Research: Leaflets/Booklets

Derry Jazz Festival

This booklet is nice and clear but a bit simple. It's A5 which I feel is just way to big and the text inside in huge 12pt if not more but thats usual for these kind of city council/goverment documents, it's to do with the regulations for visually impared. I wonder is this something I should/need to worry about? They have clearly sticked to the three basic colours from their logo which is good and works well. 

Glasgowbury Festival

This booklet is nice and small, slightly smaller than A6. The layout is very clear and uncomplicated they just give you information on each act, nothing about the times or areas within the event. Nice use of colour.

Transpose Belfast

I love the type on this leaflet and the photograph on the front cover. Quite similar to the type of work I 'm doing. Nice use of 3 main colours on black and white photographs. 

The Playhouse Derry

Again another straightforward booklet, I think because of the amount of information needed in these types of booklets the layout needs to be clear and concise. You want the public to pick this up and find what they are looking for easily.

Ulster Festival of Art and Design

I quite liked this one, however, because of the highlighter orange they choose some of the text was quite hard to read and some of the graphic elements I found hard on the eye to look at! But apart from that I thought it was quite a pleasant piece of design work. The only other thing that concerned my was that it was the Ulster Festival of Art and Design for the University of Ulster, well how come last years design show wasn't mentioned? I know all the events in this were in Belfast but as a part of the University of Ulster I feel we should have been included in this.

The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival

I really like the shape, size, and layout of this booklet, every page is not the same but there is a cohesiveness to the layout with the use of photography, block shapes and the type. I really think it works really well, the front cover is glossy which I'm not too fond of but the offset paper inside is lovely.

Walled City Market Flyer

Stuff from books..

Subject Two: Classic Graphics, Todays Design

Because of the look of my 'dated', 'aged' photography I'm trying to find a balance between them and a modern style of design that I want to incorporate into my work. In the book above "New Retro" it talks about different types of design style, one of which is "The International Style"(see poster below). The visual elements of this style are said to be:

-motivated by objectivity and clarity in the presentation if information

-adherence to typographic grid with emphasis on a vertical/horizontal axis

-sand serif typefaces such as Akzidenx Grotesk, Univers and Helvetica

-large headlines running vertically or diagonally

-narrow columns of body text, ranged to the left

- photographic or geometric technical imagery

Armin Hofmann, Giselle, poster, Municiple Theatre, Basel, Switzerland, 1959

"Art Deco and American Moderism"

visual elements:

-decorative and luxurious 

-abstract Imagery

-geometric shapes and images

-use of motifs based on industrial forms, on speed or travel an on ancient Egyptian art

-Vibrant colour combinations, and large blocks of solid and grauted colour

P22 Font Foundry (by Dave Farey and Richard Dawson) , Johnston, 1999, typeface based on Edward Johnston's alphabet for the london underground.

Linotype's Broadway, typeface based on Morris Fuller Benton's original of 1928.

"The New York Style; corporate Identity"

visual elements:

-concept driven approach often employing humour and wit in a variety of styles

-playful and integrated use of type and image

-contrasts in colour and scale

-use of traditional, solid typefaces like Bodoni alongside simple sans serif and script faces

-collage, cutout-style illustration

-colour photography with high saturation value

Ivan  Chermayeff, cover of the Wisdom of the Heart by Henry Miller, US, 1959

"European Modernism and the New Typography:

visual elements:

-aimed to be objective, rational, universal, functional and efficent

-use of all upper- or all lower-case letters, and san serif typefaces based on geometric forms

-asymmetrical imagery and pure geometric shapes

-primary colours, often one primary colour with black

-letterpress, photography and photomontage

Piet Zwart, spread from NKF, NV Nederlandsche Kabelfabriek (catalogue for the Dutch Cable Factory), the Netherlands, 1928

Jan Tschichold, Konstructivisten, poster, Switzerland, 1937

Below are recent designs that have brought together the visual elements mentioned above, this is essentially what I want to do with my work, use some of these element and combine them in a way that works both visually for myself as a designer and works in communicating the information in an aesthetically pleasing way as well as communicating the information in a clear, concise manner.

I'm thinking to really make the most of my photography and not let it get lost in all the festival technicalities I might try and have a few pages of just photography dotted throughout the booklet. I think it'll work nicely also to break up all the events and make sure that the booklet isn't too text heavy.

I'm not doing packaging, although I might take a look at some merchandise for the festival but I just think this ice cream packaging is gorgeous and so simple.

Colour, colour, colour...something that has gotten lost within my work and I really do want some. I think it's just going to be little splashes of block colour here and there to enhance layouts.