Thought Bubble: Crash Course

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An odd find for this context post, as I was trawling youtube for a visually splendrous piece of learning material to eat my dinner I came across crash course. They are 10 minute nuggets of condensed education, using a simple style to get their point across. The website thought bubble do their motion graphics, which is the style I think would compliment the Eureka brief. I have been stuck with the brief and wondering how I could do some sexy editorial work, until now. I was a bit crafty and stole their colour palette, as I think it would work great with the project and move it along much quicker in terms of the principal decisions required in order to make it look visually stunning. Although not sure I could make it stunning, we shall see....

2920: Sent off to Print

Ok, so I started the day hoping I could get everything finalised and sent off before lunchtime, but as usual, there is always something to go wrong, especially in my undecisive mind.
I called both Spink & Thackray (Leeds) and Shore Books (Norfolk). Shore offered a 12 day turnaround (inc. postage etc) with a better selection of leathers, which are sourced from J. Hewit. Expensive, but I want my book to look awesome. I had already mentioned that I think the book should be a dark brown/red to compliment the time period's production restrictions as well as the foil blocking.

I also spent the better part of the morning trying to find suitable textures for the pages. This came about as I had feedback from Jack, Ando and Paul as I made the final adjustments to the book. Using colours I had already sourced from the map I did, I applied them to the text, bearing in mind that the content of the book is being printed on 100gsm coated white paper. I decided that instead of some sort of border, that a text wrap would suffice and using a portion of the cover illustration would be suitable.
I ended up choosing the darkest brown, as the texture choices that I whittled down from the original 51 had to match each other in terms of creases and ensure that the text colour did not clash or lose readability. The textures themselves had to have the opacity lowered to ensure that the final outcome did not look cheesy.

Finally, I finished off the spine and cover illustrations/double double checked all the documents and made sure they were ready to print.

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Foiling laminator style

Ok, so it may be a cheap effect in terms of how foiling can be produced by laser printing black onto white paper then putting it through a laminate pocket fed via the machine. Then it come out all shiny. Magic. It was also a turning point for the brief, as I finally decided it was definitely a good idea to go along with it since it looks so damn good on page and would contribute well to the project. It would match the map, as well as giving the book a particularly professional look. When the book ages it would gain t hat fantastic grainy effect that I so desire!

Here are the foil results, sorry for the terrible photos.

NO FAFFING ABOUT.

From the foil attempt I did through the laminate, it gave me a decent idea of how the stamp would look/print on the book itself. I realised that the detail would not pick up sufficiently unless I tampered with it. I was also going to spend more time developing the decor, but I need to send it off to get cut by tomorrow, and besides, I really like it and the feedback from crit/out of crit has been incredibly positive!
So I fiddled with some minor issues to make the design clearer and more effective in terms of outcome.
CANT WAIT TO SEE THIS COME TO FRUITION!

Crit

All in all, a very helpful crit that allowed me to see what I could not, in terms of where to go and what to do with my briefs.
The responses to my questions were answered in a range of ways:

(NR - Nat and Rob, MR - Meryem and Robyn)

1. NR - look at advertising/context, how it would be promoted, through the website?
MR - "It's strong enough that anyone who should know, will know"

- This means that I have successfully reached a closing point for the brief in regards to overall design, but need to look into how the magazine would be promoted.


2. NR * see above
MR - perhaps some additional print material - stickers, posters etc

3. NR - Watch out for widows, has good size and style, but use discolouration for the background to keep it in with the "old world"feel
MR - Yes

4. General agreement, just develop a bit more.

5. NR - Could have posters or packaging instead
MR - Enough publications, just need something printed or boxed to tie it all together.

6. YES!

7. NR - Keep eyes same over all illustrations, type is great and variety of type works for the identity, but use specific colours.
MR - Awesome, just keep going with them

8. *see above

9. Great extension, keep going.


SUMMARY:

+ I need to have more annotation on my posts to inform and explain everything I have done up until this point

+ Despite loss of files, I need to post relevant info/development work to enhance marks and presentation

+ Why am I doing something?

+ Applying deigns to a range of products

+ Visually impressive.

Started messing around with textures on the book content to ensure a more realistic and olde worlde sort of feel with the entire project. But making sure that it wasnt overdone due to the nature of the brief and because the paper that it will be printed on simply will not be of a high quality, but it is something I am willing to put up with due to the price of the book itself. I tried out various dark brown tones for the book text as I didnt want it to be purely black, as if I was lazily superimposing the text over the page with no real consideration for the textures applied. I also had a suggestion that I could texture the type/content material, but I did not want to lose even a single letter due to mis texturing an area or even having to go through 86 pages and get it perfect and varied on each page. Not that high on my priority list.

Textures I used in the book:

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Writ Of Sealing

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The final Writ of sealing designs, I have decided to go with A4 square format, due to the nature of these contracts and how they would be transported, etc. I also think it would be folded up and tightly hidden away as the Morag Tong make no mistakes.

REVIEW

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Bottom of the Bottle was put on a backburner for regrettable reasons, however, I have quickly found a style that has been appraised out of crit circles and a hand type solution that compliments the style I am going for. I just have alot of illustration work to do and development, although I am confident I will have alot done for this brief as I am wholly enjoying the project and wish I started it sooner.
I will be starting the preliminary mural this weekend.

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The most annoying part of this brief was making sure I found a border/cover decor suitable for the brief and of a quality that I would be happy with before sending off to the printers to be bound and foiled. I just cant afford to make a mistake in regards to production values, this aside, the die cannot be changed once purchased. I will be sending off the final designs tomorrow to make sure that I have enough time to produce the book itself.
I will also be re-visiting Spink and Thackwray to double check leather stocks and for a final estimate. I have emailed about 10/13 binders in total and they seem to have the quickest turnaround and best value for money.
The dagger needs to be modelled in 3DS and my blacksmith is incredibly awful at being in contact, despite my numerous attempts at contact.
The map needs to be foiled and the trouble came from screenprinting where a woman was cleaning screens for 2 days. No joke, she had the largest screens available and no one else could really clean their screens for processing. That said, the power hose nozzle broke, but has now been replaced. The map will be done by tomorrow since I will be able to treat the screen today.

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This is the brief I am least pleased with in terms of quality and the overall outcome, I think it is safe to say I enjoy reading about and learning about science rather than illustrating its ideas and concepts. I thought on a limited basis of how to approach it and as a result, it is obvious that it is lacking as a significant brief. I do however have plans to produce a replica Times newspaper that echoes the many articles and stories published recently on the role of science in our society, how it is often disregarded despite the irrefutable logic and reasoning behind the practice. This will then be followed by the magazine supplement demonstrating the importance and nature of science. More or less finished, I will just be focusing on the paper for the time being and have print slots all next week.

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Code is the most complete and the brief I am currently most pleased about. The content took me ages to source and refine and edit and re-edit and re-re-edit. I do however, think it would be wish and entirely beneficial to the content and concept to propose a website that demonstrates how to redeem the online voucher code for the Virtual Geographic feature. I think my only concern is taking decent photos and finishing my new copy of quest which I received yesterday in the post.


OVERALL


General delays due to unforeseen circumstances or what is known in the insurance biz as an "act of god". Which can be easily rectified by producing and finishing off all the relevant components for the briefs.
My own self-doubt and over cautiousness in regards to my design work has halted visible work for which I am fully aware of. Once again this can easily be rectified by re-timetabling my weeks and making sure I stay on track for hand in.

Bawda

Think that these are looking much more powerful as stamps for the cover of the book. Will just have to test them out and see how they look when foiled to get an idea of impact. The last image summarises what I am trying to achieve best I believe. I wanted it to be semi ornate but detracting away from the traditional borders used on older books. I also liked the idea of mixing the larger objects with the finer details of the stamp to create a diverse and uniform visual.

FINALLY. Some cool images

Feel like after all these scribblings, I am actually starting to get somewhere in terms of a visual style and feel for the brief. The characters are strong and the type works when put in place/developed. I think that the best course of action this late on is to sue what I have and see what I can produce. Now starts the agonizing process of ensuring that all of my images can be easily vectored.