1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them? -       I have learnt much more about ways of researching, through the use of primary and secondary research, qualitative and quantitative. -       The correct way to reference when referring to research, set by Harvard referencing standard. -       Using trusted information sources, such as Google Scholar. -       An ability to critically evaluate a brand identity, and analyse certain design decisions. -       The overall ability to write well constructed and triangulated essays, based on careful analysis. -       Grammar, spelling and punctuation.
2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process? -       Working with different formats – For studio brief 2, I have worked with two formats that were new to me; an A5 publication and an A1 poster. I found both to be hugely beneficial. With an A5 publication, much has to be considered when working with space, as you don’t want the page to be too cluttered. Working on an A1 poster was difficult (as it needed to be viewed from distance as well as close up), meaning designing on a 15” laptop could not replicate it’s scale. -       Binding – I learnt how to create a unique Japanase stab stitch bind, and the unique and craft based quality it can give to a publication. -       Stock – I have learnt more about where stock can be sourced from, and innovate ways in which stock can break up a publication.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these? -       Research – If I’m interested in the topic (I should be if I’ve chosen it), I really get into researching the topic. This means I have a great foundation to work with, meaning I can develop strong concepts that work well with the information. -       Layout – I feel my ability to work with grids has hugely improved, which can mainly be seen with the A1 poster. I feel the information displayed on the poster was well considered and well communicated. I intend on experimenting with more infographics in the future, utilising type and grid. The same can be said for working with publications and layout.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future? Time management – If I’m honest, I should have been given more time to Studio Brief 2. I worked every waking minute at points of the project, meaning I left my self very little time for a break or time to relax. The outcome was better much better than I had expected or planned, and took the same amount of time as I expected. However, this wasn’t spread appropriately. In the future I shall continue to use a calendar to plan when I work, but be stricter on filling it in.  Booking slots (photography & print) – This has been much less of a struggle than last year, but still something I need to consider. Ideally, I would like to get my work printed in the digital dungeon in the future, but slots at this time of year are booked over 3 weeks in advance. Next year I shall book print slots this early on, so I don’t have to use a printer outside of university.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? Try to attend all of the studio sessions. In terms of lectures and seminars, I wasn’t bad with attendance. However, due to a serious family issue, I had to rush home and missed a briefing. Obviously this could not have been controlled, but I’m hoping an issue like this doesn’t crop up again! Manage time better, meaning less stress, and the same amount of work.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance				x
Punctuality			x
Motivation					x
Commitment					x
Quantity of work produced				x
Quality of work produced				x
Contribution to the group					x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

Having printed the book, the next steps were to bind it: 

I allowed a 20mm margin for either Japanese stab stitch or binding folder clips, but chose to use Japanese stab stitch. I think this will allow the pages to open up easier, as I can bind closer to the spine. 

Piercing holes through each page:

The completed binding: 

Having researched into colour, branding and even the psychology of colour itself, I have decided this would be best contained in a book. 

There are several things I would like to explore:

Colour and Context

- Geographical Context and Colour - Does your climate / what you see affect how we perceive attraction to colour?

- Social Experiments - Do people all see colour the same, do they judge different under abnormal circumstances?

- Age and Colour - Does the age of a brand's audience interact better with certain colours?

- Language and Colour - Do some languages not have words for some colours?


Colour and Symbolism

- Associations of colour and different countries / continents. 


I set up an A5 InDesign document, with the below settings:

I also looked into the use of colourful stock (in relation to the topic title), and decided to get some pastel stock, as seen below:

As you can see below, I simulated pastel stock in use. I intend on using either Japanese stab stitch binding or using binding folder clips. This means the pages will not need re ordering for print, as they are essentially a stack. 

I used Adobe Caslon Pro at pt. size 36 to create points that stand out, and used the same modular grid on each spread. 

The contents were split up into subsections in a formal manner. I chose to do so as I wanted the publication to appear highly informative. 

The cover will be printed on two different stocks, the yellow onto of the orange. 

Final Document

I transferred the A1 design of the colour wheel across into InDesign. 

Creating Grids

I decided on bodycopy pt size 10, with 12pt leading. This meant I could set up a 12pt baseline grid. I also set up a 5 column spread, after working out how to divide the 250 companies into 4 columns. The fifth column will be for findings of the data. 

(the image appears pixelated below as I lowered the quality of images in InDesign to make the software run quicker)

Filling in all the numbered ranks:

Filling in all the names:

I found a quicker way of working was to refer to the table on brandirectory.com whilst typing. 

The original information showed data in USD, but I am appealing to a British audience. For this reason I used the latest 2014 pound to dollar exchange rate, at 1 USD - £0.5921

Examples of exchanges in millions: 

Adding colour codes:

This task was simple, I simply used the eyedropper tool to select the colour to fill the box. 

Some logos (such as the DHL logo) use multiple colours. This is also shown in the colour coding, and also interprets the percentage of each colour. 

Finished Columns:

Adding Statistics

I came up with these figures myself, based on the data within the columns. The first pie chart was to illustrate the most popular colours. I used the colour code to find out how many brand logos / logotypes were blue, how many in red, etc. 

This information was important into a pie chart at infogr.am, a website which turns your data into an inforgraphic. I could have done this by hand, but I found this way to be much more accurate and quicker. The resulting pie chart was then image traced and placed within the poster. 

Single coloured logos vs 2+ colours: 

I chose to add a gradient to show multiple colours, whilst grey represents a single colour logo / logotype: 

 The final pie chart consisted of the use of primary colours (red, yellow, blue) against the use of secondary colours (orange, purple, green).

Final Poster