​Graphic Design Showcase

ISTD - Open/Close

​Brief

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​Understanding the Brief:

I wanted to fully understand the brief and so I read it many times and highlighted the parts that would help me focus on what was being asked. After choosing a book, I printed the chapters and highlighted areas that I thought communicated key moments or were more emotive. I took these paragraphs and put them into an excel spreadsheet to colour code areas. This would  make it easier to understand the narrative from beginning to end and help me make better decisions. There were many pages for this, I have showed an example in the image below.

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Chosen book:

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was a childhood favourite and so I thought this would be a nice choice for this project. I also thought a wardrobe opening may be a nice option for a creative format for this project.

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Other Design Interpretations:

I wanted to look at the way the book had been depicted over time. This will hopefully inspire and help we find a style option that will work or rule out styles I don't like very much and want to avoid. I liked the simpler versions of these images, many I find a little dated and very busy. Also bearing in mind the sophisticated nature of ISTD briefs in their concise yet clever ways of designing with fewer, simple elements.

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Research into the Author:

I wanted to understand a little more about the author. I think this is always a nice idea to do when researching as you can understand the work and perhaps the motivation and concepts more clearly. C.S Lewis lived and very interesting life and it took him a very long time to write the book. There were many links to religion and christianity.
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Research Design in the 1940's:

Armin Hoffmans work in his design career contributed to the 'Swiss style' of graphic design. While his teaching methods were unorthodox and broad based, his work set new standards and he became widely known throughout the world for his style and progressive views on design. Swiss design was known for precision, geometric abstraction, sans serif and simplicity. This trend came from inspiration in modernism from other countries such as the geometrics used in constructivism, suprematism from Russia, and the notion of form following function movement from the Bauhaus in Germany.

I like the use of a simple colour palette and I think I could possibly do a modern twist on the story with a more contemporary feel as apposed to the traditions of a story book. This would be a new and fresh depiction of this classic story.

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Further Swiss design - Ernst Keller:

I looked at other work from designers of the same era. Ernst Keller was know for contribution to development of design in the 40's that contributed to the 'Swiss Style' that commonly influences designers today. The strong use of simplicity, grid work and abstraction of shape may be useful to create the layout of this brief. It could add consistency and simplicity to the pages.

Josef-Müller Brockmann:

I looked further at 40s Swiss typography to see if it would inspire any design choices I make for the brief. This clever use of design is subtle but impactful and so I think it would be nice to keep the design clean and simple.

1940s Newspaper layouts/Typography:

​The style and era of the book was during the war. I considered tea staining paper and going for a more aged look typical of the era it was set, but I feel this won't have the same clean look from the earlier inspiration I was inclined to explore.

Fonts Created/Used commonly (late 40s/50s):

I looked at typography created and used at the time the book was written/set. Below are some examples of fonts created and used heavily during this time. I think a combination of serif for and san serif would work well as this is commonly used in design as they contrast well. I think I will explore options and see what looks good and feels appropriate.
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Other inspiration:

Istd Inspiration/and other layouts I like:

​I wanted to look at existing ISTD designs to get a look and feel for the usual standard and style of work. Below are some favourites which all seem to be very simple and and clean. I may try using black and white initially to keep design elements low and the design less fussy.

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​Further layout/design exploration:

I looked at typography layouts for inspiration. I like the use of scale and layout variations that still feel balanced.

​Expressive Typography:

I really enjoy expressive typography, I definitely feel it would be nice to explore this are of design to cleverly embellish the narrative of the project.

​Vince Frost:

I spoke with Billy and he pointed me in the direction of Vince Frost whose work I found really impressive. It is very simple but really delivers and communicates in such clever and simple ways.

Exploring Ideas:

I got the pencil and paper out and started to explore different paragraphs and parts of the book I wanted to use in the narrative. I was leaning on Swiss style simple designs, varied layout and expressive typography from inspiration from the likes of Vince Frost.
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Exploring textures:

I tried exploring lovely maps of Narnia but making them more simple and distressed to perhaps add texture in places to the design. Having done this I feel they may busy up the design a little too much for the  ISTD nature of the brief and want to focus more on typography.
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​Exploring Ideas:

I tried exploring some of the typography ideas I had. Some ideas have been shown below. This includes the classic lamppost, a wardrobe, pathways using columns of type, passages using letters and certain words that were made more playful and expressive. After speaking to Rhiannon and showing her some my work I was advised to not 'over-egg the pudding' which I agreed with. I therefore reduced the expressions so they would pop up every now and then, or be made more subtle so they didn't become irritating.

Exploring Typography/Combinations:

I explored font pairing to see which would work well for this project. I had to consider the full length of the book, the many contexts in which the font could be used and be careful that a display font or heavy weight font wouldn't over power the project. I find this challenging as a font may work in some areas but not be diverse enough for the many aspects and layouts used throughout.

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Exploring Format:

​I watched many videos on the format of the design. I really liked the two below which inspired a direction for this project. I didn't have too much time with it being a 2 week brief and so decisions had to be made relatively quickly to ensure I made the deadline.

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​Testing format:

​Exploring Images and body text:

​I explored using typography to create block images but I found that the text needed justified which unbalanced the spacing and the design  became a little irritating to look at in places.

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I tried using elements to make snow flakes, this could be used to create a shift in mood to winter when the wardrobe in the narrative opens. I also used other typography shapes to create these snowflakes. One could be used as a clamp to keep the wardrobe format of the book closed which would subtly link to the theme from the outset.
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I have used my exploration to create pages and some minimal images to pop up infrequently to add a little interest throughout while mainly focusing on typography, format and layout to narrate the journey.

The front section will depict the first chapter and then when the page is turned over it will reflect the last chapter.
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I wanted to explore colour to see if this would help bring this design to life. As I wanted to keep this style simple I have opted to only use one extra colour. I found after exploring many colours that the blue worked well for the sophistication level but also the theme of the story being told. 
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Prototype/Materials:

After printing initially it was clear the sizes used were too big and didn't look very good at all. I therefore reprinting with some adjustments which looked much better.
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Images of Complete:
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​ Finals

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