Thursday 8th November

The start of the day was too do a group critique. We got separated into groups, and we were showing our work. There was a spreadsheet on google sheets that we wrote 3 positives and 3 point of actions for each person. We ended up doing it in pairs as it was a group of 7 of us, and we felt it was easier to talk amongst two people. The points that I was given was

3 Positives:

• Not overthinking the design process. This is one that I gave myself, and I wanted it to be recorded. I am always overthinking the design process ever since I joined the Foundation during the diagnostic stage. This is because I was so worried about how my work compared to others, even though I shouldn’t, because everyone has their own style of work, but I felt really embarrassed by it. However, during the entire book making process, I went with the flow, I didn’t overthink and I felt that it made my book so much better as I was concentrating in the moment instead of the final product.
• The designs connected with the manifesto. This is what one of my peers gave me as a positive critique. One of her comments was that the images related to what the manifesto was saying and the images looked visually good. The example she gave was how when I was comparing black and white to colour, the manifesto was saying the same thing, and it looked like it flowed together which is what I wanted, and I am quite proud of myself for that. I am happy that the critique happened as it really helped me.
• Writing over images. On the end page of my manifesto I have a paragraph of writing quite spread out over the page, and underneath is one of my images. I changed the opacity so that most were visible in the same area and I actually really like it. I think it looks good the last page. However, on the front page, the same thing has been done but in a different part of the page, the image is underneath the writing but towards the edge of the paper.

3 Points of Action:

• End Paper. While doing the Lino printing, I think I was using too much ink on my stamp, and therefore the ink was taking an extremely long time to dry. When the book came together, the end paper kept sticking together and when opening the book, there was a struggle, and then the paper did kind of rip and there are a few patches where the paper has come apart. It makes end paper look a little bit scruffy. Therefore, when it comes to making my next book, or even creating Lino printing, I will make sure there is barely any ink on the stamp as the saying goes ‘less is more’.
• Drawings. I have always known I am extremely digital within my work, I enjoy creating digital images using photography or creating images on Illustrator and Photoshop. I thought that I could expand on my digital skills and try actually drawing some images if I were to do it again, or even in the future. Just to try and practise my drawings by hand as I know that it isn’t my strong suit. I do want to try and learn how to be a better drawing because I feel like it could improve my thoughts as a designer.
• Layout. I am good at laying out the design on a page in a typical format, however if I want to be noticed for my designs, I think that creating different, unique and unusual page layouts would make the page look more interesting, and different that it would grab peoples attention.

The next part of the session was to create a dusk jacket for the book. This was created on  Illustrator. This was difficult as I had to change the measurements of the booklet after the first printing, to be able too fit my booklet correctly. I wanted to be free within the design so I didn’t think about it at all. I just went with the flow. This is because this was part of my design manifesto to not overthink a design.

The way the design cover looks is that they are both front covers. I wanted this techniques because it seemed different. The two pages are completely different, and this enabled the reader to think about what is going on on each page. I just felt like having two covers looking like they are both front covers was unique. I made sure that I used the same colour scheme.

I did enjoy doing this because I enjoy designing covers. I only had about an hour to do this, so it wasn’t as good as I would of hoped for if I had a lot more time. If I had more time, I was thinking of doing drawings and scanning them into using them on my front cover because that was part of my 3 actions to do for the future of creating a book.