Visiting Professional: Joe Gilmore / Publications (Brief 3)

As well as finding the invites shown to us by visiting professional Joe Gilmore from Quibk really inspiring and relevant to what I am doing, (see blog post), I also was impressed with his publication design. I'm a bit stuck with my publication design brief so seeing lots of examples of well designed, interesting pieces makes me more excited to get started, and gave me lots of ideas.

The publications are quite interesting because of a few factors, such as:

- a mix of different stocks in the same publication, sometimes to separate different sections, and to allow some pages to be printed with only one colour

- a mix of typefaces and styles can also keep things interesting and standing out from other publications

- a good quality cover can be simple but effective, especially the examples printed on to really nice quality textured fabric

- a subtle use of a print finish can make a really simple cover stand out

- don't just print on to paper, really consider stock choice and its relevance to the piece

- experiment with different types of binding, such as spiral bound books for a change

- people will love to interact with publications with fold out pages 

- the colour choice is really important and a special spot colour may be what makes a piece stand out

Visiting Professional: Joe Gilmore / Invites (Brief 4)

Joe of Qubik design was our visiting professional today. A lot of Joe's work was actually relevant to the two briefs I haven't finished yet so I found myself making loads of notes about how I could improve my work inspired by some of the things Joe has done. I've also made a blog post about the publication design.

Qubik

The work is quite different to my style, but I am really interested in graphic design like this, with a focus on typography and the grid. Its been one of my targets to work more on these skills and this is something I want to work on again for fmp. 

A mix of typefaces and styles in one design can work really well instead of using an image, which I would normally just automatically go for.

The choice of stock is so important in making an invite stand out, but also keeping it relevant to what you are inviting people too. Subtle print finishes or special spot colours can make the invite seem more luxurious and interesting to the person who receives it. Also, the invites don't need to be the typical a5 size, as a few examples show how well the square format also works.

There are lots of examples of invitation design for the cultural sector on the Qubik website, which are all very relevant to me. The examples have made me think about how I am laying out the information, and to keep things neat to a grid and simple. I've also thought of a few things I need to include on the invite from these examples.

PPD... Branding Inspiration

When starting to create my branding for my business cards, I looked back on business cards that I have collected from degree and design shows. I wanted to make sure I was including everything I needed to, and I wanted to see what had worked and what didn't on other peoples. I was quite surprised how many cards didn't have a website or how many had inaccurate details on them so I will double check mine before sending them to print.

I like this idea as its really clever, as this is the business stationery for Ben Brand, and the image is his name on a branding iron. These things might only work if you have a surname that can be relevant, but its made me think about creating the text in some other way than just typing the letters out on the computer. My idea was to create my letters in 3d and photograph them in different surroundings. This is all about thinking outside the box to get an idea that stands out.

These photographs are of my business card wall I have made in my bedroom for constant branding inspiration! I don't want to copy off what has been done before, but just looked at all these business cards can help me think about new ideas.

These are the business cards from past LCA graduates that I think work particularly well. I am considering using print finishes such as foil, spot varnish, duplexing etc in my business cards. I also like that some of the cards are a bit unusual, such as the few that are screen printed. I think these would be quite difficult to make but would stand out from the rest.