two sets of designs really don't work well together like this. I don't know if it's the change from photography to vector based designs, or the white against the dark backgrounds, but it just doesn't sit or flow right. This is something that I really need to look at before I can progress.

Accounts & Figures idea.

Time to tackle my accounts & figures designs. Having left this until after my midway presentation I think I now have a better understanding of what approach to take and what they are looking for. One thing that I do know is that I want this section to have different look to the other pages, because although it is all in the same annual report it is a totally different section so needs to be portrayed like so.

 

Here is the first rough draft of my design. I think the white background gives this section a fresh look and will make it obvious that it is different to the rest. I want the orange colour to be dominant in this section too as throughout it has only been subtly used and it works well as the only colour on the page, makes the numeric type really stand out. The chevron pattern in the background it is keep the corporate image running alongside the orange. This area still needs a lot of work, and its quite challenging when you don't have any real figures to go by,  but I will crack on and see where I end up.

Case study designs.

The next area to work on was my designs for the case studies. I really needed to produce 4 instead of 3 so that they worked better with my broadsheet design, and also the feedback I got was to make them more personal stories about people with differing problems. Not having any actual case studies yet I decided to pick 4 areas of the charity and the kind of people they work with and made up the content from there. Here are my outcomes.

I am extremely happy with how these designs have come together. From my initial research I said how important it was for the imagery to connect with the meaning type, and when dealing with sensitive subjects this is even more so. I think the images I have used work really well because they portray emotion, innocence and a connection with the subject.

I chose to use names and make each one state what was that persons need and how Silent Cities has helped them, this ties the case study to how the charity is working to help these people. It also makes them more personal, which was one of the points in my feedback. I chose to set the type large and centered over the image which had been the style I'd wanted to achieve from the very start.

Further develoment...

I took the same approach to my 3rd design as I did with the about us page. Because the feedback on the design itself was good there wasn't much that I wanted to change, so I included some orange in the form of the numbers.

 

Although I haven't altered much else with this design at this stage, the change of colour has just lifted the whole image and helped tie it together with my other design on the page before. I am starting to learn thanks to the professionals feedback, that sometimes all that is necessary is the slightest change and that can make the biggest difference.  Still not 100% sold on whether the typeface is working, but I will maybe revisit this at a later date.

About page update.

My front cover design went don't really well so for now I am going to leave that untouched. I have however changed up my about us page, taking on board the feedback that was given in my presentation.
I sat down and looked at my designs with a refreshed image of what I want to achieve at the end of this project, this enabled me to be more clear in what was needed and what wasn't and make the right design choices.

The first thing I did was take the idea of running a theme across my designs, and added the "We take a small voice...and make it heard." They really liked this concept as they said it captured the whole essence of what they were trying to achieve as a charity. I played around with the type hierarchy and think I came out with quite an interesting look. The eye naturally moves down from the top left and across onto the next page where their mission statement is. I also wanted to keep the symbolism of loud type being bigger and in your face.

Another addition is the orange chevron pattern. I think this is a really subtle way  of including the companies corporate image, but still giving me the freedom to do my own thing. I have used it as a sort of page footer along with the logo and this is something that I could maybe carry on into my other designs.

Crit presentation with industry!

Well my presentation seemed to go quite well. I presented my designs and concept for the annual report and promotional material, and gave them a mock-up to see how the both would function. They really liked the overall look of my designs, and how there was continuity in style throughout. They also liked my images used, typographic styling and proposed content. There were things that they suggested I could improve on or include though. These were; inclusion of the corporate orange colour or chevron pattern as they are a big part of the charities image, extending the idea of "We take a small voice...and make it heard" into a theme across all the material, and more personal case studies.

I aim to take all of this feedback on board and put it into action in order to produce outcomes that are to my highest standard and that also tick all the boxes set in the brief. It has got to be good sign when the head of Silent Cities askes to take your muck-up designs home with her though!

Promotional material idea.

Also before my crit presentation I wanted to have an idea of what to do for the promotional material part of this project. The brief asks for 'something to give out when out and about with the Silent Cities contact details on, so I wanted something that served its purpose and at the same time was a bit different to your usual flyer. I think the key this is interaction of some sort, or making something slightly intriguing, as so many people don't even glance at a flyer before putting it in the nearest bin.

I thought about the company Silent Cities, what they stand for and are trying to achieve. I also thought about practicalities and how it could be used in an affective way. The one thing that kept popping into my head was 'to be heard' as the charity is all about giving people a voice. Then an idea came to me in one of those immediate moments of understanding. It is only a simple idea, but I think it could be extremely effective.

The words "We take a small voice...and make it heard." kept whizzing around my head, and thoughts of symbolically making something heard. I used my idea that people need to interact and be intrigued when they get handed something on the street, and decided that I could give out tiny envelopes or rolls of paper, that when opened or unraveled and unfolded left the person with an A3 flyer in their hands with all the promotional information about Silent Cities on. The sentence "We take a small voice..." could be on the envelope in order to lead them on to make an effort finding out what is inside. There could also be perforated sections with contact info on to encourage them to spread the word. I had mock up of my idea, but cannot find it to scan in, but I have some early designs that I put together...

Working towards a final product.

Right, I think I have got to a respectable stage before the halfway crit. I have a front cover, double page about us page, a 4-page re-cap of last years achievements and some case study designs. I will also show some research examples of how I am going to do the accounts graphics.

 

With my front cover I have decided to make a center piece of the title and the date, this gives it more prominence on the front cover and also gives it a more contemporary style that isn't like a normal title layout.With my about us page design, I wanted to make the type larger and spill over both pages in order to really push across what the charity is all about. I have continued with my typo style, using a variety of layers and filters to merge it with the images and create a design where all the elements hopefully come together as one.

 

Here is my first full design for the statistics/past year page. I wanted the the numbers to play a big part in this design, having the type work around and support them, so that it was easy for people to take in the information. Again these numbers are purely fictional as I haven't been supplied with any real ones, but design wise I think it works well. The only thing that I am not sure about is my choice of font for the numbers, I tried something a bit different, but will see what feedback I get first from my presentation.

Developing my designs.

Having taken my own advice since the last post, I have chosen to use the imagery of the people in the case study style designs only, or even to say what the charity has achieved. In this way the images relate to what is being said. Here are where I am at with these.

 

I have also used my new idea of more neutral images for the first few pages of the annual report. These include the front cover, the about us page and also the re-cap of their last years successes. Here is where I am at with these.

I am still working on the statistics page and am yet to have any outcomes for my accounts, but I am happy with how the look of my designs are coming together. I am especially happy with my decision to change the imagery i was using. The use of empty streets and cities ties my pages together and creates an overall look for my annual report. I am working hard to get my designs to a good level before we have our crit presentation with industry. I also have an idea for separate promotional material that I need to try develop before then.

Imagery.

During my early stages of design I found that some of the images I were using didn't relate to the topic of that page, for instance the elderly on the about us page didn't really work. So I have decided to go for a more neutral approach and also a continued theme throughout my annual report. I have got a set of images that all portray empty streets and cities as that can relate directly to the charities name and also be symbolic of there mission, to reach the unheard.

Although I liked the idea of having images of people, more specifically the kind of people that this charity helps, maybe that is something that would be more effective if used in the case studies designs. I will go on to try these in my developed designs.

Initial annual report designs.

Here are some early sketches, layouts and designs. I poured my mind onto paper in a little brainstorm just to make clear of all the areas and kind of people that I could relate to in my designs. These were the outcomes as I tried to hunt for the look I had in my head. 

 

We are yet to receive any imagery from brief setters, so I have had to use some generic imagery for now. I want to make sure I cover as many areas of the charities work as possible, I have started off with the elderly and young people, but plan to cover a new one on each page. 

In hindsight though, the imagery sometimes doesn't relate to the type, like in the about page with the elderly lady on, this is something to look into, maybe I need to use more neutral backgrounds. I also don't think the type here is working too well, I may go with a bolder, stronger font to make it more dominant on the page.  I do like the outcome of the washy colours and scratchy grunge effect on the imagery. I think with this being a rough paper it would be great to have a desaturated effect on the designs, this would also allow the type to flourish.

Typo setting.

I want typography to be an important part of my design style so I have undergone some research into style that would be best suited for my designs.

 

Something that is important for me is to get the balance right between type and imagery. I want type to become a part of the image and work with it instead of looking like it doesn't belong on the page. I love this use of type over the top of full page images, with a variation of colours and blending modes. This could look really affective in an agm, especially for case study sort of things so will work on this from the start. 

I have found a few typefaces that I think could be used in my designs. Memphis is the font used in the silent cities logo, but I think it is one of those fonts that has it's place and think it would looked wrong used excessively throughout, so I have gone for strong, bold, timeless typefaces that can portray a number of different emotions. I will decide on which one to use at a later date.