Newspaper Project

001:  40%

A Publication

In groups, you will conceive, design, edit and produce a ‘newspaper’ style publication. The assessment requires an edition of at least 10 newspapers. Supporting PDF will examine your ideas, research, reflection, professional standards, skill development and resolution of final product. . This will include research material gathered through workshops, meetings, filed trips, interviews, tutorials personal research, seminars, etc. At least one interview with a practicing artist or employer within the creative industry, with a specific focus on your chosen theme. Evaluation – a critical reflection on the process from start to finish.

My Aims

For this project I aim to become increasingly confident with software such as Photoshop and InDesign. I will aim to complete research to inspire myself and my team to produce our own publication. I will learn more about how mass publication works, how to quality control my images, paper quality and text type.

For our first session we were briefed about the publication project. In teams we are to mass produce 10 of some sort of publication, which could be a newspaper, brochure, booklet/leaflet or a magazine. Within our team, individual we responsible for 2 double spread pages of the publication each, but as a team have to agree on a theme, title and colour scheme etc. We are to document our progress using design boards, notes, minutes taken at meeting and layout on this blog.

I decided to pair up with another one as my peers. With only two of us I felt that it would be easier to organise ourselves, discuss our ideas, without being overwhelmed by lots of people. After our briefing we paired up and began to brain storm our ideas. Immediately we thought as we are University students, and have already experienced life as a student away from home, we would do our publication as a guide to University life. We thought of possible doing it as a factual piece, but in a non-fiction fantasy setting, with monster and made up characters in an unrealistic setting, in order for it to stand out from other publication on the market.

We then started to brain storms some possible ideas for pages for out publication using the diagram below to help us with things we needed to start considering.

 Possible Page Ideas 

• ·      Recipe page
• ·      Agony aunt page
• ·      Things you should know before starting University
• ·      Top University essentials
• ·      Inserts- fortune teller game, check list

Things we also needed to consider

• ·      The name of our publication
• ·      contents page
• ·      End pages and credits
• ·      Colour theme
• ·      Style of magazine
• ·      Illustrations and photos

We concluded that we will each take two topics/pages each and then collectively produce the cover pages, contents and end pages.

Aim

Together we decided that we would research into some possible layouts for our publication and what type of publication we wanted to produce.

Assessment Matrix

In class we evaluated the assessment matrix, which allowed us to go into further detail, and gain a greater understanding of what is required from us. The notes I produced from this session are below, along with a copy of the matrix.

Research and Enquiry

Layouts, fonts, genres, photos, types of publications, other illustrators, aesthetics of other newspapers, interiors, primary research

Idea Development

Fonts, investigation, printing methods, paper, editing, photos used, questions answered, roughs/thumbnails, InDesign, reflection of work/decisions, screen shots

Working practices and standards

Teamwork, independent study, advise from others, blogging, presenting work, participation, engaging, deadlines, evaluation, tutorials, feedback, discussions with group.

Realisation and resolution of work

Advice, reflecting, evaluation, resolve, team work, group chats, research relating to final ‘thing’, the newspaper itself.

Acquisition of Skills

Blogging, teamwork, creative writing, InDesign, working to deadlines, Photoshop and Illustrator, practical skills, composition and layouts, graphic design, use of colour, printing.

 Week 2- 7/10/16

This week we met up to showcase our weeks findings. The notes from our discussion are below.

This is Pinterest board we created. 

https://uk.pinterest.com/ldownhill/newspaper-inspiration/

From this we decided that instead of using fantasy to illustrate out guide to university we will make a formal, yet colloquial magazine, a as we feel that the message of our factual publication would be lost if we tried to use imaginary characters. The tone will be formal yet chatty and reach out to young people.

We then completed some research about the layout of our magazine, we used publication that were used last year, Pinterest and google images to come up with some sort of idea of what we wanted out publication to look like the link to our Pinterest board is below, and a quick layout sketch.  

We discussed how we are going to mass produce our publication. We can either print it ourselves, as it is a magazine we may choose to use shiny poster paper, so it has the same texture as a magazine, or we could simply use newsprint. Alternatively, we could get it printed using the NewsPaperClub. To find out what they offer we ordered some samples, or their broadsheets, and their tabloids in different paper qualities and colour brightness’.

Aim

For out next session we decided that for our own pages we would start gathering any information that we needed, though interviews etc.  and then to begin to writing out text for our pages

Analysing Newspapers 

Aim- to learn about the different layouts that can be used to create a visually attractive publication, and to gain some inspiration on how to format images and text

GraphicRiver. (2016). Cool Retro Vintage Magazine by AbraDesign | GraphicRiver. [online] Available at: https://graphicriver.net/item/cool-retro-vintage-magazine/11819609?ref=AbraDesign [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

This newspaper too my interest deeply. If find that even though it used geographic shapes it still has a sophisticated yet illustrative style to it. This is aided by the simple colour scheme, which showcases important images/text using the bright orange colour, which contratsic the off white background or the dark grey background . I am really attracted to the translucent element to these pages, instead of overlapping solid opaque images, meaning that you loose most of the imagery, the translucent shapes allow you to view all of the images and allows you to see it in a different colour, adding interest and surprise. Even though there is a lot of text on these pages the main focus is still on he graphics. The text is placed is subtle columns which slots in beautifully next to the images, so it doesn't distract you from the main focus of the pages. 

From this analysis I will take on board the geometric shapes, and using these shapes to frame images. Using a limited colour palette can work more effective at guiding the readers eyes more so than lots of colours.

Theartistandhismodel.com. (2016). THEARTISTANDHISMODEL » Spectator Life. [online] Available at: http://theartistandhismodel.com/2013/10/spectator-life/#more-16622 [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

I found this page captivating, even though there is a lot of text, which I think some of our publication will be heavy on text, it has been used to the advantage of the aesthetics and has become part of the imagery rather than just singled out as part of the art work. There is little imagery but the imagery has been used in such a way that it tell you more that what has literally been drawn. I hope to used something like this on my pages, even if I am just inspired by the way that the text is wrapped to form an object. 

SerialThriller. (2016). [online] Available at: http://serialthriller.com/post/49627345866/vrs-mag-inspiration [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

This page interested me and I felt that it would make a nice front and back cover. I really like the idea of using geometric shapes to reshape photos, and then creating a collage using those shapes. I think this adds a sense of uniformity to the imagery, whilst still being able to have lost of different images. 

From conducting this research I have learnt/felt inspired regarding possible layouts for my pages, and how text doesn't just have to stand alone side by side with imager, it can become apart of the imagery. 

Week 3 14/10/16

This week we were given the task of creating a design board to present to the class the following week. My team discussed the design board, and decided that we could create and gathering information, pictures and sketches, and the arranged a meeting date where we will collected everything and display them digitally using Photoshop or Indesign.

For the design board we may include:

• ·      Timeline of our progress
• ·      Textures
• ·      Colour scheme
• ·      Text font/sizes
• ·      Layout pages
• ·      Inspiration
• ·      Name of publication
• ·      Notes
• ·      Sketches for working illustrations
• ·      Samples of thee inserts

Following last week I did some research and gathering information from my class peers and house mates, on these two topics…

• ·      Top Ten University Essentials
• ·      Things to know before Starting University

Below is the list I formed

From this list I separated them into either topic, and read around the subject using the websites listed below, and then formed a basic outline of my text, but I do realise that it may have to change, be either shortened or lengthened when I come arrange my pages. The text I have come up with so far is displayed below, as well as a brief outline of the layout of my pages.

Top Ten University Essentials

Extension Leads

The chances are there will be one plug socket, at most two, in the most bewildering location possible. An extension lead solves this problem.

First Aid Kit

Ever heard of Fresher’s Flu? 1,000s of fledgling young adults coming together in a new place, equals many a strange germ for your immune system to cope with. Bring a few Lemsips, some ibuprofen and a plaster or two – they’re sure to come in-handy.

Doorstop

It's crucial to seem approachable and friendly in the first weeks of a new term, keeping your door open while moving into your halls of residence or shared house a great way to start conversations with your new housemates and make early friendships.

Alarm Clock

Investing in an alarm clock will ensure you're awake for those annoying early-morning lectures. Don’t rely on your phone alarm, they can fail.

Printer

All universities and colleges have printing facilities for students, but having your own printer can save time, stress from queuing on deadline days, and it can be very expensive.

Clothes Rack

In a student accommodation, space for drying clothes is limited! These are a great way to dry everything without taking up too much space, saves you waiting for someone else to finish using the tumble dryer, and its free!

Food or drink to share

Buying chocolates, sweets or drinks to share with the other students in your hall is a great ice-breaker when you're moving in. This will get you talking and make a good first impression.

Mattress topper

Its no secret that University beds are not the most comfortable, so a simple matress topper, well make your first night much more comfortable.

Ear plugs

University accommodation is not a peaceful place, its lively yet very noisy, but if you have a 9am lecture to get to and others are out partying, you will be thankful of packing some earplugs.  

Fairy lights/ photos

All university accommodation looks the same, and it can be a little daunting when you first move in, so a few photos from home can really jazz it up, and who doesn’t love fairy lights?

10 things to know Before you start University

Always ask for Student discount

Make the most of your student discount. Many shops offer you 10% with your university student card, but you may want to consider purchasing a NUS card or signing up to UNIdays for further discount. Some cities and towns have student lock ins, where shops are open later for only students, were even more discount is applied.

Organize a railcard

If you're going to be travelling home or visiting friends at other universities then a 16-25 railcard could save you some serious cash with a third off rail fares. Some student bank accounts offer this card as an incentive.

Learn to cook

Ask someone, anyone who is willing, to teach you how to make your favourite meals. Once you arrive you'll be glad you did. There are plenty of student recipe books out there, many of which focus on cooking to a budget, but homely food may help you settle in.

Get involved in freshers' week

Freshers' week, is designed to help you settle in so make the most of it. Your students' union will put on a number of events, including a freshers' fair, to help you make friends and discover new interests.

TV license

If you live in University halls for your first year, the majority of the time your TC license isn’t included in you rent. And annoyingly if you want to watch your TV in your room, you can’t just buy one TV license between all your house mates, you all have to buy one. So it’s worth decided if you want a TV license, or if you can just live with catchup TV or Netflix for a year or not?

It's okay to be overwhelmed

You get so much advice in the months before you start university that it can make you feel like you should know exactly what you're doing when you do begin. It's fine to be completely lost. It's also fine to be chilled and happy during the first few weeks and then be hit by a feeling of helplessness.

Have a plan but don't stick to it

You might have decided that you'll be out every night, or that you'll read up on every topic every week. This is good, plans are good, but don't let them stop you from going with the flow. There's no harm in mixing things up a little bit.

Fire alarms

Remember everyone is in the same position.

If you’ve joined something new, don’t be scared to turn up to a training session or a social event alone and be ready to make friends. After being a member of the Lacrosse team for a year now, I have realized that everybody was just as nervous as I was at the beginning.

Find the balance between home and University.

Don’t forget your old friends but don’t spend the whole of Fresher’s week secluding yourself by always being on the phone to your old friends.

These are my brief layouts for my pages and the entire newspaper.

 Also this week I received the samples I had sent for from The Newspaperclub, which are below. We were impressed by the brightness the colours showed up on the newsprint as we expected them to be dulled down significantly, meaning that we may consider sending off our work to be printed, as it looks very professional.

Newspaper Club

"Newspaper Club - Make And Print Your Own Newspaper". Newspaperclub.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 18 Oct. 2016. 

Aim

Before our next meeting we will collect and create some information, layout sketches etc. to be used for out design board. We will meet up and design our board ready to be printed and presented, and we will continue to develop a name and branding for our publication.

Week4- 19/10/16

This week we were assigned to create a design board for our newspaper. Together we decided that we would gather pieces of information and images to create the board. 

To start of with we had decided that our colour scheme would be monotone but with a flash of coral, so our board would be based on those colour. We also wanted to use geometric shapes, so all out text and images would be placed in a shape. So as we wanted the cover of our magazine to be a collage of images in diamond shapes, I create a background using diamond shapes to use as this back ground for out board. 

I then looked too some images from our Pinterest page which had inspired our layout. I think cropped the images to fit a circle, changed the colour to grayscale, or tinted the colour so it was a slight coral colour.

I then scanned in some of my layout pages, and filled in the text and images boxes.

I then created a timeline of thing we aim to achieve each week, and creates a bubble containing the contents of our magazine.

Finally this is what all the components looked like altogether. 

I also create a quick template of my fortune teller game insert. 

20/10/16

Today we met to discuss and create our design board from each others elements.

We had yet to generate a name/branding for our magazine. We decided to brain storm ideas, the idea that our magazine audience would be transitioning to University. We searched words which suggested the jump to university like, hop, bounce, leap, and finally we found pogo, as in pogo stick. We thought this was a pushing eye catching name for a magazine which was modern and attractive. We then set about deciding on the font, sizes and design of our name/logo, our experiments are below and feature on our design board. 

We decided to choose the top logo as it was visually appealing, easy to read and ties in nicely with colour scheme and use of geometric shapes.

We want to add some physical/ hand printed elements to our magazine, so to represent those we added some letters and numbers. We has actually printed some samples of letters and numbers which are below, but were not completely ready to display on our design board.

After this issue was resolved we continued to build our design board, and the final outcome is below. 

All created using Adobe Photoshop CC 2015.5

Week 4- 21/10/16

Notes from this weeks lecture on Adobe InDesign

• awesome merchandise website- http://awesomemerchandise.com- this website expects you to create your layout using Indesign
• resolution 300dpi= standard size- dots per inch/ppi- pixels per inch= interchangeable- whether digitally produced, or printed using tiny dots
• image size- make sure before you start creating it that it is the size you actually need as if its only 1cm large thats less than 300 dots per inch so when its blown up that means that the dots are enlarged so it becomes pixelated.
• Inky little fingers- http://www.inkylittlefingers.co.uk/index.php
• look upon artwork preparation guides on Inky Little Fingers and Awesome Merchandise
• perfect bound books= glue bound books
• 'the text'- main body of book
• there are different terminology depending on what company and printer you use e.g. front cover, inside front, text, inside back, back cover
• Pages= leaves
• Bleed- image at the edge of paper- companies usually ask for either a 2/3mm bleed, which gets cut of when printed
• digital printing
• Lithography- printing press, plates on a drum- need a lot of copies to make it economical
• Have to stick within the colour space of CMYK

Indesign tutorial instructions

• New
• Bleed and Slug- 2/3mm- 3 preference
• Selection- pick up tool- move image about
• Too add pages- select pages pallet on let on screen- centre bottom button to creat new pages

• File- place- never copy images- only creates a ghost of image- click and hold button to drag a box for the image to sit in
• the image isn't fixed on the page, only a copy/preview of the image in visible - not good enough quality to print- instead links are made to where the picture can be found- so ensure that all images are kept in the same place as file, as if opened on another device without the images there, the images will not show- indesign has to find the path/link to your images- don't break the link
• file-create a package
• if you hover over the image a circle will appear in the middle of the image this moves the image out of the picture frame
• Object- fitting- fit frame to contact- fits the frame to the image
• move bounding box markers to crop the image
• press 'W' key to view layout in preview setting
• Adobe TV videos- tutorials

Today we had group tutorial with our tutor. We discussed our progress we had made so far. Our content and page distribution had already been set, so were advised to now get on with making the newspaper.

As we had decided to print our newspaper in house, we needed to experiment with different paper. Our lecturer gave us a book of coloured/texture papers to look at, which our lecturer could order samples from for us to experiment. Because of this discussion it led us away from the idea of using white glossy paper, as we had simply fell in love with the texture cartridge paper, which if amazing quality and would lovely for our publication. We picked out a few colours that we thought were close to out coral and grey colour scheme

How to attach our inserts and how we were going to bind our newspaper together was another topic up for discussion. For my pages in particular I wanted to create some coupons, but I wasn’t sure how to insert them, initially I was going to create a strip of them which would fold and sit at the bottom of the page. But I felt that this may look a little messy, and disrupt the aesthetics of my page. So I decided I will look into how I could integrate my coupons into my images, so it becomes a part of the illustration, rather than an add on.

Our lecturer gave us a brilliant idea of binding our publication using the sewing machine. This then means that it doesn’t matter what size our inserts are, as if we were going to staple it we would have the align the inserts with the staples, and wouldn’t add anything extra to the newspaper. Whereas we are now thinking of using a brightly coloured thread and stitching down the fold of our publication, which will add to the handmade feel, making all of our publication unique to one another. This process would be quick and easy to mass produce. We would then for the inserts create a small tab which would be folded so it could be sewn altogether

We discussed that within the next 2 weeks we would collected all of our elements and have completed our individual pages to show each other so we could start laying out out newspaper, and making any alteration that we need to do.

Week 5- 28/10/16- Collect Images

Following our timeline this week we started gathering images for our own pages. I made these tables below, so I could identify which images I wanted to be photographs, illustrations or text.

Top Ten University Essentials

Draw	Photo	Text
First aid kit	Fairy lights	doorstop
Alarm clock	Ear plugs	Mattress topper
Food and drink	printer	Extension lead
Clothes rack	Clothes rack

Things you should know before starting University

Draw	Photo
Learn to cook	Get involved in fresher’s week
TV license	Student discount
Fire alarms	Rail card
Home and university	plan
Overwhelmed?	Same position

Some of the items I had chosen to illustrate are difficult as they are not objects that you would think of drawing for example a door stop, which in my opinion wouldn’t make a very interesting image so I am thinking of perhaps using text, made using the letterpress to illustrate that to make it more visually appealing. Below thumbnails of some of the photos which I plan to use for my pages.

As we are planning a photomontage for the front and back pages, I have also collected photos of rather random ‘student like’ items, such as washing up, fire extinguishers, drinks bottles and DVD collections. We hope that this will either trigger people’s memories of their time at university, or spark their imagination for the memories that are to come.

I then began drawing my illustrations for my pages, as the objects are simple I wanted the imagery to match this quality, so I completed some research on symbols that may represent these objects.

 

VectorStock. (2016). Cooking icons vector on VectorStock. [online] Available at: https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/cooking-icons-vector-345106 [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

 Pinterest. (2016). Food Cook UI Design. [online] Available at: https://uk.pinterest.com/kaffeekraft/food-cook-ui-design/ [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

 GraphicRiver. (2016). TV Icons, Thin Line Style by fad86 | GraphicRiver. [online] Available at: https://graphicriver.net/item/tv-icons-thin-line-style/11356966 [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

Pinterest. (2016). Branding. [online] Available at: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/102245854012608297/ [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

Products.iqmatrix.com. (2016). Cite a Website - Cite This For Me. [online] Available at: http://products.iqmatrix.com/academic-genius/ [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

V, S. (2016). 'Fire Department' by Siwat V. [online] Iconfinder. Available at: https://www.iconfinder.com/icons/342990/alarm_alert_emergency_emergency_equipment_fire_alarm_safety_equipment_icon [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

 The Noun Project. (2016). The Noun Project. [online] Available at: https://thenounproject.com/term/fire-alarm/1160/ [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

Tradekorea.com. (2016). t-shirt hanger/suit hanger/clothes hanger/magic hanger/velvet hanger/huggable hanger/duch hanger from xinlian craftwork factory B2B marketplace portal & China product wholesale. Keyword clothes hanger 7inch hanger plastic clothes hanger. [online] Available at: http://www.tradekorea.com/product/detail/P388459/t-shirt-hanger-suit-hanger-clothes-hanger-magic-hanger-velvet-hanger-huggable-hanger-duch-hanger.html [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

 The Noun Project. (2016). The Noun Project. [online] Available at: https://thenounproject.com/term/first-aid-kit/185225/ [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

 Outline, A. (2016). Alarm Icon Outline - Icon Shop - Download free icons for commercial use. [online] Icon Shop - Download free icons for commercial use. Available at: https://freeiconshop.com/icon/alarm-icon-outline/ [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

Most of the images I was pleased with, for example to chef's hat, illustrating learn how to cook and the TV to represent TV license, as they were simple to illustrate, and are iconic symbols everyone will understand. However, other images of the ear plugs and the feeling of being overwhelmed, were difficult to illustrate, the ear plugs because they are such a small and are a strange object to try and illustrate and, the overwhelmed illustration, because I had to think of a illustration that would represent an emotion, which obviously isn't an object you can simple draw from.

The icon above was another one which was tricky to illustrate. This one represents finding a balance between home and University life. This idea came from thinking about the shape of a graduation cap, which slants down like a roof of a house. So I simply attempted to fit half of the house inside the graduation cap to represent how there should be some sort of balance between home and University like. 

I then decided to colour in the images using Photoshop. I followed our colour scheme, which is black, coral and grey tones. As I am laying out the pages using hexagons, I then added a coloured hexagon behind each illustration. 

However, once we had grouped together I found that my illustrations didn't really fit it well with Lizzie's illustrations, who had used pencil and watercolour, which meant that her illustrations were soft in tone and were quite delicate in contrast with my rather graphic imagery. 

So I decides to try and tame down my images. I still wanted to keep the intense colour scheme so instead of redrawing my images, in a similar style to Lizzie, as they were not doing to be placed next to each other I decided to recolour them. I made some sheets so watercolour washed which I then scanned into Photoshop and then shaped the texture to fit around the shapes. I then edited/tinted the colour of texture to match my colour scheme. This way the images were soft enough to match Lizzie’s illustrations but still retained the colour and the essence of my graphic imagery.

I decided to make all of my illustrations in grayscale that way they would look too loud and overpower the page. If I need to I can always tint the illustrations using the coral colour scheme to add more interest or draw attention to certain elements. As shown below. 

I didn’t know how to tint my texture or my photographs for the page. I wanted to vary it between having greyscale images and coral tinted images, so I completes some research on YouTube to find a tutorial on how to do this. Below is the tutorial link I followed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52n-0PDTTco

YouTube. (2016). Learn to Hand Tint a Photo in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52n-0PDTTco [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

Letter Press

We wanted to add an element of the handmade to our newspaper, so as we are going to be using a lot of numbers, especially on my ‘Things you should know before starting university’ page, we decided to letter press some letters and numbers, using wooden type. We choose to print them in black to match the rest of our type.

I really love the faded, rustic look the letter press gives. Even though the letters and numbers are not perfect, we are able to edit those on Photoshop at a later date.

Week 6- 4/11/16

After our meeting we agreed that we would start of the next 2 weeks to put our pages together, this included gathering all the text, photos, illustrations and graphics. As I had a plan on what my pages was going to look I found is quite easy to slot all of my elements onto my pages. As I had a lot of individual pieces for each pages I decided to create my pages in Photoshop, which then gave me for freedom to edit my illustrations. I will then once have finished I will upload the files into InDesign.

I wanted the my text to fit inside circles, so I was following of geometric shape theme. So I completed some research on how to do this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL0Z-AQconQ

YouTube. (2016). How to Create a Custom Text Box Shape in Photoshop. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL0Z-AQconQ [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

So to make a text box to fit in the shape I wanted, this is what I did.

1. Drew a hexagon shape
2. selected the text tool, and hovered over the hexagon shape, the cursor then changed from a square to a circle.
3. By then clicking the hexagon a text box appears the same shape as the hexagon
4. This allowed me to paste in my text so that it fitted the shape
5. I could also resize the text box without, resizing my hexagon shape. 

I the wanted to add captions to each of the help clearly illustrate my text, but I wanted to embed it into the image. so it became part of my page, so I wanted to curve the text around the shapes. I again didn't know how to do this so I followed a tutorial. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUe46iOvl2c

YouTube. (2016). Photoshop CS6 Circular Text Around A Path. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUe46iOvl2c [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

1. First I created a circle using the shape tool
2. I then change the circle to a path and made sure that the colour of line and the fill was transparent.
3. I then click on the type tool and hovered to the edge of the circle, this then changed the cursor to a wiggly line
4. by clicking on it it then allows you to type, so that the text curves around the path shape.
5. Using the transform took you are then able to rotate, move and resize the path and the text.  

So after learning some more techniques on Photoshop and gathering all my images and text, these are my final Pages 

For this page I took inspiration from this design.

our dream lives. (2016). design inspiration. [online] Available at: https://ourdreamlives.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/design-inspiration/ [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

I decided that I just wanted to illustrations on this page, no photos as I was struggling to find objects to illustrate the text to take picture of, so below are the few illustration I drew out to fill in the gaps, which were originally going to by photographs.

I really liked that way the the shapes formatted the page, it takes your eyes across the page. However when I came to creating my page using this format I found it rather difficult as had a lot more images and text than this was above does, therefore nearly my entire page is filled with hexagons, which was't my ideal solutions, but that was the only way I was going to be able to display all of the information I needed.The trickiest bit of this page was the layout, I had to ensure that the pairs of information and imagery was placed, and were next to the correct coupons. Another challenging aspect was the title and paragraphs at the top I wasn't sure of where to place it so in the end I made a gap in the imagery so that the title slotted in with out it looking odd or disjointed from the rest of the image.

I am really pleased with the overall with the outcome. I am really pleased with the the way that the circles, because they are translucent overlap created different colours, and because I have used a unified shape, even though all of my illustrations are different, the circles as bases pull the image together. I also resized the letter press numbers this create a sense of depth to the image. I wasn't initially going to add the caption/titles to each section, but I find that it makes it easier to navigate around the page as it is very busy and doesn't contain any straight line thet you can follow. I also added a small paragraph at the top of the page to introduce and intriguer the reader to continue reading the page, I think this completes the page as I was struggling to fit the title nicely into the page, without it looking out of place, but I think I have accomplished this successful. Finally I added another circle which contained a link almost to another page, encouraging the reader to view other pages. Our aim for next week is to test print them onto coloured paper, which we have requested some coloured paper in greys and coral colours. 

These are the coloured paper samples. 

The coloured paper samples are different colours to what we were expecting, the bottom to samples are the colours, which are most like our colour scheme, so we are going to try a test print on these. As we didn't have a finished front cover, we decided to create a mock up vision to to try it out/.

The coral coloured paper was our favourite colour, so we tried printing this one first. However, we were really disappointed with the outcome, because of the coloured paper, we didn't realise how much it would alter the colour. The colour colour in the logo hasn't really been altered, but the grey tones, have printed in purple/blue tones, which is not out colour scheme, so because the paper is highly textured, the actually quality wasn't very good, as the ink wasn't sinking into the paper, properly even though we changed that settings on the printer for it to print slower as out paper was thicker. 

We then decided to try the lighter grey paper, but we had similar results, the colours were less distorted, but we still didn't like the result. 

As we were a little frustrated by the results, we started to brain storm alternatives. We discussed possible using the Risograph to print our publication, using two colours. We were thinking of possible using black and then red, meaning that because you create two different layers for the two different colours, if we toned down the red layer it would then hopefully create pink shades, which would closely match our colour scheme. 

We also discussed maybe screen printing some elements of our newspaper on top of laser printed paper, this wiould add another handmade element to our paper, and would produce brilliant colours. 

We descided to think about the printing method, and maybe complete some research in the upcoming week. Therefore we will be about the discus our finding and experiment the following week when we have most of our pages done. 

Week 7- 11/11/16- Layout and finish creating pages

This week I continued to create drafts of the other pages, which included the contents page and end pages. 

I created this pattern using circles which I made semi translucent and so that the colours overlapped to create an interesting, pattern which I then duplicated and resized to create my end paper or as a background. 

To this background I simply add textures coral coloured circle to use for the contents page this was inspired by the image below. I then using a circular text box wrote a draft version of our contents page, and added a title around the circumference of the circle. 

MAINSTUDIO – High-res Special | September Industry

Designspiration. (2016). MAINSTUDIO – High res Special | September Industry on Designspiration. [online] Available at: http://designspiration.net/image/416696152365/ [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

We decided to add an editors credit page at the back, so like how I created the contents page, I simply made two textured, coral circles to the polka dotted background. 

After meeting up with my group, neither of us had found any others ways of printing out publication, so we experimented with scanning in the texture paper, and layering that behind out pages. This meant that the texture shown though my illustrations, and made the overall look of the newspaper more interesting. Below is the texture pasted behind my pages. We made the texture brighter using Photoshop, using 'Hue and Saturation', which matched our colour scheme better. 

Week 8- 18/11/16- Creating Inserts

This week I started creating my inserts for the newspaper. I will be creating 3 inserts, the first will be coupons which will be attached to the page 'Top 10 University Essentials', they will be in hexagon shapes, and will be coupons for people to use on our website. The second will be a fortune tele, origami game. This will be a ice breaker game for students to help get to know their new housemates.Finally I will be creating business cards which will be attached to the editors pages. They will be double sided, one side being a self portrait with our name and on the reverse our contact details and our website address. 

The coupons I needed to be double sided. The front pages I used to show case the offer, using the letter pressed numbers, and the information needed to receive the offer. As I was creating the coupons I realised that each coupon needed to be different, there needed to be different sides on them for customers to type in, so every coupon you see in our 10 editions of our newspaper will have a different code on them. Below are examples of the front of my coupons.

 

To make the coupons look more realistic and more professional decided to write my own terms and conditions on the reverse. As I wasn't sure what is suppose to be written in your terms and conditions, I conducted some research. The websites I used are listed below. 

Boots.com. (2016). Boots Coupons | Terms and Conditions - Boots. [online] Available at: http://www.boots.com/en/Help/Boots-Coupon-Terms-and-Conditions/ [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

Thisworks.com. (2016). Gift Voucher Terms & Conditions. [online] Available at: http://www.thisworks.com/gift-voucher-terms-and-conditions/ [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

Below are the backs of my coupons, including the terms and conditions.

I had to do some research into how magazine companied attach their inserts into their publication. I then found that the sticky glue they use to attach beauty samples in are called glue dots, they are removable, meaning that my coupons will be able to be pulled out. So I brought some and tested them out, and they worked, so I will be using them for our pages in the publication, including the business cards at the back, which will then become removable.

For the fortune teller insert I had already created a template for our design board, so it was just a matter of colouring it in, using our colour scheme and texture on Photoshop. 

I needed to illustrate some instructions for how to build/fold the origami game. I found this rather challenging I started out by making a dummy version of the game and working backwards to find out how I made it. I also complied some research into how origami instructions are drawn, below are the website I used and some image I took inspirations from. 

Welcome to the Vintage Toys Blog!. (2016). Free Paper Fortune Teller Printable Templates. [online] Available at: https://vintagetoysblog.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/paper-fortune-teller-free-printable-template/ [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

 Origami. (2016). Fortune Origami - Origami. [online] Available at: http://ihjlw.freedns.io/fortune-origami.html [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

YouTube. (2016). How to Fold an Origami Paper Game. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO00o7iR07E [Accessed 13 Dec. 2016].

I wanted there to be a sense of unity between my illustrations, that they all were of similar style and colour. Below are my black line drawings, and the coloured in versions, which I created using the watercolour paper textures and tinting them to the right colours.

I decided to colour the instructions in using 2 different grey tones, one for the back and one to represent the front of the paper, making it easier to understand the instructions. I then pasted these illustrations onto a  background which is now the coral texture background, which contrasts the foreground. I placed it on a rectangle which fitted at the bottom of the page, which was the correct size to then leave a square for the origami game. 

I then wrote out some brief instructions on how to play the game for the front of the insert.

I needed the game to be slighter than A4 so that it fitted nicely in the publication. Below is my finished insert.

I am really pleased with the look of this insert, think it fits well with the rest of my pages. My aim was not to make the illustrations look dull, I think I have succeeded in this, I think that look stylish and classic, whilst intriguing, and easier readable. 

Week 9- 25/11/16- Finishing Layout

This week as I was thinking of the layout of our publication, even though we had made a layout booklet of it, I reaslised that we were double page short. So I came up with the idea of creating another insert which becomes a poster. I write about on my page 'Top 10 Essentials' about trying to make your University room more like home by personalising it with photographs, decorations and fairy lights. So I decided to create a poster filled with polioid sized rectangles with captions underneath for people to add in their our photos. 

To do this I drew out some more illustrations of paper clips, bull dog clips and pegs, which will clip the drawn polcraid pictures to the drawn fairy light. The illustrations I drew are below. 

As before I coloured in the images following the same technique as before.

Below is my finished polaroid poster. I added some drawings of arrows and our logo at the bottom to fill out the page more so, and to make it more visually pleasing. I am rather please with this spontaneous poster, even though it is an edition and wasn't planned, I think it fits in well with the rest of the publication, and flows well with my other pages, as I have referred to it on those also. 

Week 10- 02/12/16- Laying out , amendments and printing experiments

This week we decided to started laying everything out using Indesign this was we would know if we need to add anything, or if we needed to adjust anything before our final print. 

For our business cards we are going to have an illustrated version of ourselves at the front. So hand drew mine and sagged it in using the same technique and colours as I have for the imagery on my other pages. Below is my self portrait. 

I like the style in which I have drawn myself as it does contain a graphic style which links well with my other illustrations, however I do not think it looks/resemble me, so in the future I need to work on creating a style I like but still being able to recognise the people, whom I'm drawing, when needed to. 

Combined with the background and Lizzie's self portrait this is the final page. 

Even though our illustration styles are completely different I don't think it draws your attention away, yes we could have possible have unified the colours more so, but personally I still think the page work together. 

Together we made our front cover. We had both collected lots of images that we thought represented, or at least were featured in student life, and reshaped them so they were ll squares, which I then collaged to fill a double page spread. We then added a large translucent coral coloured circle to the centre of the page, which would wrap around the front and the back of he publication drawing the front cover together. We then added out logo we had created for our design board on the front page and out logo beneath it. For the back we decided to add a blurb so reader can get and understanding of what out publication is about before reading it. Below is the final result. 

Personally I think that if we had more time we could have done more to this cover and perfected it. Some of the images are misaligned and I think they could have been edited better, but the overall look of the cover works well, I think the images make you look closer, which engages the reader encouraging reader to read further inside.

We then printed out a full colour test print, which we read though clearly and annotated what needed to be changing, any spelling mistakes, and any text/image pixelated/ miss print. Below are a few examples of my annotated version. Below is an example of out annotated test print. 

Admittedly we had a fair few spelling and grammatical errors, that as creators we hadn't noticed as we had been looking at the pages for so long, we hadn't noticed, so by handing it to somebody else, with a fresh pair of eyes they were able to see the faults. 

After completing multiply test prints we have decided that we will print the inner pages of our publication on newsprint, with the colour textures as backgrounds for each of the pages, which will give it a handmade feel, and we will then print the outer cover on a thicker piece of cartridge paper, which has a slight shine to it. Below are some example of our experiments.

Printed on Newsprint- what we shall be using for the inner pages 

Gloss cartridge paper- used for the front cover 

Week 11- 9/12/16- Final printing

This week as everything was set we made our final checks and began printing our publications.

Here are our folded copies

We have also printed why inserts, the fortune teller I printed on newsprint paper, this way is merged well with the other pages, and the paper is tin enough so you could fold it. My coupons and and the business I printed on the same paper as we are printing the cover on, which is white cartridge paper, which has a shine to it. I wasn't able to print the coupons or business cards double sided, so the shapes similar didn't match up, so in the end I ended up printed both sides of them separating and gluing them together. I was surprised as they didn't look messy, and because it was two sheets of cartridge paper glued together the coupons were a lot thicker and actually looked more professional and sturdy. 

My inserts I printed out, which I then had to cut and stick the coupons and the business

The following day we decided to print our newspaper and all if the inserts. We had cut down our newspaper, and had counted enough of the other paper so we could produce all ten copies. 

When I was looking at the inner pages I had creates, which was my polaoid paster page, and my origami insert, I felt that it needed some kind of explanation of what you should could create using the poster, or possible some ideas of inspiration to decorate/personalis your University room, as I had mentioned on my page 'Top 10 University Essentials' so I decided to create another insert. So it didn't look like a last minute add on I create my insert shaped as a polaroid which aligned perfectly with the polaroid on the poster, meaning that the aesthetics of the page. Below are the print out of my polaroid inserts. 

I printed these double sided and simple printed the texture coral background on the reverse, just so it wasn't so plain. I then attached these to the poster agin using glue dots so you are able to easily remove the insert, without damaging the paper. Below is the final newspaper including all the inserts. 

I was really pleased with the outcome of this double spread, I was concerned with what it would look like as it wasn't a page we had planned. The only thing I wish I had done was to print my insert on either newsprint or off white card, as its does stand out, and may look a little distracting. I think if i chad printed it using the newsprint it would have just sank into the poster, which I want it to do and the paper would have been to thin to support its self, but maybe if i'd have used off white cartridge paper it may have fitted it better with the page.

The next step was to fold all of our sheets and inserts. We planned to sew our publication together, because we had so many different sized inserts we thought it would be easier to line up everything. Our first attempt was to use the sewing machine, but when I tried sewing the newsprint together, because the paper was so thin the needle was ripping the paper. So we then had to brain storm other ideas.

We then discussed how you can make handmade sketchbooks, where you hand sew the signatures together, by punching equally paced holes which can then be used to sew the book together. As we had so many test prints we decided to try it, and it was a success. 

To make sure that it was accurate together we measured exactly where the holes were doing to be punched on all the pages, cover, and all the inserts, which was tricky as they were all slightly different sizes. We then went onto sew all of our publication together. 

Our next job was to stick in all of my coupons and our business cards. As I had already have pre cut them all it didn't take a long time, all we simply had to do was using the glue dots stick them in the right places. I was really pleased with the look of my 'Top 10 Essential' page I think the coupons added another element to the page, creating a more interesting, and interactive feel to it. However, the only thing that I wish I had changed is I should have swapped the grey coupon for one of the coral ones, so the colours were integrated better. 

This is my least favourite page we have created I really like the idea and look of our business cards, but I think we should have taken more care matching the different shades of coral. I also think that we should have looked at how the different paper worked together as when printed on the white paper the imagery is rather bright, when compared to the images printed on the newsprint which has dulled down the colour. This means that in some cases on these pages the different pages had altered the colours, even though we both used the same colour shades, have changed the colours so much that it looks like totally different tones. 

Our final step was to add in Lizzie's check list, which we were planning on creating an envelop to slot it into but, felt that it would be better attach is using 2 glue dots. Otherwise if it was in an envelop if the publication was turned upside down the checklist would fall out. 

This is my favourite of my pages. It doesn't contain any fancy inserts it has simply just been printed, however I really love the layout, this was a very experimentary page, and I wasn't certain how it was going to appear, but think this page is well balanced and looks aesthetically pleasing to the eye, so it reads easily. 

We then tied all 10 copied of the newspaper together. We are now ready to hand them in on the 14/12/16.

Week 11- 12/12/16

Evaluation

Overall, think our publication and the process we undertook to get there was a huge success. Both of us have learnt a lot about one another, how we communicate, our organizational skills, and how we work under the pressure of deadlines. We had successful faced very obstacle/challenging moment we came across, like how we were actually going to print our publication, as our initial idea of using coloured paper had failed, and trying to use the sewing machine which was unsuccessful, but together we managed to bind the book perfectly.

The research part of the module came fairly naturally, most of the time I didn’t realise that I was actually researching, and analyzing others work. We started off by researching existing publications for inspiration and together because of our visual research we were quickly able to invent a theme of geometric shapes and a colour theme, which drew all of our pages together, so it looked like a complete publication rather than individual pages. I don’t usually work digitally and so it was quite a challenge for the both of us to do to so. So my researching some InDesign and Photoshop tutorial I have learnt a lot about working digitally, and have definitely accomplished my aim of developing my digital skills, which I can then transfer to the rest of my illustrative practice. In order to gain an insight into the products and paper that were available we were encouraged to order some paper samples, by ordering and figuring out the costing of having our publication printed by the ‘Newspaper Club’ we eliminated this option as it was too expensive for us, and truthfully didn’t really fit the style/reader we were trying to portray with our publication. So we then order some sample cartridge paper as we knew we would have a buy paper for printing in house. Even though printing on the coloured paper didn’t really work, we then were able to overcome this obstacle and the coloured paper actually came into use, as backgrounds for our pages. Creating our design board, really started to allow us to see our ideas come together, we could therefore see what elements worked, what didn’t and what we needed to add.

Idea development, developed one its own, once we had established a theme and colour theme, we both set out creating our layouts and pages, we then got together and discussed what we had done and if we needed to change anything to match the others persons pages better. This happened with my illustrations Lizzie’s were rather delicately drawn, whereas mine were very graphic with strong vivid colours, so I compensated and changed my slightly so they became softer to fit it was Lizzie’s better so that our publication looked as one, and not just separate pages. We were both engaged and motivated with the project, we generated ideas from each other, were open to suggestion, helped one another with our pages, and collectively worked on some of the communal pages this then kept the idea and publication fresh and unique. It didn’t feel like a slog or hard work, and the work load was continuous, and even though we had challenges, together we were able to overcome them. Another great thing was that we allowed each other create create our pages by ourselves, and layout the aesthetics as we choose, which gave us the freedom to produce pages that we had visualized and liked.

Our progress each week was steady, every week we would meet up and check our progress, discuss and decision that needed to be made, and then discussed what we would like to aim for the following week. This way we stayed on track, and aided by our tutor, following the this meant that even though we had some problems on the way, because we were on track we were able to resolve them without halting our progress too much. The tutorial really helped us to discuss any problems we were having and feed from the knowledge of our tutor. It was in one of our tutorial where our tutor gave us the idea of using tabs to insert our inserts and bind our publication by sewing down the fold. Even though this idea wasn’t a smooth success we overcame this though brain storming ideas under pressure, and though our knowledge of book binding we were able to come up with a solution. By making notes on lectures, any tutorial meetings we had and keeping hold of any handouts, and by documenting our progress using photos, it was fairly easy to see our progression, and backtrack to previous ideas for inspiration, which has therefore made it easier to showcase our journey on this blog. As we had kept to our time schedule we were able to complete our newspaper over a week early this then gave us plenty of time to collect all of the information we needed to complete our blog.

We are thrilled without finished product, I was concerned that we wouldn’t be able to pull it off with all of the extra inserts and the handmade touches but I think the majority of it was a success. The only thing I wish we had spent more time on way making sure that our colours were the same, and some of the coral tones are different due to the different types of papers we were using. I think as novices using digital software we have done quite well in creating a successful publication, it was due to our research that we were able to create some interesting layouts, meaning that the visions of what our pages would look like came to life. Without this research our pages would have been habited by our technical skill, and wouldn’t have look as sleek or professional as they do, in my opinion. We shared the work load out equally, I seemed to have understood the digital layouts and editing, whereas Lizzie’s was very talented when it came to the actually making of the process, she was very quick and productive, whereas I took care of most of the digital aspects. I really like the handmade touches to our newspaper, like the unique to every publication coupons and the way that we have sewn them together, this adds a special touch to the paper, showing that we have spent time in creating a quality product, rather than just simple printing them out of the printer.

Admittedly I wasn’t looking forward to working in a team, due to poor past experiences, which when I teamed up with Lizzie we gelled immediately, and I think we have produced a quality mass produced project, in the short space we had. I think that it was because our teamwork, and motivational attitude that I managed to exceed my aims at the start of the project, which was simple to mass produce a product which I was pleased with, learn more about the publication industry which I have and learn more about the digital software, which I definitely have, in my opinion.

My favourite part of the journey was seeing the product come to life, from when we gathered all of our pages together and could see them laid out in InDesign, it felt that though all our hard work we were actually creating something physical. But the best part was seeing all of our printed pages and inserts in piles, it was a proud moment to think that we had created all of those, and that the final step was simple just sewing them all together, into a single object.

Overall this module had been a success. The final product is much better than I thought I could have been, as I did have some concerns throughout. Lizzie has taught me a lot, I have learnt more about the physical construction of the product from her, which was definitely her strength, and have got to know her better, and how her though process work, which I will definitely take on board. I believe we have covered every aspect that we could have in order to achieve a good grade for this module, we have worked well a a duo, completed a lot of research both secondary and primary, and have produced 10 products which were a success. I will take everything that I have learnt throughout this process forward to the other areas of my illustrative practice.