OUGD502: Studio Brief 2 - Design Strategy Presentation: Portfolio Preview

OUGD502 Studio Brief 2 - Design Strategy Presentation

Portfolio Preview

Aesthetic 

I developed my creative report for brief one I liked the aesthetic styling of the result so much I wanted to extent it onto my portfolio preview, the minimal design pairs contemporary serif and sans-serif faces simple playing around with the justification and placing it on different coloured stocks. The pages showing work use a nice juxtaposition of text and image to balance the spreads preventing them form looking busy and over designed. 

Development

I went through extensive development to create the best quality resolution that would be suitable to present to studios/clients. I got a number of students to proof read the body copy, which was really helpful as they identified a number of dramatic errors I overlooked and even made suggestions to improve the copy. This was lucky as it would look very unprofessional sending studios promotional materials with errors. I also experimented with different stock, I trailed printing on grey stock however this effected the colour of the images making it less suitable for this publication. Finally I initially wanted to hand stitch the binding of each book to make it more tactile and personal however after experimenting with a simple staple bound book found this looked more professional and resulted in less chance of human error, especially if printing multiple copies to send at once. 

Experimentation

Stock and binding development

The final publication is printed on GF Smith stock as the tactile nature of this stock raises the overall quality which will appeal to the specialist nature of the my audience who will appreciate the specialist attention to detail. I printed the final resolution on Colourplan natural 135 gsm and experimented with powder grey and azure blue covers. Evaluating the final resolutions I ultimately prefer the grey cover however this demonstrates how well this aesthetic could work if developed over a series for example, preview, full portfolio, case study, cv all with different covers to distinguish them. 

Feedback 

I asked tutors for feedback and they were impressed with the concept and development of my promotional pack. One tutor said 'I like the tone of voice, its nice and laid back without sounding too formal or invasive, more "this is me let me know if you like it" the design is nice too its quite minimal and not over designed which complements this tone of voice makes it easy to read' another tutor said 'I like the scale, its a nice size to just offer to people without it feeling to substantial or difficult to read, you can just put one in your pocket and offer it out at the end of a studio visit/ interesting conversation. I am happy with the outcome of my promotional materials, I feel its representative of my place within the emerging industry at present offering a succinct and informal overview of me as a creative. The aesthetic is minimal and works well with the tone of voice to create a publication I feel confident showing to studios/clients.