This was definitely favourite brief from module, and I think it definitely showed in the work I produced compared to the other three briefs. I found that, as it was a brief with no restrictions apart from a final outcome, I was able to be creative in the areas I work best in, and in this case, it was definitely editorial work where I am more confident in working at the minute.
I chose a subject based on my experiences from the first year. When looking back over my PPP tasks and research for other modules, it is very clear that it was all lacking good designer research. This was due to the fact that I didn't know where to go, had a limited knowledge into some designers and usually stuck to the same ones because of it. Coming into the first year, I was very accustomed to the amount of work and how the course was structured, but not so much into the research side, and it definitely showed in my work. When asking others, they all seemed to have the same problem of sticking to what they knew because they didn't know where to go to find new design.
Before starting this brief, I had taken time to compile a list of designers & blogs, categorising them and adding some images. I found that this post came in very useful throughout this brief, and as I discovered new designers and blogs, I was able to add them to that post so I have a large collection that I can now look over. I think this is the strongest area of my final outcome, the fact I researched into so many different designers and blogs and categorised them into their major fields. I looked into well over eighty or so designers and many more blogs to get the final ones I used.
In relation to my design work, I think the most successful part was the icon designs. It was something I had never done before, so I was quite cautious about doing them, however I found it was an enjoyable task and am quite happy with the final six icons I came up with.
I also think the production of the book was successful. Something can always look good on screen but the moment you print it, it could look terrible. I think due to careful consideration into stock and book binding it worked out very well and looks clean and finished.
My weakness in this project I think has been the layout designs of the pages. Although I stand by the reason for having them so consistent and repeated in each section, I now think that maybe I could have been more experimental and tried creating individual layouts for each section. The whole point was to make it easy to find designers, so I kept the format the same throughout but I do wonder if that was really necessary. I think when doing something like this again, I will definitely be working to make every single double page spread individual and give it its reason to be in the publication.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this brief, and I think the work and my final outcome reflect this. I kept it simple, didn't over complicate the concept or how the book was going to be laid out, and just set it out as an aid to understand the five areas of design, find some new designers & blogs.
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