OUGD405 Studio Brief 03 Research into Layout Suitable for Purpose

To aid me in my idea generation for this brief I thought it would be profitable to look at existing designs and how they utilise layout and what dictates it. To find these I looked through one of my favourite books 100 ideas that changed graphic design. Below are my two favourites.

Design Thinking Digest (2010)cover for programme for symposium of the national library board in Singapore.

This design is intended to convey the promotion of collective creativity. The identification of exactly what they wanted to convey, helped shape a coherence to the design. they have used a stylised plant like shape that epitomises connectivity because of its connotations of the natural world and its perfect system of interconnecting individuals. The lines themselves interconnect, clearly conveying this theme. This image dictates the position of the type on the page (connecting the information), this is something I could work into my layout designs by using simplified drawings which summarise and communicate the essence of the page or even shaping the text around info graphics that also convey statistics. I also want to go through a though rough process of identifying the content of each page before I start designing because this will dicta the layout. 

Tannhauser (2004) by swiss graphic designer Rudi Meyer.

This time a photograph dictates the position of the type, the cross of the T separates the page into an upper and lower section with the majority of the information above then trickling down the side of the page in a mimic of the letters stem. This creates an interaction between the two layers of the image drawing the eye around the page from the high contrast of the reversed back lettering in the centre, up to the majority of the information and then down to the last details. The order in which information is perceived is essential in layout, so it might be useful to define at the information I want to include in each spread and list it in the order I want the reader to notice it.

The use of the photo provides a depth to the design, especially because of the shadow, and really creates an interesting texture for the eye by the challenges the lines in the photo get from the lines of text. I could attempt a similar thing by using photographs in the background but take is a step further by producing a statistical representation physically and photograph and shape the type around this.