OUGD501 - Final Design Explained

The aim of the final publication was to produce a body of work which critically comapres the use of objective and subjective methods of graphic design, and how well they communicate an intended message. In this publication, the content of the written essay has been used to show how this has had a direct impact on the development of a body of practical work.

The overall layout of the publication finds a happy medium between both objective and subjective methods of design, which has been used to communicate the conclusion of the essay that design does not have to be purely objective to be functional and hold purpose.Within this layout, an underlying grid system has been both used and broken to support the argument that a basic understanding of the principles of graphic design must be had to be able to break the rules.

In a similar sense, the principles of typesetting were also used in the publication through formatting the main areas of text into columns of two to present clarity of information. This was then combined with more subjective formats, such as overlaying text to give a more playful aspect to the publication that would potentially make it more engaging for the audience to look at since it adds a more personal, handmade touch to the design, which links to ideas presented by David Carson that suggests it is more important than ever that designers put more of themselves into their work.

Inspired by the other half of this quote by Carson, the default font Minion Pro was used for the main body text, suggesting the argument that designers have gotten lazy letting the computer make so many default decisions for them. This has been combined with the use of Helvetica, representative of the contrast between subjectivity and objectivity. Other elements have been handwritten, inspired by designs from Jonathon Barnbrook. This can be seen particularly in the cover of the publication and introductory quotes to each section, whereby the image of Van Toorn on the original cover of ‘The Debate’ has been scribbled over to represent the initial research question that asks if design has to be objective to be functional, and since Van Toorn is a subjective designer, initially it may be believed his designs hold no purpose, so was therefore removed from the cover.

The colour scheme of the publication has been inspired by the colours which were typically found to be used together when researching examples of Dutch graphic design, which in particular were red, yellow and black, used mainly in overlayed text. This was done to communicate the argument that so much graphic design today all looks the same, whilst adding an element of consistency throughout the publication.