Printed LCA Newsletter

I'm happy with how this turned project turned out. I think what I'm most happy abut is that the quick turnaround (one day) has proved to me that I can work quickly. I've found it hard to find my feet and workflow since beginning the third year, often feeling behind with my briefs and working a lot of hours but feeling like I haven't achieved anything. This brief has helped me find a new gear in my workflow and productivity. I won't mind if it doesn't get chosen to go forward and be produced; I'm just glad it helped me get closer to the productivity I had at the end of the second year. From this point on I'll keep the momentum rolling. 

 

Finished LCA Newsletter

All that is left do do is print it out tomorrow. Photos to come...

Front:

Back:

LCA Newsletter Front + Reverse Layout Dev.

Playing with the placement of the LCA logotype:

An awkward shape to place on the poster image, it suddenly dawned on me to move all of the logo type onto one line (like in official college letterheads etc). Line it up with the vertical stroke of the J, make sure it misses the fold and Roberts your Mothers brother! Sorted. Glad I persevered playing with it.  

Playing with the final layout on the reverse side:

  

As you can probably see I was finding it hard to place the credits 'Poster Image: Sarah Milton BA (Hons) Surface Patter  / Design: Ollie Saward BA (Hons) Graphic Design'. Wherever I placed it the type would let down the movement of the grid from top left to bottom right. Instead I decided to reduce the point size of it and place it on the front of the newsletter (see above).

LCA Newsletter Final Poster Design

I did what Liam suggested, make the N, E, W and S white so it spells NEWS abstractly. I think you read it as North, South, East, West though. No good.

I think the design works well as a black poster, though a little flat.

Adding the surface pattern behind gives it depth (no good with the white characters though)

The winner! 

(Logo to be added in InDesign)

LCA Newsletter Front Initial

Inital outcomes playing with Sarah's work in photoshop. I have asked a number of people for feedback and the consensus seems to be that the second on down and the alphabet one are most successful. I'm going to try combining them. Liam also suggested that I make the N, E, W  & S white in the alphabet one.

LCA Newsletter Front

BA (Hons) Surface Pattern & Textile Design lady Sarah Milton has got back to me saying that she would love to provide me with some images to use on the front. I met her this lunchtime and she gave me a folder of work for me to scan in. Brilliant! 
As you'll see her work is very graphic design based (she studied graphic design before moving on to the surface pattern course). She uses a lot of typography and geometry in her work with a hand-done craft finish. This is the reason why I asked her if she would like to collaborate - her work seems to span graphic design, pattern design and fine art all at once - perfect if you're trying to represent LCA in one image. 

Now that the line-up is pretty much finished I'm going to play with my 1200dpi scans in photoshop to see what designs I can come up with. I will be keeping to two colours as with the reverse of the newsletter - black and Pantone 810U.

LCA Newsletter Landscape Layout

Following on from yesterdays development I have decided to stick with the landscape grid as it takes into account the folding method of the sheet. 

I thought I'd see what the page would look like with images and copy spanning two columns. Unfortunately in doing this it means that not all of the stories can fit on the page. If I try to cram them into the white space (e.g. bottom left story and image) it doesn't sit right in the grid.  

An alternative is to double span the leading article and image. But again, in my opinion, it lets down the grid. Of course I could redesign the grid but I want the project to be finished by the end of the day.  

Similar to my original spec sheet, this layout has lots of white space to the left for me to add the college logo into. Below it spans two columns, I think it looks too big on the page.  

 It looks much better spanning one column and keeps the negative space to the left.  

Justifying the ten story columns to the centre creates space to each side but the contact information is no longer isolated. 

The addition of a title adds more balance, leading the eye from top left to bottom right. 

The landscape layout is definitely working better than the portrait. What's need now is to get the balance right in the composition. 

LCA Newsletter Portrait

Decided to design some portrait layouts for the reverse of the newsletter as the other side will contain a portrait poster. 

Using a four column grid, all of the copy fits but with the images not sitting in a horizontal grid it looks a little disorganised, unlike the landscape twelve column grid. 

Aligning the images and copy to a horizontal grid adds order but the folds will now dissect the images.

 Spanning two columns helps to fill the page but again the folds will dissect the images and copy. 

I'm not sure that this grid will work too well as a folded sheet. I'm now definitely leaning more toward the landscape format as it will help prevent any dissection and organisation of information.