Design Production // Design for Print - Design and content development

Print Process diagrams

I wanted to create my own personal diagrams for each print process, but not being able to photograph each printing method and not wanting to steal others photographs and diagrams, I just tried to reproduce certain diagrams I came across whilst researching which I found useful and simple to understand.

Web Offset

Offset Lithography

Rotogravure

Rotary Printing

Screen Printing

Flexography

The colour scheme chosen was to obviously link to Cyan and Magenta from the four colour process and the blurred appearance was to represent the print finish 'Over printing'. trying to create a constant grid while also avoiding the folds of the book was quite difficult

Design and layout.

I am starting to regret my choice of publication, I originally thought it would make it easier for me to create a larger folding brochure style info pack, but in all honesty i feel it has been much harder for me to work out the layout and grid as well as what information I will actually contain inside the pack, even though it is at a larger scale I think it would have been simpler for me to create a normal DPS publication so I could work out a standard grid system and just repeat through out.

Design for print // Pressision Print studio visit

A few of us organised a visit to Pressision Print in leeds to go and see a professional print studio. The have various different print processes so they can cover a wider range of print jobs from large scale and quick turn around jobs on the lithographic printers to smaller quantity more specialised prints on the large scale digital printers.

They had no minimum or maximum number of prints but the minimum fee charged would be £50

Various stocks which are available to print on using the digital print.

Below is basically a glorified photocopier, this printer produces the cheapest available prints but can print large quantities very quickly which is useful for quick turn around print jobs.

They have one lithographic printer with 6 available ink stations, generally for most print jobs there is just standard Cyan Magenta Yellow and Black but they have options available to use spot colours for certain print jobs. However I think these specific jobs would cost a larger amount as each printer would have to be cleaned of the previous CMYK inks.

A standard lithographic printing plate that is used to transfer the image to the substrate.

Inks used for lithogrphy. When we were getting our tour we were told that in certain cases they can replace any of the CMYK with the florescent equivalent, which in turn creates some really interesting printed outcomes.

They also have various finishing techniques available to clients.  including

foiling and embossing. below is a foiling plate and the printed outcome. These machines can also print large quantities at a time.

They also have machines specifically for folding and binding publications. I really didn't understand fully how these machines work but it seems that no matter the fold types or the size of the publication, it can be completed on these machines.

Design for Web // Chosen Scamp / Wire Frame / Initial digital mock up

Final Scamp
 

Wire Frame 

I have found when thinking about web layout that it is easier to accurately measure out the layout of a website than it is for me to create an interesting layout for a printed publication. However I think if i take the concept of how you create a wire frame for a website, and incorporate it next time i work out a grid for a DPS then I think it will help me develop my grid making and layout design.

Digital Illustrator Mock-up

Having never designed or even thought about design a website prior to this module, it is an odd thing trying to think what a certain website should / could look like, while maintaining a level of appropriateness toward the topic and the target audience. 

I am trying to keep it as simple as i can, because I don't want to over complicate it, all this will do is make my life harder when it comes to programming the site on Dreamweaver.

However, I am still not 100% happy with my design, as I am not sure it really looks much like a website, but at least it is a good point for me to take it to the final crit. As i could do with some feedback on whether it works as it is or if I need to change certain elements.

Website Visuals  

Obviously I want to create a consistent colour scheme throughout, and again earth brown colours are the clear option to fit with coffee.
I chose a cream background as I thought this might not be quite 

  
The imagery of the coffee ring stain will hopefully contain each uploded image, I dont think they will be colour images as this would not fit the scheme but if I duo toned photographs or created vectors of images then each one could work the same way as the stained globe at the top of the page.

Design Productions // Design for print - Info Pack desgn

From the research done i am trying to produce an info pack that is not just a book but more of a folded out brochure, the closed size is just larger than A4 with n inside open width of 550 mm and a height of 280 and a final fully opened size of 550 x 560

I intend to use a different stock for the front cover which i will use to bind the pack otherwise it is basically just a folded poster.

Design for web // Scamp development

After receiving the feedback from my initial 3 scamp ideas, I still need to adjust the overall layout, as there was individual elements that were highlighted about each scamp that were both positive and negative so I am going to try to take a majority of the positive elements and merge them into a new layout. 

The visual elements below, I would like to remain withing the design of the website in some way, however i think that these will mostly be for aesthetics rather than interaction. However i would still like them to remain within the site as i think they would create the branded image for the website.

Amendment Sketches

The downfall of my initial scamps was that I didn't really design them thinking of grids and wire frames, so this time round i want to think of a standard design that could be used on all the featured pages.

As i have had some good responses about the coffee ring stain globe idea, i thought i could perhaps focus the design around table coasters, with each coaster containing either image or text.
there was also a suggestion that the home page could also possibly act as a new page for people who are interested in newly released coffee brands and roasts as well as information on events.

Amended Scamp  
 
Hopefully now, this will have more chance of being compatible with each page as the grid will be consistent, I shouldn't have too much trouble maintaining the same visuals throughout. as well as leaving me a constant layout to place all info and text.

Design Production // Design for Print - Final Crit Feedback

Coming into the Final crit at the position I am at the minute is a little bit daunting, Good old time management again has let me down. I left the design stage way too late to be able to be able to get everything done that I initially wanted.

I never planned on incorporating every area of print into the info pack, as I didn't want to over complicate or create too much work for myself. but it has resulted in me not quite having to time to properly finish the publication.

• It seems that people were overall impressed with the inventiveness of the design but alos they found it difficult to imagine how the book would physically look, when viewed on screen.

• There was another couple of comments about layout of certain aspects of the design which will probably need to be adjusted.

• layout of some type creates too many hyphened words in each paragraph, need to adjust some areas to neaten up the body copy.

I am quite looking forward to actually trying to produce the book over the next few weeks as I think it would cret a good opportunity to practice one or two finishing techniques.

Common areas of feedback

• Good research - A good range of research was undertaken and applied to the brief
• Contents page - according to amount of information and ease of navigation.
• Page Numbers - a small aspect that makes a difference in a book, helps navigation.
• Basic Type Skills - (widows, hyphened body copy line spacing etc.)
• Spelling Variations - (americanised words such as color, organize)