OUGD504: Studio Brief 01 - Design Production - Research On Other Colouring Book Layouts - WaterStones

Waterstones stocks colouring books. They have an extensive collection of colouring books with varying sizes. Most of them are perfect bound. The layout for some of them were square but a majority of the books were portrait. A few of the books were larger than A4. Most of the covers are colourful or have sketches on the front to show the style of illustration within the colouring book. 

OUGD503: Design, structure, format, tone of voice, annual, website of D&AD and YCN

D&AD

• Corporate
• Clean
• Awkward 
• Too much content
• Dense
• No way to navigate
• Visual
• Serious 
• Intimidating
• Creative edge
• Crazy
• Loud
• Less student focused

YCN

• Structured
• Intimidating
• Inspiring
• Playful design
• Change in stock
• Composition
• Tactile
• Expressive
• Vibrant
• Social influence
• Functional with the cover
• No over embelishment
• Understated
• Features a lot more student work

Any consistencies in award winning work?

Nothing is left to their imagination. Everything is shown how it would be considered in the real world. Nothing is open to interpretation. Context becomes so important with commercial work wether it's student award schemes or client work. 

D&AD felt like real commercial briefs whereas YCN is more hypothetical. A lot of the successful outcomes were transferable with varying interfaces such as working with apps and working within print. It could work in different context. They will ask for a campaign. It's not stand alone work. It will not win if it's stand alone, it will only win if it can be applied to many things as a campaign. Impeccable presentation. High end photography. Layout. Needs to look perfect. Idea and concept driven. Simple, clear (not complicated.) K.I.S.S - keep it simple stupid - acronym. If you make the audience feel like they're intelligent it can enhance the nature of the product. They're all innovative. The whole point to this is to do innovative work, a new approach to something. If you can look at a brief and interpret it to respond to it in a new way you're going to enhance your portfolio. 

What you think the influences of the work are? Social, ethical, cultural? And how have people done this in this work?

Economic change, environmental change.
A lot of the work takes in a social aspect, using apps and different interfaces to convey their idea to connect to people in innovative ways.
People have demonstrated uses of ethics by collaborating their work with charities or the types of materials used during the production. Justified by ethical reasoning.

OUGD503: Techniques To Professionally Responding To Commercial Briefs (Penguin Random House)

Research the book
Read the book
Read a summary
Read reviews / get emotions on how people feel about the book
The context
See other variations of the book such as films
Mind map
Research the theme of the book
Research the genre
The author
Previous art work
If there's a series you could do something that would work as a range
Researching the settings
Research the authors other books
Look at character analysis
Research the location the book is based in and book at art processes specific to that area which could be used as inspiration to the new design
Look at what the author intended, over arching theme
Year of publish - design movements
Previous winners / short listed
Previous rejected designs
Target audience
Take an ambiguous approach
Advertising the lateral
Tone of voice
Analyse your own visual style
Analyse the field of product
Look at the judges own practise - their personality, work, style, interests, professional background, previous competition judgements, look at their social media
Do some research

OUGD504: Studio Brief 01 - Design Production - Initial Sketches - Experimenting With Different Media

After the crit I decided to experiment with different types of media. This helped me to take into consideration the different types of media. 

Watercolour:

Stock Consideration:

• Hot pressed paper
• 180gsm

Fineliners:

Stock considerations:

• 180-200gsm

Colouring pencil:

Stock Considerations:

• Matte Stock
• 180gsm

OUGD504: Studio Brief 01 - Design Production - Initial Sketches - Layout Ideas

Here I sketched out roughly a photo of how it could look in the book. This was mostly for layout templates so that I could experiment with how the page would be laid out in the book.

During a crit on 14/10/16 the feedback given was:

Layout - Which layout should be used for the pages in the book as exemplified by the images above?

• 'You could maybe use acetate or tracing paper so you have the image on a separate page'
• 'Context of what the image is might be nice to have on the page for example putting the street name or where it is would be nice.'
• 'Tracing paper kind of stock with the picture underneath so you can colour on the actual tracing paper.'
• 'Might be nice to not have an image at all and just have the outlines. I don't think they're necessarily needed as it is a colouring book. I've never seen that in any of the current ones.'
• 'You could extract the colours of the image from pantone and make colour swatches next to the image. So it could be a colouring book for Graphic Designers. Look at what Americans use. Include RGB and CMYK.  It could be an in context colour guide.'
• 'It's an active thing pensioners use so maybe make it like magazine sections.'
• 'Could be quite intricate use fine lines and details with the spaces. Make patterns.'

Binding - Which binding method should the book use?

• 'If you are going to do postcard pull outs then you could use a perforated strip or ring bind.'
• 'Perfect bound with perforated edges.'
• 'On the other side it could be blank.'
• 'If you make pull outs you could have the book landscape and on the reverse side of the colour in image put the address line and where it is as if it were an actual postcard that way the back page doesn't get wasted. As an A4 and split the page landscape ways.'
• 'uI don't like having the pull out sections it would be better to just have it as a book without the extracts.'

Stock - Which paper weight and stock should be used for the book and what stock would be best for colouring pencil?

• 'Matte stock.'
• 'Quite a thin paper weight could work.'
• 'Test them out, use sketchbook thickness paper.'
• 'Nice quality matte paper.'

Next steps:

Finalise all design plans so I can begin creating the physical layout. 

OUGD504: Studio Brief 01 - Design Production - Survey

These results were collected through asking 20 people aged 16-20 to help influence my design decisions from real people that would be the target audience for this publication. I decided to do this after the crit to get an idea of what people would want me to include for the design process.

1. What media would you use out of these for a colouring book?

• Watercolour ||||
• Felt tip |||||
• Colouring pencil |||||||||||

2. Would you take it around with you as something to do or at home?

• Take it |||
• At home |||||||||||||||||

'Might be nice to take if you did it as a thin, city book. Almost a checklist of things to colour once you've seen them.'

3. Which size?

• A6 ||||
• A5 ||||||||
• A4 ||||||||
• Larger

'Square Format'

4. Would you like quite a thin or thick book?

• Thin (10) |||||||
• Thick (20+) ||||||||||||

'1-1.5cm'

OUGD504: Studio Brief 01 - Design Production - Crit Feedback On Proposals

Everyone preferred the colouring book proposal and gave this feedback:

• "You could incorporate the humour side of the first concept with the second one, through captions or the illustrations itself. In the colouring book." 
• "Could be a colour app, it's good because the calming thing is massive now."
• "Vectoring, sketchy drawings, imaged traced instead of having perfect ones."
• "Could be a range of products start from New York and go to Chicago etc. The person could draw where they visit within the range of books."
• "Think of different stock for different types of media. For example: there's different types of colouring books for different medias like felt tips and colouring pencils would need different types of stock."
• "Could have inserts like post card pull outs."

Moving forward with the colouring book concept. I feel like it's a more consistent and specific idea. It has a large audience it established already and could appeal to a younger and older generation. It is something I would personally be interested in buying. I need to decide the production factors and create the illustrations from the photographs. 

OUGD504: Studio Brief 01 - Design Production - Every Book Starts with an Idea - Notes for Designers

After reading the extract from Every Book Starts with an Idea I decided to write a few memorable quotes and why I have chosen these quotes. "All these books have to be designed. Someone needs to decide which paper, typography, cover, to use." - I never really considered how much goes into a book or publication until last year. There are so many factors to be considered down to the stock and how it's going to print. The set up of the document is vital to the way the pages come out of the printer. As this module is print production this all needs to be considered heavily. "We have learned by doing, as mistakes are inherent to the job of making books through trial and error." My publication last year turned out horrendous to what I had imagined. I feel like I needed to practise the actual binding and layout of the book so that I was happy with the finished product. A lot of experimentation needs to happen and I need to work out how to do things so that I am happy with my publication this time. "All books start from their content." The idea must be clear and concise. The target audience etc need to be considered to the last detail so that the content and aesthetic of the book all align. The actual content of the book is so important to the production of the book. "Books are bound in signatures of 4, 8, 16 or 32 pages. You realise that page 1 sits next to page 16 on a printing sheet." This is important as I need to consider what size to make my book.

OUGD504: Studio Brief 01 - Type in Context: Crit and Feedback

During todays crit (7/10/16) it was agreed that my second concept - the colouring book was more effective. The feedback I was given was extremely helpful:

The publication could potentially be an online thing. Having a colour app because it evokes mindfulness.
Colouring books are calming.
Considerations on if you're going to do structured drawings, vectoring, image tracing or sketchy drawings.
Think about the range. This means the products you use. The expansion. The reader could be going from New York to Chicago etc. It could be a full range of products.
Consider the stock for different materials. For example felt tip pens or water colours would obviously need different types of paper to retain the colour and stop it from bleeding etc.
Could potentially incorporate the humour into it.

OUGD504: Studio Brief 01 - Proposals For Concepts Of The Publication

First concept:

A book based on photography. A coffee table book that takes a very tongue and cheek approach to Times Sq, New York. Uses phrases that New Yorkers would say to describe the images or words to set the vibe of the place. The target audience would be 16-25 year olds. It would be stocked in places such as Urban Outfitters. It would be obnoxiously big. Hard back, perfect bound book so that it looks really nice. Witty, funny, ironic book displays all the sterotypical things to do in Times Sq, New York. Takes the piss out of the tourism and consumerist side of the city. Books range from £4.99 to £48. It would probably be around the £10-£20 mark so it's affordable. This is because if it was in print at a professional place it would be cheaper to mass produce perfect bound books. It was also the middle price of books in Urban Outfitters as they range from £5 for cheaper and smaller sized books and £50 for the thicker and hard back books. It could be an obnoxiously big sized book to emphasis a quality in New York that everything is oversized. It would have to be manufactured from a professional printing place if I wanted it to be hard back and perfect bound because of the limitations of making it at university.  Could be in coffee shops like starbucks, gregorys coffee - really american franchises. The narrative there is very different to how it would be in England, everyone is very polite and apologetic whereas John gave me an anecdote of a taxi driver saying "Do I look like a tour guide?" A website called spoilednyc has an article of 33 slang words all New Yorkers should know or use http://spoilednyc.com/2015/03/17/33-nyc-slang-words-every-new-yorker-know-learn/. Some of them are common slang words such as "mad: has absolutely nothing to do with being angry; instead, this adds an extra emphasis to the word that succeeds it." This is one that is known universally. New York, especially Times Sq has such an international nature. It's an assortment of all different cultures.

This would be printed on quite thick, glossy stock probably around 200-250gsm. This is so that the image quality is high and it looks luxurious and expensive as you would want a coffee table book to look.

Second concept:

An adult colouring book. Similar target audience to the previous concept (16-25.) Stocked in UO, WHSmith, WaterStones etc. Prices for adult colouring books usually range from £6-£15. Quite thick paper stock so the colours don't bleed through probably around 200-300gsm card type paper so that it is reasonably cheap to reproduce.

Extension of second concept:
Paint by numbers. This is so that the image is located in the corner of a page.

Considerations of where people pick them up would be places like big conventional american franchises like coffee shops for the coffee table book to flick through and look at and for the colouring book standard bookshops and trendy places that sell homeware and accessories like Urban Outfitters. I've seen adult colouring books in department stores such as Harrods and Debenhams. The price ranges vary depending on the detail and thickness of the book. This would maybe be a small A5 size book and be saddle stitched just so that it is easy to have the book open to you. It would be compact for travel or it could also be obnoxiously big like a home colouring book.

A super lazy extension of the second concept would be to put the image as a reference and leave the page blank so that the reader has to draw the image as well as colour it in. It would also be on nice thick stock similar to a sketch book. It should be a material that could be drawn on in multi medias to make it personal to the person who decides to pick it up.

I prefer the colouring book because I would personalise it with illustrations which is what I enjoy doing.

OUGD504: Studio Brief 01 - A-Z: Type In Context - Presentation

Towards the end of my presentation I also suggested doing an ironic style booklet which reflects the vibe of Urban Outfitters where everything has quite a dry sense of humour. As my trip wasn't as enjoyable as I hoped because I stayed in Times Sq where everything is over exaggerated and commercialised. It does not depict how New York actually is. For example if you went to the more suburban areas.  

The feedback I got from my presentation was to look into making a more tongue and cheek method and to focus it on Times Sq and the commercialised side of New York to avoid it being offensive. 

The actual size of the book could be large to demonstrate the over exaggerated nature of the city. 

Publication ideas:

Coffee table book - day to day style, showing what spending a week in Times Sq, New York looks like because everyone has this set idea of what it already looks like so it would be instagram styled photos in a booklet to depict the stereotypical ideals people have of the city. 

Ironic book - things to do in New York that make it seem over exaggerated. In the style of humour that Urban Outfitters carries with their persona.