OUGD504 Studio Brief 1 | Leaflet Content

Brief
When you first get the brief it is important to read through it at least twice to make sure you understand exactly what needs to be done. Whether it be to design a poster or to design a chair, there will be certain things that will be specifically asked of you to be completed.

Research
Next in the process is research. Thorough research is needed so you are able to make informed decisions when designing whatever it is that has been asked of you. The more research you have, the more you will understand to context of the brief which means the outcome will come out a lot better rather than if you didn't have a cleat understanding of the subject.

Idea Generation
When it comes to first putting pen to paper always just experiment; I feel at this point of the process there aren't many bad ideas. Once you have a good range of ideas this is the time to choose which ones could be the final resolution. The best way to do this is to ask other people. This can be done informally amongst peers or in crit sessions.

Feedback
A very important stage in the process is getting feedback. This can be received in crit groups, from tutors, or just general opinions from peers. Taking on feedback is always a good things, because if you go ahead and try something someone else has suggested and don't like it, you can sty with your original idea. Where as if you don't at least try you will never know what works best. This is also very helpful when asking the question 'why' when designing. Making informed decisions is always needed, and if you have designed with no reason in mind, there is no need in it, and if there is a reason but that reason is not clear, feedback will make this apparent and you are able to fix it.

Development
The development stage includes ant feedback that ti may have received. take this feedback and apply it to your initial/first ideas. As you develop these ideas, soon it will become clear as to which is best.

Final Resolution
Even when you do decide on which idea to take forward as your final outcome, still try to experiment and tweak certain things and try different variations, such as stock for example. This can easily be experimented with but choosing the right one will make a massive impact on the final resolution.

OUGD504 Studio Brief 1 | Paper Folding

Today we had a morning to find and experiment with different paper folds that could potentially be used for a leaflet. One fold that I found quite interesting is called the 'Square Twist Fold'. Although I knew it probably wouldn't be great for a leaflet I thought I would definitely give it a go as it looks good and would grab the attention of the audience and engage them in the leaflet.  

The image above was the only kind of tuturial that I could find on this fold so it was pretty difficult to complete. First of all I practised on some thin paper which actually made it harder as the paper would move as it was too flimsy. 

Once I had completed it on the cheap paper which took about 20 minutes to finally get the correct folds and make sure all the slots went where they should do once it ws put back into place, I then copied the folds and applied them to the thicker stock. It didn't take long at all the second time round and it looked very good. 

The class voted on the best fold and the one that won was actually the same fold as this one, so it's clear people find it very interesting.

OUGD504 Studio Brief 1 | Research - Leaflet Folds

Here are some of the sites I used to inform me on different leaflet folds:
http://www.printaholic.com/15-brochure-fold-types/
http://www.companyfolders.com/blog/9-stylish-folder-brochure-folds-for-print-designers
https://www.pinterest.com/marioantoniou/fantastic-folding-formats/

Half-Fold

Classic Tri-Fold

Single Gate-Fold

Four-Panel Fold

These are just a few that I found on the website http://www.printaholic.com/15-brochure-fold-types/ which was handy for the basic fold types. 

The two examples below are probably my favourite that I found on Printaholic.com. The first is called the 'Z Fold'. I like this because the fold is very simple but the angled aspect of it adds an interesting look and allows for different looks and designs to be considered.

I think this could work well for my leaflet design due to the different experimentation I could do with the layers and as it's for the 'design process' it would be fitting. One thing I think may be a downside for this fold it the lack of room for type and image, especially as it is going most likely going to be a stage by stage kind of thing it could be a problem. 

The second fold is a 'Four-Panel Roll Fold'. I like the simplicity of this and I think it would be great for step by step instructions/guides. Even on one side of this fold it has more space than the 'Z Fold'. I was thinking as it's all to do with the design process I could have some eye-catching design on almost the whole of one side and then have to information in the middle.  

OUGD504 Studio Brief 1 | The Brief & Initial Thoughts

For this brief we have to produce a leaflet entitled 'The Design Process' where we explain our understanding of the design process and how it is applied to different design problems as a solution.
As it's a one week brief it will pretty intensive as all research, development and then further development will have to be done and taken into account in time for it to be completed by Friday.

The first bit of research I will do is looking into what other people (on the internet) think is meant by the term 'design process'. This will give me a good perception of other's thoughts and not confine me to my own. As well as this I will ask around the class as to what they think.

Next I will look at general leaflet folds and layouts. By doing this I will familiarise myself what looks good, what works well and most importantly why it works well. When it comes to this I will consider the following things:

Audience

• Gender
• Age
• Income
• Lifestyle
• Geography

Purpose

• Design
• Layout
• Type
• Tone
• Colour

These kind of things all influence the decisions the designer has made to make sure the leaflet is as suitable as possible. 

OUGD504 Studio Brief 1 | 'The Design Process' Group Work

Today we were put in groups to we if we could determine what we thought was 'The Design Process' 

First of all my group listed our own process which consisted of things such as; analyse brief, research, sketch, develop sketch, feedback and finalise ideas, along with many more as you can see below. 

Once we had this we were told o make this into a visual representation. My group wanted to keep it as simple as possible, so we started playing around with different ideas and suggesting what we could do.

One idea we had was this pyramid, the concept behind it being that you start with a very vague and open brief that can be interpreted in a number of ways, then you narrow it down to what you think it means and then research it. Once you have your research you then go on to come up with some ideas, some good some bad. After you root out the bad ones through development you can then go on to make the final product.

Although a lot simpler than all the other groups' visual representations, I feel that this is very strong. It shows that without research, you can't come up with ideas, and without a range of ideas you can't have strong development and so on.

The importance of development is clear here as Aaron attempted to draw our groups visual representation and it didn't go well. As a group we then decided to not let Aaron continue.