DESIGN FOR PRINT - DESIGN AND PRODUCTION

After the critique I had a firm idea on the content that I wanted to put into my publication. As the audience were young creatives and students, I wanted the information to be varied and informative, whilst not being too heavy or too sophisticated so they would not understand.

For the content I chose to work directly from my research, adapting and changing it to say what I wanted it to say. I wanted to cover all of the topics I had researched and include work and information on designers and printers, however, I had to limit it otherwise the cost would be very high. Due to cost, I decided not to include information on designers and printers as it was not as relevant as other information. I was also selective about the content that went into the newspaper and only the elements that I believed to be the most relevant to design for print were included.

Prior to designing I made the decision to get the paper professionally printed. This gave the paper a professional finish. I originally wanted to get the paper mass produced using the traditional newspaper printing method, however, as the smallest batch is 500 the cost, again, was too high. Instead, the other viable option was to get the paper digitally printed professionally onto newsprint. Although they are a lot more costly per unit I was able to produce a small batch as newspapers are rarely printed individually. Having decided to produce a batch of 10 papers with 32 printed pages I proceeded to design the layout an insert the content.

The cover was one of the hardest elements to design and was not decided on until after I had designed the rest of the news paper. The reason I chose to use this cover was because of how it would look when the paper was folded. Creating a cover that added another dimension when folded was something I had seen in my research and wanted to take forward in my design. As newspapers are often folded in half when carried, I though it was an interesting design possibility that - if executed correctly - would make the newspaper more intriguing. The concept behind this cover is that when it is folded in half it says "The Pri' on one side and 'nt Paper' on the other. As all the information isn't there it will hopefully make the publication more intriguing.

This spread is supposed to imitate the beginning of a information book, with a blank page followed by a brief introduction. This is the start of the design that follows throughout the book. I wanted to produce a simple, modern design that is unlike a conventional newspaper. I wanted to use and exploit the negative space, use big and bold titles and have a very structured layout and grid. The reason I chose to use 'Intro-', rather than 'Introduction' was because I thought it was aesthetically more powerful and interesting.

The second spread, again imitating the beginning of a book with a blank page followed by an page with content on has the dictionary definition of the word 'print'. I had though about possibly using this page as a cover, however, I had decided it was not sufficiently powerful to be used as such. I still wanted it to be somewhere in the publication to add an element of provenance. I chose to put it this early in the publication as it was an appropriate start to designing for print, as first you must understand print.

The contents page is relatively self explanatory, however, the layout and design I chose is not common and quite unusual. Whilst looking at my primary research I first noticed a similar way of laying out the contents page, using images of the pages rather than just text. I chose to use it as it is an unusual and different method of displaying usually boring information.

The first content page is a summary of the history of print. Like I previously stated, I wanted big, bold headers with unusual layouts and this is how I started. It took me a while to get the 'What is Print?' balanced with the body copy and the negative space. The way the header is laid out emulates a modernist collage, contrasting with the very simple layout of the body copy.

The 'Colour' spread was the first set of pages that had a substantial amount of information and colour on it. The layouts on the pages with a large amount are more reserved so that they are readable and are not confusing. The use of the fullstop developed into a design feature throughout the publication. I inserted them after each heading or sub-heading purely for aesthetic reasons.

The 'format and layout' spread has a mix of information and interesting bold layout. The 'verso' and 'recto' are printed on their respective pages to tie in with their meaning. The left-hand page has a much more basic layout, where as I changed the design to keep the reader interested. The layout has been changed by varying the height and starting point of the body copy so that there is very little conformity.

The image/file type and resolution is the first page to really resemble a newspaper structure. The reason that this has a much more conventional structure is due to the amount and type of information. The information is very factual and can only really be conveyed in body copy. I also did not want to completely detach the content from the format, so when there is a large amount of body copy, I have resorted to more newspaper-esque layouts.

The second page is the back of the middle spread. To add another element to the newspaper I wanted the centre spread to be a pull out poster, however, i still wanted the paper to be fully functional and not lose and of its information when the spread was removed. I therefore made the decision to have the pull out with an image on one side and a quote on the other so that no information is lost and the paper can be read front to back with or without the insert.

The image that is seen above is half of a printing press that forms a portrait poster. The printing press was chosen as it is an appropriate image for the content and something that young creatives and students are likely to want on their walls.

I had wanted to include a quote from the initial concept and idea generation. I wanted to use a quote that was related to design but also encouraging to the readers/user. This quote by Milton Glaser was chosen as it is both relevant and inspiring. As I decided not to have a section, or element to the paper about designers or printers, this is the only reference. I was important to have this reference as, Milton Glaser is a world famous graphic designer and it also provides a break between an influx of information.

I chose to use a different font for the quote - Lobster 1.4 - as to me a quote, being the spoken word, should be identified as such and the best way to represent that is through either the use of quotation mark or visualising it through a script font.

The decision to enclose it in a vibrant red box originated from my primary research. Whilst research I looked at a newspaper that also had a fully red image middle page and it work very well as a break between heavier content.

The first page is the second half of the printing press described above.

For the 'Bleed, registration and trim' I had originally designed it without the registration marks but on reflection had thought it was too sparse and missing something. The registration had firstly been a possible cover design, however, when I was digitally mocking up the cover possibilities it became really pixelated and deteriorated in quality, so i chose not to use it. When placing it in InDesign I managed to find a way to use them without deteriorating in quality - I used four separate images instead of trying to enlarge one.

 
This spread contains a lot of information and I therefore decided to use a more conventional layout that is more likely to be seen in a news paper. Although there is a variation in layout between the two pages in the spread the underlying three columns are very obvious. The only different element of the split on the second page and the layout of the body copy under 'screen angles'. I made the decision to use and unusual layout for the body copy under 'screen angles' as I thought the page needed to be more interesting.

Although there is not a great deal of information in this spread it was one of the hardest to layout and design. From the beginning I wanted to use a large ampersand in the middle of this page. I wanted to do this because I thought it would add another different dimension, whilst also tying the two spreads together. 

  

This spread was originally going to be in the publication, however, when starting to produce it digitally there were more concerns over the cost of the publication and was removed. Once I was nearing the completion of the publication I realised that because of the addition of the printing press image (so that the insert could be taken out without effecting the paper) the publication was two pages short to print.

Again the layout is simple and modern, with the heading in bold and a large point sizes and the body copy on structured columns. There is not a huge amount of information on this page so the negative space had to be used well to provide a balanced spread, however, the right-hand page is still slightly heavier.  

The 'stock' spread is one of the spreads I am most proud of the layout design. It uses a very large point sized header to brad up the information and the break over two lines creates an alternate dynamic. The body copy on the first page balances well with the header and the information on the right page is almost perfectly balanced as it is central in the page. 

Although the left page is significantly heavier there is a balance between the two that is both aesthetically interesting, readable and has a flow to it.

Due to the 'stock' pages success I produced a similar layout design for 'finishing'. Having a similar design between these two pages not only makes them flow together but it also links them, something that is appropriate given their content. 

Where as the 'stock' spread used a slightly smaller header and three columns, the 'finishing' page uses a bigger header - filling the entire page - and two larger columns. These two layouts really break the text heavy information up whilst using a very structured and modern layout.  

As we get towards the end of the publication the information becomes quite text heavy so the layout becomes similar. The use of columns emulates traditional newspapers whilst the experimental heading layout provides a break from the body copy.

I had to rearrange the order or the information on this spread several times as I struggled to create a layout I was happy with that also read well.

The final page had to be compact and concise as there was a lot of information to fit on one page. This had originally been a two page spread with the back cover being something similar to the front. If I wanted this to be a double page spread, however, i would have to add another three pages which would increase the cost.

Throughout the design process I used a pad of paper to note down and calculate anything I needed to. Unfortunately I did not think they were relevant anyone other than myself at the time, however I have some that show how I was working. (a similar process was used in STUDIO BRIEF 2 and STUDIO BRIEF 3).

 

The above scribbles are the decisions I made whilst working on the 'format and layout' spread. There are decisions on layout and content.

These are the decision made regarding the 'stock' and 'finishing' spreads. The decisions are about the content and how much of it there is to layout and the content itself. 

 

 

Finally these are the decisions made on the 'specialty printing'. The decisions seen are regarding the layout and the content, specifically looking at the arrangement of columns and quantity of content.