This project was a great way to practice the design process. Through each stage, I utilised this to effectively make my way through the collage, monogram and booklet design. There was a series of challenges and design hoops I had to jump through to create the final products, but I am quite happy with how it all turned out.
I first started with the collage which was a fun process but was also quite stressful. I had to make sure that there was good spacing between letters and that there was a clear consistency of colours and fonts to create a unique design. I utilised a range of magazines to give myself the most variety of sizes and fonts. The hardest part of the collage was placing it on an A4 page. I had to decide if I wanted it portrait or landscape, and following this how I would fit the letters as my chosen quote had some bigger words.
The monogram was one of my favourite parts of the project. The hardest part was trying to creatively use my initials to represent my personality. Through my sketching, I found I was focusing on a one-stroke design which was the base for the one I chose to go with in the end.
The booklet required a design idea and plan. I wanted to provide a minimalist design with clear readability and strategic positioning. I wanted to focus more on the text and components, and less on fancy skills and designing. I first started by folding a physical booklet so be able to visualise the pages I need to be able to fit all the content and writing on. I numbered the pages and labelled the paragraphs and quotes as well as the collage and logo locations. Moving onto InDesign, I first started with a base level of columns and margins, once I started adding in my content I slightly changed this to fit and organise the content better. I used my collage as a base for the design style and colours that I wanted to use.
Throughout the process, I encountered a selection of different challenges. As I am quite new to the adobe creative suite, it was an interesting challenge to be able to communicate my ideas and plans. Choosing a font was the first main challenge I encountered during the booklet stage. Ensuring I had both a sans-serif and serif typeface which had plenty of options (bold, condensed etc.) and making sure it fits the design theme and design I was going for. Comparing different fonts and utilising the extra selection on adobe assisted in overcoming this issue. I found this has furthered my understanding of typography and assisted in learning how to use adobe fonts further.
Another issue I faced was knowing how many pages to use to be able to fit all the content throughout the booklet. I wanted to ensure that I wasn’t squishing all the type on one page and wasn’t making the point size too big/small. As I am also participating in VCD201 (Typography) this was an advantage for my understanding and skills, I was utilising it in the sense of placing, spacing and organisation of the problem-solving concept while designing the booklet.
Another challenge I faced was during the creation of the collage. I created the collage without a background and when it came to scanning I changed my mind and designed a background, I had to scan both separately then image trace one and collide it with the other. This then made some issues when it came to greyscaling, duotone and regular edits of the collage. I found trying not to rust and utilising google to teach my way through Photoshop and illustrator made this process easier to utilise and in the end, my collage turned out quite well.
Ensuring my monogram didn’t turn out like Victoria’s Secret logo was my biggest fear during my ideation process, I found my letters were quite difficult to navigate differently and my mind kept reverting to this VS design. I tried to stray away from a serif typeface with overlapping lettering to avoid this occurring.
As this is my third VCD class I find that any breakthroughs I had were to do with learning adobe creative suite, and a lot of these I had overcome in previous classes. I think coming into a design class I forget that not everything will be my style and what I like, allowing myself to open my mind and ‘think outside the box a little bit, as a way to come out of my comfort zone within the design. Make sure I utilise negative space and don’t fill every area of a page.
I think semester I have made a huge breakthrough with design and my ability to use the adobe applications. I hope this allows me to explore more during the break and set myself up for future design classes and external projects I may encounter.
Closing in on the end of task 2, there were multiple aspects I was happy with and a few that I wasn’t. In the end, I was really happy with how my monogram came out and I think I want to be utilising this in future projects. The booklet started well and I was happy with my design process, but nearing the due date I came into some issues with trying to keep my creativity flowing. If I was to create this booklet again I feel like I would utilise my time management a lot better and allow more time for me to adjust and edit the design. Overall I am satisfied and happy with my final printout and am excited to add this project to my portfolio.
ediTORIal. 