the book. continued.

 For my class Process and Materials for Graphic Design I have continued working on designing the printer guide. I have designed the front spread, which means I have created the front and back of the book. Also, I created the title page, content page, and two pages for my print companies. All pages need to have a different feel yet feel somewhat connected. This has been the biggest struggle. However, I have had a lot of fun with the parameters of this project. For example, the page which will contain the information on the print companies does not have to feel legible. It can be chaotic and beautifully designed. I have always enjoyed creating a chaotic piece of work. From my paintings to my creations on paper, I try whenever I can to create an elegant yet chaotic art work.  There is a fine line to be walked between a messy piece of work with text everywhere and a piece of work which has placement but is still chaos. It’s the chaos verse order mentality. A piece of art work can be beautiful with order and with chaos; it is the artist who choices the direction. There is so much power in designing a piece of artwork or a book. I can go in any direction I want to with a few requirements. The only requirements are size, text, and picture. But I am allowed to push those requirements to the ultimate. I feel like I can breathe while designing this book because I am not within a box of requirements. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy working within parameters but once in a while I like to have no requirements.

progress

The project in my Professional Practice class is almost coming to an end (on my groups part, that is). Since I am with the group who is designing the guide, we will be one of the first groups to have a completed piece. This is only because of how the project is layed out not due to who has worked the hardest because the class has worked very hard on this project. Each week the guide size and the design has continually changed. It has evolved into something beautiful and simple. The guide is easy to handle, which means it is not a clunky booklet nor is it the noraml size of a brochure. My group has spent many, many hours deciding which fold/design will work best. Our goal is to design a brochure which will be informative yet beautiful enough to keep. Most brochures get looked at then tosed… and this is not our goal. We are also designing a point of purchase stand which will house the brochures. The brochure will go to press in a week, which means crunch time. We are working with a local printing company in chattanooga called Williams Printing Company. The teams at Willaims have been amazing and very helpful. They are helping us in every area and are a pleasure to work with. A couple of weeks ago we toured the facility at Williams Printing Company and everyone there bent over backwards to answer our questions and help us in deciding how to build the guide.

I am very excited to see this project through and look foward to seeing this guide used in Chattanooga, TN.

Brochure/guides

Currently, my team for Professional Practice is working on the guide for the new chapter of Buy Fresh Buy Local here in Chattanooga, TN called Tastebuds. We have decided on a layout and are very happy with the design. Along with the guide, we are creating a “tastebuddy” which will be a smaller guide of restaurants. This is my first time designing and creating a guide. I have done a lot of other design elements but this is my first time designing a guide. It has been quite the experience but also very beneficial. I have researched guides and found some topics such as “What makes a good guide”. Hierarchy is important and the size of text. Color also plays a huge roll. If the background color of the guide is too bright with text that is white, then there is a good chance people will not be able to read it. Text should stay within the 12-10 range, but this also depends on what kind of text you are using. If the font runs big, then it might be okay to use a ten point font. Just be careful and print a rough to make sure.

Also, keep in mind the audience in which will read the guide/brochure. If the audience is a older generation, then it is more than likely they will not be able to read bright text, bright background, and small font. As one gets older, there eyes become less and less. They do not have the same eyes as a 10 year old. And if they are unable to read the brochure, then the design has failed.

Guides/brochures are a successful marketing tool, but keep in mind the audience who will use the brochure/guide.

Die Cut:

die cut is when there is a cut or hole or regular or irregular shape in an object. For this I have a tag that attaches to clothes from H&M. This store always seems to have interesting tags and is constantly changing their design elements, such as tags. The next example is a card is have saved due to its uniqueness. It has a two-step die cut which adds character to the card.

                          

Emboss:

I have collected cards throughout the years and I have two favorite embossing cards. One is decorative with flowers but within the flowers there is another layer on top of that of raised surface. The second one I particular like the emboss, and then deboss in one. In also integrates two design finishes which is why is caught my attention.

 

 

                              

Binding:

I am attracted to different kinds of binds and these two binds are two of my favorite. The first one is bound only by rope which adds character and roughness to the pad of paper. For the second bind, I had to look close to recognize which kind it was but once I did I appreciated the bind. One the outside, the book looks to have a regular bind but once the book is open the pages are bound by 4 strings. This can only be seen if the book is spread apart or a page of paper is torn out.

    

 

 

Packaging:    

I desire to see a company branch out from a normal package and once I saw these they caught my attention. The two packages are form 4by6 and Modern Postcard. Each package has a different size and can unfold in different and unique ways.

                 

Varnishing:

I have selected two cards which house a spot varnish or a picture varnish. Sometimes varnishing can come across as tacky so it was really hard to find a successfully used varnish. I chose these two because they are used playfully and not as unsuccessful as other ones.

    

 

Thermograph:

This finish was one of the harder ones to find within my collection. I save wedding invitations due to the time and quality of the invitation. The second one i picked due to the raised M in the center. The cirlce is raised and then the M is raised as well.. quite nice. .         

         

 

Dutone: I collect business cards and I found one black/white and one pink/white card. The pink card keeps my attnetnion due to the bright colors and curved edges. The black/white is elegant and fits the business.

 

                   

 

 

Scoring: the large blue book is elegant due to the uniquiness of it. It is perforated alog the left hand side and I found the booklet within a magazine.. The seond example was also found within a magazine and the viewer        can interact with the magazine by taking a marker from this page and placing it within the magazine.

                   

 

Foil Stamping: I chose this foil stamp because i usually do not see this kind of material on a card, but it is become more and more popular each day.

                   

 

 

 

Fold: I chose the first fold (the orange one) due to the size which comes to 3 by 3. This type of fold is easy to handle and feels like a true designed fold and not just a regualar fold, even though the typography on the fold isn’t elegant. The second fold is from a card and the top of the card cuts off around 1/4 of an inch and allows the bottom part of the card to show through.

    

field/trip

Last Thursday I was able to tour a printing company in Chattanooga, TN called Williams Printing Company. They are a large company with on site-printing and graphic designers.  Our tour guide, Bubba Williams was generous and took time out of his schedule to give up-and-coming graphic designers a peak into the printing world.  He first introduced us to the company and then took us on a tour. Once on the tour, we stopped by the graphic design department and then we were off to see how the image on computer comes to life on paper. The company has a vast range of printing techniques such as digital pre press, lithographic printing, silkscreen printing, finishing/binding and I was able to see each kind of printing. I was amazed by the whole process and was thankful the tour was so in-depth because it allowed me to learn real life experience instead of reading about the process. I am a visual learner so this experience was far more beneficial than reading on my own. Williams Printing will print, bind, and package whatever type of job needed. The last stop we made on the tour was the die-cut area… now this stuff gets me excited. I wish I could meet the woman/man who invited die cutting because it has revolutionized cards, advertisement, and paper products. I didn’t realize die-cut was all around me… even fast food restaurants use die cuts to emphasize each layer of a hamburger. It is mind-blowing if one sits down and realizes how die cutting has invaded the printing process.

In all, Williams Printing Company was so generous in giving UTC students a tour and I am thankful for this experience.

my own book

For the next project in Process and Materials for Graphic Design I have the opportunity to design a real book. In previous graphic design courses I have designed book covers and designed 10 page books, but this time I am designing a book and sending it off to be professionally bound. I will be sending it to LuLu.com and it will consist of my own design for the cover, content page, and two page layouts. The book will be a printer guide of different printing companies in Chattanooga and larger companies outside of Chattanooga. Each student will be responsible for designing a page for each printer they were assigned (each student was assigned two printers). For an example, I was assigned Silk Screen Printing Company in Dalton GA and Modern Way Printing Company in Chattanooga so each printing company will have there own page. So once I was given the assignment, I decided to research what makes a successful book cover. Since a book cover sets the mood for the book it needs to relate to the content within the book. The color will either attract the viewer’s attention or cause the viewers eyes to hurt. Text placement, legibility and size will also help or hurt the cover. There are so many elements that can cause a book cover to go from good to bad. The content inside might be insightful and amazing but if the book covers are not successful then the chances of someone picking up the book is slim.

the newspaper business

On Thursday I was introduced to the newspaper business. For years, I have been receiving the Chattanooga Times Free Press and have always been curious of how the newspaper process worked. At last my questions were going to be answered. When I first arrived I was greeted with our tour guide, Frank Anthony, who was very knowledgeable and excited about the printing process. He was filled with information from the beginning of printing all the ways to the present time of printing. The tour began by explaining how the printing process has evolved and showed the class linotype machines. It is important to know where we have been in the printing process to appreciate were we are now. All too often, printers and computers are taken for granted and it is nice to step back and marvel at the machines that brought us to modern day computers/printers. Next, we were taken to Advertisement, then off to Editors. The building in which Chattanooga Times Free Press is in has old architecture which means old brick is exposed and apart of the wall and the wood floors are still the same. The floors are unique and dated due to stains from the old machines used to type/print. It adds to the character of the building. Next, was the printing process. The machines which produced the thousands upon thousands of newspaper copies were massive and impressive. For each machine at the newspaper, there is a back up machine incase the machines breaks down. Times Free Press uses CMYK colors. This process can be confusing to some but it is simple. First cyan is printed, then magenta, then yellow, then lastly black. Together this makes a four color print.

 

In all, the field trip to Chattanooga Times Free Press was enjoyable and I came away with very useful information.

marketing tool: brochures

Currently in my professional practice class I am in the process of creating a guide/brochure for our client.  Brochure can be a useful tool for a perspective audience but it is imperative to put together the brochure in a cohesive readable format. From the top of my head brochures need to flow, have hierarchy, and get to the point. First, the information needs to be quick and to the point. The target audience does not wish to read a whole paragraph just to the main point; bullets can be useful in achieving this. Also, hierarchy is key. If the client wants a major point to be made through the brochure, then it should be one of the first things mentioned. It is important for the brochure to have a cohesive flow because the audience does not wish to continually flip the brochure over and over to get the information straight. It is not wise to have the audience come away from reading to brochure with more questions than before.

 

All brochures seem to have the same dimensions and can become mundane to the audience. It is nice to spice up the brochure by introducing a new element… the size. This element can attract a viewer and lure them into your product verses another brochure. Color is a good bonus as well, but be wise with color choices. Bright, explosive colors can hurt the viewer’s eye and deter them all together. Subtle, easy-on-the-eye colors are more in line with what the viewers wish to see.

 

In all, brochures can be an effective marketing tool but when used wrong, they look horrible. So, be wise and cautious when designing a brochure. Makes sure it’s a creative and well crafted work of art.