Below is the presentation which we gave on friday. It consists of three diferent Ideas:

1. The Sauce - A parody news sauce which uses humour to make the audience read more.
2. Tongue Twisted Tweets - A campaign that creates tongue twisters from the news headlines which the audience can interact with by trying to say them.
3. Type & I - A blog that focuses around type and provides interviews with designers and features students work.

The presentation went well. We got a lot of surprising feedback. Tongue Twisted Tweets was the favourite idea, although we think this is due to us not pitching the last idea particularly well as it was one of our more recent ideas and hadn't been fully developed. We have chosen to take forward 'Type & I' for this project as we felt it was the strongest idea and has potential to continue after the brief is over.

As a group we decided to begin creating some design work for each of our ideas. We chose to create a informal design and an informal design so that we could see how the tone of voice could be interpreted by the viewer. Below are some of our sketches.

Beth chose to draw the 'Sauce' name on a banner which is a formal style that is very popular with students. It shows that the campaign doesn't take itself too seriously.

Another name was 'jello' which is a reference to 'yellow journalism'. some more of Beths drawings combine the name with an illustration of jelly.

Working on Beths drawings I mocked up an idea for a website layout giving the impression of a 3d flag with a 'sauce' dripping down into the 'tubs'/news stories. We decided that the swirlier font (lobster) was more appropriate to the target audience, whereas the other (dekar) looked too serious.

Below are some other ideas that I mocked up with the same considerations. The tone of voice is very difficult to pin as we can't to look like a serious magazine talking about silly subjects.

Below are some sketches and mock-up ideas for tongue twisted tweets. We considered possibly incorporating the letter T because its the initials for the campaign, and a mouth/tongue.

Another idea we have got for a viral campaign is to makes tongue twisters out of headlines and things in the news to interest the reader more and give them a link to the full story.

A few examples we came up with are below:

Cumberbatchs CGI Smaug classified as character with most substantial coinage
Full story here
Collaboration of Ukrain coppers kill copious crowds in Kiev
Full story here
Politically incorrect Putin petrified by paired penises  or  Putin purposefully purges paired penises
Full story here
Crazy capsuled creature keychains create controversy in China
Full story here

Initial names for the campaign led us to "tongue twister tweets". The platform we would base the project on would be twitter, but could also create some printed flyers with some tongue twisters and a qr code link to our twitter page.

A tagline for this campaign could be "Read it. Say it. Twist it. Share it." as after all we want them to be shared and talked about as much as possible

Vanessa set up a survey to find out more information about peoples reading habits with questions we agreed as a group.

The statistics have helped us know more about peoples reading habits. We are considering creating a fake news source, but it would have to have a bit of truth to it, as many people believe it is important to keep up to date with the news.

"Sketching is used as a thinking tool in the design process, for outlining initial ideas at both the macro and micro level. At the macro level, sketching can be used to produce an initial design idea or concept. Sketching can also be used to resolve aspects such as book pagination and roughing out layouts without getting into typographic details and final positioning. Sketching at the micro level can be used to refine elements of a design prior to the final work-up; for resolving the key details of a logo."

Here I have taken a double page spread and traced the lines of the grid that the components of the page sit on.

 I have then identified what each component of the page is on the tracing paper so that I can see where it is when I take the page away. What we are left with is a large thumbnail diagram of the layout of the page. We have worked backwards in this way, so can instead in future create thumbnails for our content and then mock them up on the computer afterwards.

We created a to scale version of our layout on a rice of paper, and used a diagonal line from one corner to the other to create a thumbnail of the spread with the same size ratio. This makes it easier to make the thumbnail more accurate.

Here are some thumbnails of how the previously shown content of the double page spreads can be re-arranged on a 3 column grid system.

Below I have enlarged one of the pictures as this can't really be done with the text.

Another way to fill space is to enlarge the title or leave space for the writers name. Alternatively we could use the white space for a more clear layout

 The thumbnails aren't particularly accurate, but you can get a good sense of where the content is. There will always be changes that will have to be made on the computer.

One of the questions I have chosen to answer in my book is "What are main anatomical features of type?". It was Mollys task to research this within our group. Here are her findings.

What are main anatomical features of type?

This image shows the full glossary of the anatomy of type. However the main and most important ones are;

Counter - The space within in the letter 

X Height - The height of the lower case letters

Base line - The line the letters sit on

Cap Height - The highest point of the letters, where the stem                  stops also

Terminal - Where the letter stops

Cross Bar - The bar within the capital A and e

Serif - The bracket that is on some fonts

Lobe - The loop of g's and such letters

Ascender - The line of a letter that goes up

Descender - The line of a letter that goes down

Stem -The longest line of the a letter

One of my chosen questions for my book is 'what are diferent point sizes suitable for?". Katie was part of my group and was set this as one of her questions to research. Below is her research with some more of my own.

What are the different point sizes suitable for? 

I found a few websites which linked into this question. The first website link explains how different point sizes work with different readerships. A good quote for this is "one size does not fit all" basically meaning you can't use the same point sizes all the time as you have to consider things such as target audience. 

Type Size

Here's How:

1. Choose a font size that is easy to read.
   The younger and the older your target audience, the larger the type size should be for comfortable reading. Getting older doesn't necessarily mean poor eyesight for everyone; however, declining vision is a common side effect of aging.
2. Use larger font sizes for most older audiences.
   For a predominantly older readership of 65 and over or for audiences with known visual handicaps, set body text in sizes from 14 to 18 points. Avoid tiny print.
3. Use an 11 to 12 point type size for readers in the 40-65 age range.
4. 10 to 11 points is a safe choice for most audiences.
   For most general audiences, body copy type size at 10 or 11 points is good. Start with this size when your target audience is unknown or covers a large range of adult readers.
5. Use larger fonts for children.
   For young children or beginning readers of any age, a larger type size around 14 points is good.
6. Use larger font sizes for headlines.
   Keep headlines between 14 and 30 points in most cases, keeping in mind that the closer in size to the body text, the harder it is to distinguish headlines from other text.

Tips:

1. Know your audience.
   First and foremost, know your audience. Some groups might resent the automatic assumption that they can't see well enough to read "normal" type sizes of body text.
2. Use incremental point sizes.
   Some software allows you to use incremental point type sizes such as 11.5. If 10 point type size seems too small and 11 point is too large, try a point type size in between.
3. Actual and apparent size of fonts can vary greatly.
   Some fonts at 11 points appear visually larger than other fonts at the same type size. While 11 point type is generally a good text size, it may be too small or too large for your selected font. Experiment with other type sizes.

I have looked a a variety of single and double page spreads to see the grid that the layout sits on. It is interesting to see how many of the grids work across multiple pages and spreads throughout the rest of the magazine. I have recently started reading the book below, which gives the reader a much greater understanding of how grids work ad how they should be used. a section from the book titled "what is the purpose of a grid?" reads:

"The grid is used by the typographer, graphic designer, photographer and exhibition designer for solving visual problems in two and three dimensions. The graphic designer and typographer use it for designing press advertisements, brochures, catalogues, books, periodicals etc... By arranging the surfaces and spaces in the form of a grid the designer is favourably placed to dispose his text, photographs and diagrams in conformity with the objective and functional criteria."

"Information presented with clear and logically set out titles, subtitles, text, illustrations and captions will not only be read quickly and easily but the information will also be better understood and retained in the memory."

 Layout Essentials is another book which I have found useful as it gives many examples of layouts in use.

Here are the layouts which I have identified from existing magazines and newspapers.

The 3 column grid works across both pages here.

An Idea I had to for this brief which I think would make people read more is focus around inspirational quotes. We could create posters, bookmarks, stickers, a twitter account and much more that display inspirational quotes and encourage people to read more. A nice slogan that Mo came up with is simply 'read more..' which is often displayed when a piece of text is hidden on websites. This slogan could be incorporated into this idea easily. 

Here are a few of my favourite quotes that a quite thought provoking:

Some found at:

 http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2013/05/28/inspirational-quotes/

https://twitter.com/Inspire_Us

http://addicted2success.com/quotes/37-inspirational-quotes-that-will-change-your-life/

1. Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. –Albert Einstein
2. Be the change you want to see in the world. - Ghandi
3. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.  –Robert Frost
4. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. –Wayne Gretzky
5. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore, Dream, Discover. –Mark Twain
6. Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. –Pablo Picasso
7. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. –Maya Angelou
8. The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. –Mark Twain
9. Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. –George Addair
10. When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life.  When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I wrote down ‘happy’.  They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life. –John Lennon
11. Everything has beauty, but not everyone can see. –Confucius
12. Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. –Joshua J. Marine
13. A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. – Albert Einstein
14. The only way to do great work is to love what you do. –Steve Jobs
15. Don't tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon. - Brandt Paul 
16. Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a fucking sharp knife to it. - Bansky
17. An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - Ghandi

Sitting down with my group (Me, Vanessa, Beth, Mo and Ryan) we brainstormed some initial ideas of what we could do for this 'viral' brief. Our challenge is to make people read more.

we have to consider:

our intentions

Making people read more books, websites etc.

Make people read lips.

Make people read facial expressions.

tone of voice

Inform

Interest

Shock

Comedic

Inspire

methods of achieving our goal

Twitter 

Leaflets

Stickers

Bookmarks

Website

Video

Stall

Book Swap

Target Audience

Students (don't read much because of time and money)

People who already read

What we want people to read

News stories

Short stories

Inspirational quotes

Comic Book

Illustrations

Tweets

Blogs

We then set each other areas to research for a group meeting on Tuesday. We agreed to brainstorm ideas individually and pitch our ideas to each other.

These are the tow designs I submitted for Secret 7"

I have chosen to develop this design forward. The following are the most popular out of all of my outcomes. I haven't chosen which one I will submit yet, but the final crit tomorrow should help me do this.

I have enlarged the character in frame to fill the whole design. adds ambiguity to the design and intrigue.

The UFO design was a last minute piece of inspiration. It wasn't inspired by the song in any way, but a piece of feedback said that it might interesting, which I agree.

I have been trying to develop this design forward since the interim crit. I have been told that I should experiment with colours, and see how I could change the moon. Below are some of the outcomes:

Origional:

I experimented with the shape of the lighting behind my character to see if it would make it look like he was down a hole more, but found that the current shape is better.

Alternatively I could leave the lighting shape. I'm not sure if it's really needed.

I wanted to see if there was another way to illustrate the moon in a less detailed way. Previously the moon was too detailed with craters and stars surrounding it that it drew too much attention away from the character and looked a bit out of place in contrast. Here I have tried to illustrate some clouds in front of it. It seems slightly more mysterious, but I'm note sure if it is clear that it is in fact a moon.

This crescent moon makes it more obvious that it is a moon, but seems way too cartoony and clean cut to fit with the style of illustration of my character.

Here is the design in a dark blue. Although some people suggested this, I feel that it loses impact and doesn't have the same melancholic theme that I was going for.

Although I don't see why a lens flair would ever be used inside illustrator, I experimented with using it as the light source. Although it looks strange in comparison to the vector path character, there is something quite interesting about it.

The change in colour of this design makes it clearer that he is in a hole and that it is night time, but the black and dark blue clash and it doesn't look right.