first layout ideas for UFO Handbook rework

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These are the first developments of the UFO Handbook rework, I have included all the type content that will be in the final book, and applied each across a number of different layout directions. I dont think alot of it is working that well at the moment, but It gives me a good foundation to start working from. I printed out a draft copy of this, and from printing it I relised that the body copy is far too big, and can be dropped down by probably about 3 point sizes. The headings are also probably too large, and the actual typeface could do with a rethink. The typeface being used at the moment is Dekar regular, and the rationale behind using this is that I wanted the typeface to reflect case files of X files of some sort which this slim OCR style font does. The Body copy is Helvetica which I used because it is simple and functional, and I think I will stick with this choice because it works well, it just needs to be smaller, and possibly lighter.

The main rule running through the publication at the moment is that I am using a margin of 22mm and two columns with 6 rows of guides. I'm going to experiment with using three columns and more rows, to see if i can free up the layout, because it looks a little rigid at the moment. In doing this I have had a few good ideas about fold methods and ways of making page transitions easier to look at as compositions, which I will talk about in another post.

The publishers who originally released the book were called SPHERE, and this was their logo, I couldnt find it online anyway so I've had to mock it up on illustrator. Because I am reworking all the content from the original book, I saw it fit and only right to use the publishers logo on my copy of the book.

re worked mailer, using established rules

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Reworked layouts for look book

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I have applied the rules i established to the page to the rest of the look book, and also taken the black bars from the cover to give the book a uniformity with the rest of the range, I think this works better for the overall look I am trying to achieve.

Layouts for type heavy page in look book.

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The second to last layout works best in my opinion because it is tight and looks balanced against the image on the opposing page. The title looks alot easier to deal with on the page when it is aligned with the paragraph opposite. I now have established rules also:

body copy must be : Scotch roman regular at 10pt with a 14pt leading, justified left. (this reads pretty well, and rivers dont seem too blatant in the body copy when it is justified.)
Titles/ headers must be: Scotch roman italic, all caps at 53pt with a 63pt leading, spaced at 140.
all margins must be 10mm
small amounts of standalone sub information must be in italics as must headings.

This makes me feel much more at ease with the design process of this range now. The rationale behind using dummy copy for large bodies of text is that this is a proposal and therefor the client would be choosing what message they want to be putting out the their clientel.

Mock ups for proposed promotional and in store products.

I made a small range of the proposed products for the show and tell yesterday, I had out on the table a mini look book which would be in salon, a business card for staff, and a promotional mailer proposed to be sent out to student areas, as young creatives seem to be rebel pin ups target audience. I followed the visual approach of the look book cover devvelopments throughout the range, keeping to black and white for the time being to keep costs down. (considering a lower budget for the store). The feedback I got from the show and tell was really useful based on this question:


 -What else could I put into this range for a salon (bearing in mind it is not a branding brief)

The feedback I got was that I should design a loyalty card and also an appointment scheduler with appointment slips for the salon. Which is a great idea, and something I totally overlooked. The loyalty card would fit perfectly into this range with it being directly relevant and appropriate to their student discounts and offers for students and regular customers.

 The business card follows the design approach taken from the look book and is simply the floral motif with the rebel pin up logo in white foil over the top. I decided white foil is a great tool to help give these items a really high end look - I was also hoping that the foil would look a little eroded on the card as the logo on the salon window is rougher than this. But still It works well in my opinion, and the feedback I got has helped me decide that this item is resolved and works well.

 This is the business card alongside the promotional fold out mailer. The idea is that it looks exactly the same, except the scale and format of the product is different, and obviously folds out into a larger format, with a poster on the background. This design idea is based on the promotionalSam Green Mailer, which really helped me realise what I needed to be doing to make this look high end, but also be functional.

 The choice of stock has meant that unfortunately the black on the mailer isnt as deep as it is on the business card, this is because I used Harman matt for the card, and the Poster paper available in the digital print room. My rationale behind this was that the poster paper folds well, which is an essential part of thefunctionality of the mailer. I think in editing the files colour profil I can solve this problem fairly easily. The cover for the mailer is resolved.

 This was the first set of panels for the mailer. It is nearly there but I am going to keep developing this because it is not working at the moment, I need to establish some rules for the type layout which I can apply across the whole range of products.

 The cover and first page of the look book were selected from the most resolved and successful layouts in the design development stage, and are working - I think setting a bleed on the black box on the first page helps establish the image, as well as the tight 10mm margin I specified.

 As I said before, I need to establish some rules and work this up into a more successful resolve. Feedback from yesterday also said that I need to spend some more time on the type for this, just to make it more balanced and attractive to suit my high end look.

These three products work well together because of their different scales. I think that I am developing something which I caould see actually in the store which is great because I said that I wanted to propose this to the client after completing the wall mural.

Threse are not the finished products, I will post up more progress on the type layout, and I am prepping the files for print on monday. By monday afternoon I aim to have this brief resolved.