Interactive Elements

To illustrate some points in the publication about D.I.Y design and unqualified designers I wanted to incorporate some interactive elements that the user has to fill out, such as dot to dots or paint by numbers.

These elements will fit into the D.I.Y section of the publication which will look into how clients can source next to nothing design or create it themselves using various apps and generators.

The interactive pages will feature the McDonald Golden Arches dot-to-dot

and also the Playboy bunny logo

Finished Publication

This is my finished publication minus some string which I will use to tie the whole package together.

I added a small paragraph on the cover of the publication that quickly summarises the gist of the publication.

Accompanying Posters:

Publication Crafting

To fit the post modern, hand crafted theme I printed my publication on newsprint, this worked a lot better than I was expecting. I printed the spreads on an a3 sheet so each page is approximately a4, which makes it feel like quite a compact newspaper. This references the ephemeral and mass produced content of some of the issues raised within the publication.

The accompanying posters worked particularly well as they just used black ink which printed well and looked like a screen print as the subtle texture of the thin newsprint showed through the ink.

This is the all over print that wraps the publication and houses the posters. I printed this pattern onto brown wrap which has worked better than I expected. I trimmed the edges to make it into more of an envelope shape that folds around the publication well.

With this publication I decided to try saddle stitching it as I have only every used staples and they always pop out when you open the book up too much, this also contributes to the D.I.Y ethics of the publication. The saddle stitching worked very well and held the pages together tightly. I will use this in future instead of staples as it gives a much more durable and considered finish to the publication.

Pictures of final product coming soon.

Custom type and poster inserts

To really push the post modern theme I have created a brush typeface using ink and a stick to use on headers inside the publication. After a few failed attempts of inconsistent typefaces I managed to create an entire upper and lower case typeface with essential punctuation glyphs.

For the posters that will accompany the publication I wanted to use a really simple illustrative style as this is relevant to the D.I.Y subject and the pessimistic tone of voice. The posters emphasise the ruthlessness and cheek of some clients.

This poster describes the fact that clients don't like paying for a service and expect designers to live on exposure alone.

This illustrates clients searching for the best deals and under paying for services.

This illustrates clients thinking they know best and sticking their beaks in. In this case Old Mr.Mcdonald is trying to take some creative control over the famous golden arches.

Example Poster:

The poster will be printed on cheap paper and folded up inside the publication 

Putting the font into Fontographer:

Complete font:

I also drew up a custom title to use for the cover and promotion of the publication which is a bit better than what I had before:

To illustrate the content of the publication I drew some relevant icons in the same style as the type and the posters:

The icons represent the themes of D.I.Y designs, clients using competition and speculative design, getting paid for design and avoiding any reference to original thought or ideas.

I want the publication to be wrapped in brown paper to mirror the themes of de-valuing your work and also reflect the pessimistic attitude of the publication

Repeating these icons fully over the wrap is visually effective and I think will work well with the inside layouts and aesthetic style of the book.

The title will be large on a belly band holding the whole publication together

Black on white

Or laser cut through

Example Spreads:

Original Spreads using generic brush font:

Using custom type:

I think that the pages look a lot more unique and dynamic using this new typeface rather than Ninja Naruto which is quite familiar and not really relevant to the content.

From here I will continue designing spreads and filling in the content. I may also create more posters that could be used for the promotion of the publication.

Potential out putters and endorsees of this publication would be any organisation that supports the rights of designers such as The Graphic Artists Guild, The Design Council and potentially awarding bodies such as D&AD and YCN but this is somewhat hypocritical as they are big criminals of speculative design, which the publication advises against, but at least they  would actually give you exposure worth having.