Brief of the Week 2 - Research and Further Developments

Research:

When looking at the designs that have been developed already I felt as though the cover appeared rather aggressive with the harsh gritty textures as well as the bold type. When researching into simple shape design I began looking at Swiss style design, in particular Swissted Posters:

- The posters use a simple grid system to organise the type and image, as well as use simple shapes to develop a unique and interesting visual.
- I felt as though this approach would be able to trans;ate well onto the organisational designs.
- The layering of colours would be something to compromise on as the paper stock we're printing onto has colour so we'd be printing in black and white. To remedy this the opacity of the shapes could be changes, so when there is overlap the colours become more intense.

The thoughts behind the various weighted type was inspired by Paula Scher, and the Public branding:

- Paula used this method as it allows multiple people to be represented within one brand/logo. This idea of being all inclusive through type is really unique.
As Futura doesn't have that many varying fonts we used varying weight only:

However with the only variation being in the weight the effect was the same as within the public branding and fell slightly flat when testing.

Further Developments:

I developed a series of shapes to be used within the project (see previous blog) these were ot be used with varying opacity levels to add an extra layer to the design, aiming to prevent things looking too flat.
I began arranging the shapes to crate different forms and layouts:

With the simple shapes they can be made into a variety of different layouts meaning things won't always be the same and avoid becoming tedious.

I later went onto developing a visual for the front cover of the planner, this way the design on this could be replicated across the various products we're making.

There are various elements within these designs that don't work:
- The thin type makes the shapes take centre stage, as well as looking more like a school planner.
- The balance between shape and text needed to be right, we didn't want them to overpower each other.
- The repetition was trialled again and still became uncomfortable to look at after a while, which isn't ideal for an item intended to be used daily.

 Final chosen design:
- The overlaid shapes don't interact with the text too much, as well as create a negative spaced box out of white where the text sits.
- The type is still legible and the repetition element is highlighted by using the word instead of the number.