OCA Graphic Design: Core Concepts 1Assignment 5 - Penguin BooksJane BraybrookJane511794

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Critical Evaluation

• I found this assignment difficult as the subject matter – Graphic Design – is not something that is easy to explain to children, especially when broken down into detailed topics Typography, Photographs and Colour. Each subject is very tech-nical so making it child-friendly was challenging.

• My first attempt was very much based on my own understanding of typography and the ideas I’d used in the Font Book I’d created in the last unit. However, this alphabetical approach was too detailed and too abstract for children. I think it was the right decision to try to develop a more metaphorical approach to the subject – I’m not sure if using animals is the best way forward and if I had longer I might try out some other metaphors to explain typography to children. I found using metaphors very time-consuming in the creation process.

• I enjoyed researching penguin colours and liked the colour palette that I pro-duced, but when I used these colours in my design I found that the palette wasn’t complete enough to create all the complementary colours I wanted, so I ended up adding a new colour that was not in the original penguin books palette, but I don’t think this is noticeable (I developed the blue colour to match the parrot as the penguin blue was too dull).

• The fonts I chose worked well, being modern, easy to read and also quite trendy. None of the fonts used were known to me before I did this course, so

I’m pleased that my knowledge of fonts is beginning to develop. I particularly like the American Type, it’s quite messy at a large-scale and I usually go for fonts that are more smooth and neat, but I like the effect.

• I started off using a simple grid for my design, but as I went on I found that the 3 x 3 grid offered much more potential and variability when creating the design. It’s more time-consuming, but I think the end effect is much more sophisticated.

• This was my last assignment and I ran out of time for what I wanted to do. I think where I’ve ended up is at the first draft stage. I need to explore more fonts, experiment to develop the colour scheme, create more content - this in turn will then lead me to develop the front and back covers more. At the moment the design feels very flat - I’d like to bring it to life more, possibly by having the animals more interactive with speech bubbles.

• Developing the content in addition to creating the front and back covers took me longer than I thought and to a whole series on this theme would be a signif-icant project. I image the end result would probably be very different from this starting point as it would evolve. I think I would design the covers further down the line when the content was more known.

Did the work meet the brief?

I’ve developed a house style for a collection of books that could be developed into a larger series. Each book is similar but unique in several ways. Each book uses the penguin colours and branding so is immediately recognisable.It’s specifically for children and young people, in terms of content, layout, fonts and colours.

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The Penguin Book of Typography

A is for AardvarkThe Penguin Book of TypographyWelcome to the ‘A is for Aardvark’ guide to typography. This simple guide will show you how to identify and use fonts to make your work look really cool.

To make fonts fun, interesting and memorable, we’ve engaged the help of our friendly Aardvark who will bring typography to life with stories, quizzes and other challenging typographic activities.

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A beginners guide to

Typography

1 aardvark 1 apple2 aardvark 2 apple3 aardvark 3 apple4 aardvark 4 apple5 aardvark 5 apple6 aardvark 6 apple7 aardvark 7 apple8 aardvark 8 apple9 aardvark 9 apple10 aardvark 10 apple11 aardvark 11 apple12 aardvark 12 apple13 aardvark 13 apple14 aardvark 14 apple15 aardvark 15 apple16 aardvark 16 apple17 aardvark 17 apple18 aardvark 18 apple19 aardvark 19 apple20 aardvark 20 apple

Activity 1.

How good are you at identifying typefaces?

Here are a list of 20 ‘aardvarks’ and ‘ap-ples’ written in different typefaces.

Look carefully at each of the typefaces. Each brown ‘aardvark type-face has a matching green ‘apple’ typeface.

Your challenge is to match each brown ‘aardvark’ typeface with a green ‘apple’ typeface.

The only letter the two words share is the letter ‘a’. What other features of the typeface can you use to help identify the correct pairings?

Answers on the next page.

‘EARTH PIG’Aardvarks live south of the Sahara desert in Africa. Their name comes from South Africa’s Afrikaans language and means “earth pig.” A glimpse of the aardvark’s body and long snout brings the pig to mind, as well as other animal features like rabbit ears and a kangaroo tail—yet the aardvark is related to none of these animals.

Africa, ants, applesand aardvarks.Do aardvarks eat apples? No, they eat ants, but ants love fallen apples, so where there’s fallen apples you’ll find aardvarks (but only in Africa where the aardvarks live). The story of aardvarks, apples and ants in Africa is a neat way to learn all about typography. And at the same time you’ll learn about aardvarks so that’s sort of cool too.

If aardvarks are major headings, then apples are smaller headings and sub-headings. Aard-varks use apples to find ants.Typeface ‘apples’ help you find the smaller text (information) that you want to read. They help you scan though information quickly and efficiently.

Apples can be effective-ly created from other typeface family mem-bers like italic, bold and condensed. Here are some examples using the cur-rent font (Futura).

This is an apple

This is an apple This is an apple

Typesfaces are like aardvarks, apples & ants.Aardvarks are big typefaces that grab your attention like the one above called Impact. Use these typefac-es to create simple bold headings and logos where you want the detail of the font to engage your audi-ence quickly and give the right impression.1 16

2 10

3 19

4 8

5 1

6 12

7 14

8 15

9 18

10 20

11 3

12 4

13 2

14 7

15 9

16 6

17 5

18 11

19 13

20 17

Ant, ant, ant, ant, ant, ant, ant, ant, ant and ant. Ants are typefaces that are used to write lots of

text. This typeface I’m using now (Futura) works well as an ant but so do many more, such as

Times, Helvetica, Calibri, Verdana and Gill Sans.

There are two species of ants used for typed information; those with serifs and those without. Serifs are the little hats and feet that some fonts

wear. Generally, serif fonts are for printed text and san serif for screen text, but with

the improvements in screen resolution and printing techniques in

recent years, these rules are often broken without

sacrificing legibility.

Apples

The Penguin Book of Photographs

P is for Parrot

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The Penguin Book Photographs

Welcome to the ‘P is for Parrot’ guide to photographs. This simple guide will show you how to create really stunning photographs with your camera or mobile phone.

To make photography fun, interesting and memorable, we’ve engaged the help of our friendly Parrot who will bring pictures to life with stories, quizzes and other challenging photographic activities.

A beginners guide to

Photographs

The Penguin Book of Colour

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C is for ChameleonThe Penguin Book of ColourWelcome to the ‘C is for Chameleon’ guide to colour theory. This simple guide will show you how to use colour effectively in your work.

To make colour theory fun, interesting and memorable, we’ve engaged the help of our friendly Chameleon who will bring colour to life with stories, quizzes and other challenging colour activities.

A beginners guide to Colour