Design Practise 2: Studio Brief 1- Research Book Concept Crit

For our Crit, we were put into small groups (I was in Group 3). There was 2 parts to our crit; the first part being where we got to talk about our work and discuss it verbally as a group and the second part being that we went around the table, giving written feedback for each others work.

Work for Crit

I discussed in my crit that I was very uncertain in regards to a format for the book and that I had 2 main ideas which I mentioned being either a flip book or a fold out map. I showed them my mock-up concepts for packaging and I showed that I had been experimenting with layout and aesthetic styles for potential ways of showing the information. However, the main thing that was I was stuck and needed some guidance into what direction I should go into.

For the written element of the feedback, I wanted to be able to get some specific feedback based on the problems I discussed so I wrote some questions that I wanted feedback on. The questions I gave for the written element of the brief were;

• Which format should I produce my information in? Have you any suggestions of your own as to format I should consider?
• Illustrative or Photographic/ Editorial style?
• Which idea/display of packaging would go well with my topic of Chester Zoo? Are there any other forms of packaging I should consider?
• Based on the experimentation on my laptop, which layout styles are the most successful?

These questions were important for me to get answered as I needed to get some direction.

For the written feedback, we had to fill in our comments based on the areas of feedback on the feedback sheet. This is my feedback:

Feedback Sheets

The feedback I got was useful as it gave me a wider scope of thing to think about and consider within the way I resent the information in my book.

In regards to my packaging, having it in the style of a Zoo Gate was the most successful overall as it was mentioned that it would be the most practical and probably the strongest in regards to holding the book within it. However, it was evenly matched in regards to which of the 2 designs to use so I think this would be something that I would have to try out and produce motte mock ups for. It was also mentioned as a suggestion that I should consider a thicker stock card for the actual packaging so it is less likely to get damaged. Despite that, my packaging ideas were heavily commented on as being creative and relevant to the topic.

Another strong element of the feedback was that more people felt that illustrations would be a more appropriate form of imagery yet it was mentioned that the photographs and illustrations would work together and would appeal to both adult and children audiences.

Referencing formats, I was suggested to maybe look at existing zoo leaflets and promotional material to get some ideas for formats. It was mentioned that the idea of having a format which is more interactive, like a map, would be beneficial to an overall design as a book would make the information in danger of coming across like a school textbook which would loose interest.

The group had a look at the experimental layouts I had produced and noted down ones that they preferred or felt that I should push further. It was mentioned however that I should continue to experiment with colour usage and I should be careful with the amount of text that I include.