Final Hand-In - 20.04.16

Rationale

Inspired by simple, Japanese cook books, the aim of my brochure was to provide the reader with information about three sushi places in Wellington. The cheap, takeaway Sushi Bi, the trendy and decorative TJ Katsu, and the expensive sushi train, Wasabi Sushi. Increasing in price, age of audience and sophisication. I have tried to convey this through illustration, texture, colour, line, and FADPs. I have also tried to incorporate two key Japanese styles of design, bringing together the crisp, bright, bold coloured shapes and the watercolours. Throughout this design process I have learned to be more flexible, to be continuosly gathering inspiration from different sources, and to be more citical of my own work. 

My final brochure that I picked up from ink digital isn't perfect - the last two spreads, where the illustrations overlap the binding are off. This disrupts the design quite a lot, but there is nothing I can do about it now. This was not a problem I experienced in any of my test prints, I am unsure whether it is the result of the thickness of the paper I used, the binding, or a combination, but this is something I can take away from this project and improve on next time.

I think the fact that things haven't always gone to plan or gone well during this process, is really beneficial as my mistakes have taught me the most. Obviously there is more I could have done to improve my brochure, but I think I have done the best to my ability. 

Week Six - Class Eleven - 18.04.16

FINAL CRITIQUE

Critique, Understand

Today's critique was really eye-opening for me. I re-considered my cover and realised that it was actually quite weak and did not sum up my brochure very well. Instead, it was suggested to me that I use what I thought was my strongest illustration from within my brochure. I have also changed my title to make it less cryptic. My cover now leads into my brochure better. 

I also have changed my map spread so that the headings for my paragraphs are to the left, instead of to the right, making it easier read. I had to break my grid in order to do this, but I was told that it was okay in this situation. I also changed the colour of my map key to black to make it less overwhelming, which meant that I had to move them in order for them to correspond to their locations. 

I changed the leading of my titles to make them less spread out, and improved the heirachy of my food and drink spread, as it was not clear which was the heading. I have also simplified this spread and removed the illustrations, as they are not necessary and do not help the viewer to read the information. I have also removed the lines in my second destination spread as they were also unnecessary. 

This lesson has been about stripping it back and making sure everything that is on the brochure has a purpose. 

Week Five - Preparation for Week Six - 15.04.16

UNDERSTANDING PRINTING

Understand, Critique

I have been working on printing a final mock-up of my brochure to take into ink digital. I encountered some issues, such as my spreads not aligning when printed double-sided. I discovered that this was because my bleed was set up incorrectly and I fixed this. 

I have also been continuing to critique my own brochure and making small changes. I still have a few minor changes to make before I print my final and I do not want to rush these final stages. 

Week Five - Class Ten - 14.04.16

REFINING

Making, Understand

Today we had a really interesting and useful lecture on printing. I realised some important issues with my brochure, such as the fact that I had not compressed my indesign and photoshop files to JPEGs. I also learned a lot about printing and have decided to get my brochure professionally printed. When converting my brochure to PDF I discovered that I had licensing restrictions preventing me from using the font I used for the Japanese text, so I had to chose another one. I have also been fixing widows, alignment, doing spell checks, reading through the brochure content, and continuing to print so that I can see the issues more clearly. I want to refine my brochure as quickly as possible so that I can move on to actually printing, as I need to allow time for things to go wrong. 

Week Five - Preparation for Class Ten - 12.04.16

DEVELOPING BROCHURE DESIGN

Making, Ideate

I have been working on making my spreads relate, but also on differentiating between my location spreads. I have decided to do this using line, as I have been inspired by others in the class who have done this effectively. I think this adds another layer of communication to my spreads. I have also been working on relating my food + drink spread to the rest of my brochure, by incorporating the sushi from the cover spread and using it to guide the eye of the viewer. 

Week Five - Preparation for Class Ten - 11.04.16

REFINING COVER SPREAD

Making, Ideate

I think I have finally found a style for the cover and back page that combines all aspects of my brochure together coherently. It includes the watercolour aspect, as well as the sushi symbols and the blocks of colour. 

I do know that there is still a lot of room for improvement in the rest of my brochure and I will work on coming up with new ideas before next lesson. My aim is to more clearly distinguish the locations from each other, maybe using line (as I have used colour and texture), and also maybe to tie in my food + drink spread in more so that it relates to the rest of my brochure. 

Week Five - Class Nine 11.04.16

CRITIQUE

Critique, Define, Ideate, Understand, Making

Today we had a lecture on map making, which made me realise that I need to give my map a heading and key to put it in more context. I also added a more ocean looking image to the map. 

I also realised that I needed to change my body text from Helvetica to Univers to follow to brief. I spent the lesson working out how to align the second line of my bullet points to the first line, and trying to improve my cover. 

Before next lesson I will try to improve my cover more and make the differences in my spreads more obvious, as looking at other peoples brochures has given me a lot of inspiration. Compared to other peoples, my brochure looks quite basic, which is what I was going for, but maybe I could improve on this. 

Easter Break - 05.04.16

LAYOUT OF BROCHURE SO FAR

I have been making constant changes to my layout and design over the break. Most of these changes have been to do with alignment and legibility. Here is my brochure so far.

Easter Break - 05.04.16

DEVELOPMENT OF COVER SPREAD

Making, Ideate, Understand, Define

I realised that my cover was not working very well. I decided this was mainly due to the fact that I was not using space/ negative space effectively, and this was affecting the legibility of the spread and making it appear cluttered and empty at the same time. 

I realised by looking at the covers of other brochures, that they often separated text and an illustration by a solid band of colour, often white. I thought this technique could add structure to my layout.

I then decided that I needed to incorporate some form of the watercolours I have used throughout the rest of my brochure in order to tie to together and to make it less blank looking. 

Easter Break - 04.04.16

A NEW IDEA FOR THE COVER SPREAD

Making, Ideate

Inspired by brochures I have seen, I tried out a new, outline look for my cover spread. I think this is effective in portraying the 'essence' of sushi, while remaining simple and minimalistic, relating to the rest of my brochure. The cover and the back page also work well individually as well as together. I do like the abstract element and I think it will set my brochure apart from others. I do however, need to make my text stand out more as it blends in and is easily lost among the other lines.

Easter Break - 04.04.16

COLLECTING AND ANALYSING BROCHURES AROUND WELLINGTON

Ideate, Understand, Define

 One brochure that I found particularly useful in terms of thinking about my own brochure, was the Wellington Autumn Events Guide. It was really effective and stood out amongst the other brochures because of its simple, outline cover with only black, white and yellow. This is a technique I could try and use to make my own cover less busy-looking, and this would also relate to the rest of my brochure as I have used outline throughout.

 Another thing I need to think about is how my brochure works as a 3D object. The cover and back-page need work alone, as well as as a spread. A brochure which demonstrated this really well is the brochure for the New Zealand Film Festival. The designer has thought really well about how the brochure looks folded as well as folded out, and so the whole process of unfolding the brochure is really well done and effective, at no point does it look incomplete.