End of module - Self Evaluation

Graphic Design Level 4
OUGD404
Design Principles
Jessica Wood


1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

Throughout this module, I have learnt various skills. I now have a greater knowledge of grid systems, and I feel that I am able to apply the correct grid system to a page and produce a successful layout. It has helped me start to inform my design decisions in more detail, rather than just playing around with the composition of text and image. Type anatomy is another significant topic that I have improved on, as I am now more aware of classification, origins, readability and legibility. 


2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

Methods of design production such as planning have developed. When producing thumbnails for the final spreads, these helped inform my design development process as I was then able to create these thumbnails in a larger scale, which would be the exact scale of my final spreads.  It allowed me to work out exactly were my final content would be placed when creating these spreads.


3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

In my work I have noticed that I have developed my skill on layout design and the design development process  When it came to creating the final spreads, I found it much easier as the design development was more thorough than usual. When scaling up the thumbnails I have produce a lot of larger templates that helped me choose specific layouts and where I would place what content. My research is always prominent throughout my work, however within this module the skills I have learned about grid systems and layouts have really helped me to produce the final spreads of a better standard. The long process of design development, including scaling up my pages and decided where to put what content has made creating the spreads easier when starting to do them digitally on indesign. From this, I will try and keep this design development consistent throughout all of my future briefs. 


4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

Within my work I feel that my analysis of my own work and other work isn't strong enough, in the future I will focus more on making sure a critical analysis when needed is present. Also, I could include more thorough research into certain aspects, for example when creating my layouts I have only included a small amount of gird and layout research, in the future I could develop this. 


5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

1- when producing my own layouts, I had no feedback, and I think that in the future it will help if I gain feedback from peers to see if any design decisions could be altered to improve my own work
2- I will allow more time for blogging, and analysing my own work and recording this on the blog, this will give me a greater understanding
3- I will aim to manage my time more effectively and make sure some aspects are as strong as the rest
4- expand the type journal
5- try and explore more design ideas, and record more development on my blog. This will give me a broader range to work from

Final Page Layouts

Below are my final layout designs, I am happy with the overall spreads as I feel that they have answered the brief correctly. The spreads are informative, but are broken up with useful images and diagrams so that they are not too text heavy. I wanted to keep the colour choice very minimal therefore all body copy is in back. My design decisions relate to my research, as I wanted to keep my layouts pretty minimal. I have chosen the typeface Helvetica, regular for body copy, and bold for headings and subheadings, I feel this is the best choice for my spreads as it emphasises the minimalistic design.

Type Journal

Type Journal

Further Development

With this spread I have decided to focus one page on purely image. Because the image is type, it keeps this spread looking neat and consistent.

Developing the double page spreads

Below shows the development of my double page spreads.

After mocking up the templates digitally, I selected a few of my chosen layouts and decided the best ones to choose and apply my final content to. 

This spread on the anatomy of type is one of my strongest as they stand. Because the body copy stays consistent and remains in the three column grid layout, but the images balance out the body copy as they break up the page nicely and include efficient white space.

The right hand page now includes body copy that spreads across two vertical columns. Despite the opposing page sticking to a three column grid for body copy, I think this still works as the images used need a clear statement next to them. This spread is successful so far, as it has the right balance of image, white space and body copy.

Grid layouts: InDesign

Page layout templates

I have taken my drawn out layout templates and made digital versions, which will provide a guide for me to start my final layouts. I will use these templates and add my final content and images to them. These layouts have been filled with placeholder text, as I have taken my templates and mocked them up digitally to get a rough idea on how my finalised layouts could look. 

This layout uses a three column grid, however the text boxes spread across two columns. I think that this works well as it is a simplistic layout and the final spread will not be too text heavy, it has the right balance.

I think this layout works well because the spreads are symmetrical which creates a very clean cut layout. However the text may be a bit heavy, this could be resolved by breaking up with more images.

This spread has a good balance, even though the layouts not symmetrical, it works as it has the right amount of images to balance out the body copy. This might work well for a spread about type, or lettering.

Out of all of the digital templates as they stand, I feel this is the clearest and strongest design as it is not too text heavy. I also think white space will be needed when designing the final layouts. Even though there is only minimal white space on this spread, I think this helps the spreads look less cluttered.

Grid System Research

Grid Systems

In graphic design, a grid is a structure which is usually two-dimensional, and it is made up of a series of intersecting straight (vertical, horizontal, and angular) or curved guide lines used to structure a content. A grid system is a framework that is supposed to help the graphic designers in the logical and consistent organisation of information on a page. Graphic designers have started to build a rigid and coherent system for page layout. Grid systems are an established tool that is often used by print and web designers to create well structured and balanced designs.

They enable the graphic designer to organise whatever content they are working with consistently onto a page, using any combination of margins, guides, rows and columns. Grid systems are commonly seen in newspaper and magazine layouts with columns of text and images. Grids can also be used across an entire project so that the structure is consistent throughout. The gird will not be noticed once the finished product has been printed, but before print, it enables a consistent design to be produced. When starting a project, using a grid system will help position the elements of your design on a page.

 "The grid system is an aid, not a guarantee. It permits a number of possible uses and each designer can look for a solution appropriate to his personal style. But one must learn how to use the grid; it is an art that requires practice." - Josef Muller-Brockman

• Single column grid - the most simple grid consists of a single column of text surrounded by margins. Layout programmes encourage you to design your page from the outside in. These work well for more simple documents.
• Spreads - books, magazines and newspapers should be designed in spreads (facing pages).
• Multicolumn grid - these provide flexible formats for publications that are more complex, some that integrate text and illustration.

Anatomy of grids: Depending on the content that they will contain, grids vary in size, shape and complexity. However, every grid is made up of the following parts:

1. Margins: The space that separates the content from the edge of the page.
2. Flowlines: Alignments that break the space into horizontal bands.
3. Columns: Vertical divisions of space on a page.
4. Rows: A series of flowlines that create horizontal divisions of space on a page.
5. Gutters: Space that separates rows and columns or two facing pages.
6. Modules: Individual units of space created from intersecting rows and columns.
7. Spatial Zones: Groups of modules that cross multiple rows and columns.

Types of grids:

Rule of thirds

There are several types of grid systems a designer can use. The simplest method is to use the rule of thirds. This consists of dividing a page into thirds with two equally spaced vertical/horizontal lines so that the important compositional elements can be placed along these lines or intersections. This is commonly used in photography. 

Golden ratio

The golden ratio is another popular method (approximately 1.618) for proportioning. The ratio has been studied by mathematicians. It has been used for centuries by architects, artists and book designers for its aesthetically pleasing qualities. 

Baseline grid
A baseline grid is commonly used in publications such as newspapers and magazines, the page is divided into several equal sized columns. This consists of a set of horizontal lines on a page, the baseline of all type sits on this. 

There are two main types of layout within graphic design, vertical and landscape. There are also only two types of grids. One has an even number of columns and one has an odd number. These diagrams below found online present examples of layouts using basic layout grids.

Vertical grids

one column vertical grid

two column vertical grid

three column vertical grid

Landscape grids

one column landscape grid

two column landscape grid

three column landscape grid

four column landscape gird