Sunday 25 December 2011

Merry Christmas!

For christmas I was fortunate to get a new camera - Nikon Coolpix L120, its ace! So much better than my old compact camera. I took it with me to christmas dinner as I have an Uncle who is very good with cameras and has more knowledge about them than me. He showed me how good photographs you can achieve by using the Macro button and look at the result of one of the photographs I took. I think its the best photograph I've ever taken! - Very happy and amazed at the outcome!


Merry Christmas!

Wednesday 14 December 2011

HSBC like Horizons

Whilst doing a bit of christmas shopping and passing by HSBC I noticed on a stand a magazine titled Horizons so picked it up to have a look at what they have done with their front cover.

Monday 12 December 2011

Presenting the final 2 DPS and front cover!

In preparation for the hand in for Type Fundamentals I had to present the x2 DPS and the front cover of Horizon on sheets of A2 card. To start I had to measure out accurately where the paper would be placed on the card. This was a case of trial and error to ensure each side was accurate, with the top and bottom measuring 6.2 cm and the sides for DPS being around 8.4 cm and for the front cover it being 19.1 cm. A 1mm gap in between the 2 A4 sheets that make the DPS was also required.  The A2 card was of a neutral light grey tone and once the sheets had been placed on by using Spray Mount, which I found was relatively quick and easy to use although I thought it would be tricky, I then placed them inside a A2 plastic sleeve. 




Sunday 11 December 2011

Final Horizon Front Cover

From my first attempt at the front cover of the zine I decided to change the positioning of the text and what was written and chose to add names of articles that are to be included inside. I have also changed the zine issue to Winter 2011 as I feel that is has a more professional approach.

Friday 9 December 2011

The Good and the Bad in newspapers

I decided to have a look at a few newspapers to see whats good and bad about them. I firstly had a look at the free newspaper, Metro. I instantly noticed that on their front page they had used hyphenation in their main article. This is something that we have been told not to use in either one of our DPS. This also occured in my local newspaper, Shropshire Star which costs a small 42p. I guess that if you want to read something that has had quite a considerably time taken on it and care put into the design it is best to buy either The Guardian, The Times or The Daily Mail.


Featured page within my flip file on Looking at the Good and the Bad.
Highlighted is where you'll find hyphenation occurs, you'll notice it happens
more in the Metro article then the small price 42p article. 

Second attempt at Hello and Welcome

After the group session on Tuesday I headed over to scan in another thumbnail that was preferred by lecturers. This thumbnail design had more free space on the page that adds effect and it was also said that the way in which the proposed image had been placed would look interesting. 
New thumbnail design

I found that once I had uploaded the new design into inDesign that the space was easier to work with then the previous. By this I mean I was able to move text around and be able to group them in an effective way. I decided to keep the ampersand I had previously used in my first attempt at the DPS but take on board the advice given and just stick to one typeface for Hello/Welcome. I chose the typeface, Euphemia UCAS. I think that this typeface looks stylish and welcoming to the reader, its also clear.

My new Hello and Welcome



All the main text apart from the sub-headings is presented with the typeface Helvetica Neue. This typeface I found was useful for creating texture and tone with my work as it provides the user with not use Regular and Bold styles of the typeface but also allows you to show text in Light form. I found when I used this first it looked clear and followed nicely with the follow on text being in Regular. However, another advice that I took on from Tuesday group critical session was to maybe change the sub-heading typeface from Helvetica Neue to a serif typeface. I have now changed this and have used the typeface Arno Pro, as it allows me to use Light Display and is different to the follow on text. 

The quotation that was included in the supplied text I have singled out and have increased the spaces in between the lines. I have also used the same format with the Name and Location of who said the quote as the quote featured in Cinematic Theatre.

Overall, I have find that this layout is the one I think works best and flows nicely on the page. The only thing I would change if my skills in PhotoShop were more advanced is to make the photograph more appealing and stand out more. I have tried to make it stand out a little more by adding a shadow behind the first image. 

First Hello and Welcome layout try-out

I started using inDesign after I had come up with different design thumbnails for the new DPS Hello and Welcome. I did the same process that I did for Cinematic Theatre by scanning in the chosen thumbnail and then placing it into inDesign.


The new brief stated that which must use on each a4 page, 7 columns and 3 mm gutters. The Margins that I used were Top & Bottom at 15 mm and Inside & Outside at 10 mm. I found this this set up worked well when my scanned thumbnail was placed correctly. I find that this technique of scanning in the proposed design is a very useful and effective way in order to follow your design process correctly. 


For my ampersand I found the typeface called Zapfino which had a very classy and stylish approach to it. This is the effect I was hoping to fulfill in my work. For the Hello and Welcome I used two different typefaces; for the H and W I continued to use Zapfino and for the rest of the text I used Lucida Calligraphy. However, during a group session tutorial earlier this week, as well as having a lecturer from the University we were also able to gain feedback from a visiting professor from a University in Cyprus. I was told not to mix two typefaces like I had together so therefore this was one thing I was to change in the studio.


First attempt at Hello and WelcomE

Finished Cinematic Theatre!

This is what my double paged spread of Cinematic Theatre looks like. There are just a few things that have been updated since this scan was produced and thats both "Spice up your university life" and "What makes the cinematic experience for you?" are now in bold. This is so more tone is included in the second page of this spread. 


Page 1

Page 2

Friday 2 December 2011

Horizon Front Cover

For the second part of the Type Fundamental brief was to design another DPS as well as a front cover. My front cover is linked with my 250 word spread on Cinematic Theatre - Relax Enjoy Watch. The main photograph features Conor from Bridgnorth Majestic Cinema posed next to the old 1930's projector that was used to project films at the cinema till early 2011. The front cover also features a strip of photographs that I have taken myself around Bridgnorth and Wolverhampton. A brief description on what's featured in the magazine is detailed to the bottom right. The title Horizon has been designed so that it represents the sun in midday and then when the sun is setting at night. 


Horizon