Type

The most recent session was about readability of body copy and how it can be manipulated across different amounts of columns, was really helpful and again, will contribute to the publication. (Which is beginning to demand some mindset put upon it.)

A limitation would have to be how you use the leading as something too spaced out can affect the tone of voice of the copy, also tight leading can have an adverse effect - but this all depends on what it is the reader is looking at. E.g, a short informal paragraph has different limitations to a longer more formal paragraph.

Instead of putting up screenshots up here, i'm printing out all the session work and im going to label it and attach notes for hand in. I think this will show a more coherant understanding of this than a blog entry can.

That's another thing graham has been teaching: Hard copy is invaluable when it comes to type!

ta

Indesign Workshop

So as I have been doing with the other workshops, here's my rave review on the Indesign workshop. This entry will be more instructional as I feel that it will help me in the long run to gather things like this on an online document format until I'm comfortable with practising them. These points are here to reiterate and also because these workshops a really good starting point and source of info for the 16 page publication.

• Paper Sizes: Always make your document the size of the finished, printed product. (makes sense really)
• Gutter = Space between columns
• Margin guides = consistant white space around page edges
• Bleed = when print needs to extend over the page edge (- eg a full page photo spread in a publication.)
• Print an A4 print onto an A3 page for best results. (Same with A3 on A2 etc.)
• Slug = extra space for printing crop marks etc.

Some limitations:

• Using a font when sending a document to a commercial printers is effectively illegal, who'd have guessed?
• DPI resolution should be 300.

so there you have it - all this stuff is good to know and is contributing to my publication nicely :)

ta

what is good? start up to present. (Meditation)

So the blog has been neglected recently because I have been throwing myself into this research brief, but I want to basically do a massive entry showing whats been going on with the project and where I am with it now.

So My group did some lists, and we were quite a mixed group so we came up with some quite mixed responses- from Nelson mandela to class B drugs...

So after the session, I was sure that I wanted to pick Meditation as my good, for two reasons, I'm interested in where this can go as a design project, and that it's already going places in a personal sense.

So, I did some more brainstorms and realised that from the ideas, stereotypes and other stigmas attached to meditation, (cults, middle age nutters etc) - it would be a good idea for me to take this on in a health and social sense and promote the health benefits and also show how meditation improves the mental aspects of someones persona, eg improves confidence.

In the days leading up to the presentation my research broadened and I started looking into articles from the NHS website and the TM (transcendtal meditation) program website, which outline the clear health benefits and also other benefits like creativity etc. From here I made a research file which I'm still adding to in order to further broaden my knowledge.

After doing the presentation I was suprised that it was recieved so well and a few people asked me afterwards how do I meditate? This was a massive help and I think some questionaires are neccessary (sorry guys.)

I know what questions I need to be asking:

• If you knew how, would you meditate?
• Have you ever meditated?
• What do you assosciate meditation with?
• Do you know who you are?

So just before I end this gargantuan entry, We got the second half of the brief after the presentations and I'm getting excited about it because an idea has been slowly developing through the course of this research side of the brief, that strangely seems to mesh with this second half perfectly. I dont want to rush this idea into existance though, so more research and a refined and collected design apporach is definitely gonna be important here!

ta

You can also get my Presentation from this link if you have an interest in what was said: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0T86WPM3

Photoshop Workshop

Another session with Mike today, I feel like ive really learnt alot again, just want to document a few things that I think will integrate into my print based publication ( this goes for the last two workshop review posts as well - failed to mention this before).

So yeah, learnt how to do duotone on images on photoshop, didnt know how to do this before and used to cut corners but doing it the real and right way looks so much more effective than a bodge job effort like I would have done in first year.

I also learnt that file formats actually do have a point to them! e.g, when you want to save an image and not lose any information for print, you save it as a TIFF file instead of a Jpeg, because a Jpeg is a lossy file format but is ok to use if emailing with. TIFF is much better to design with as you wont loose image quality. Also learnt that a Raw file is what cameras initially use before converting the images to Jpeg.

My eyes were opened to some of photoshops hidden treasures like channels today as well - same concept as layers except it is a selection tool of part of the image - e.g the highlights. Channels are sick man because you can use them in conjunction with finishing tecniques like spot varnish and flocking - two things that I want to consider when doing my publication.

I like to end these entries with A limitation (in a sense) so here's one!
In order to use duotone in photoshop, the image's colour mode first has to be converted into a greyscale image.

Bada bing, Bada boom.

Typography Workshop

Had my first typography workshop on Thursday, like I said about the illustrator workshop, I learnt alot of stuff I'd Never considered before.

I knew a bit about the personality of type, but Graham (The tutor) took this to a whole new level, by doing things like telling us all to pick a typeface for a word to convey an emotional link to the word through visual identification. e.g A Happy dog!

I've posted really just as a reminder to myself of this:

Type point sizes - 1 point is a 72nd of an inch, but 72 pt type is not an inch high! It's bigger because of typesetting methods.

Type in books is about 8 point because you hold it closer to your face than a magazine, who's font is typically a little bigger. Graham also told us that these fonts are generally small because of print limitations such as the cost of printing. The point size and overall content has to be considered and often condensed and rejigged to become cost effective for a print run. So again this is a limitation i have come across, the cost of the print run will often dictate the content and also point size of any given publication.