OUGD501 - Final Evaluation

In the feedback of the final publication, overall, it was considered that the designs work to provide direct links between the practical work and critical awareness presented in the context of practice essay. One of these things is the colour scheme present within the publication. It was thought that this works well to provide consistency in the publication, as well as representing the consistency in much design today produced as a result of objective approaches to design. This was considered to be a not-so obvious choice and so was thought to be a clever idea to provide an element of playfulness in the design of the publication.

Another strong point which was considered was the use of content - there is lots of it and plenty of images. It was thought these work well to enhance the arguments presented in the essay as written content, which shows such arguments in practice. These design decisions therefore also effectively show how critical awareness of graphic design theory has helped inform the development of the practical work.

In terms of typography as one of the main elements of the final design, the use of default fonts was initially thought to be uninformed, however actually links directly to a quote present within the essay, which after be an interesting decision. Despite decisions like these being interestingly informed, other parts such as the handwritten elements (although subjective) do not necessarily fit in with the overall aesthetic of the publication. In developing this further, these elements of type should therefore also be made digital in order to provide consistency with the rest of the design decisions.

In the final printing production of the publication, standard printer paper was used along with a saddle stitch method to use a similar process informed by the way in which most individual, personal zines are produced. However, potentially the publication could have been printed onto a glossier stock of paper to match that of typical magazines which have been used to inform more of the designs, such as Ray Gun magazine and Design Anarchy from Adbusters. In binding these papers together, a perfect bind could have also potentially been used to match the bind of most books now, however, it was considered that saddle stitch continued to work best in representing features of a magazine. One particular problem faced in the printing production, however, was that colour had not been replicated as well as it showed on-screen, therefore leaving some of the brighter colours duller and with a slight striped effect. Despite this, this effect could be seen to add an extra element of subjectivity to the publication in that the process was unintentional and unmanipulated by a person physically.