OUGD405// Extended Development

Development // Outside

To see for myself how the Wave design would look digitally mocked up, the Wave design has still been digitally rendered incase of anything failing with the typographic sleeve. 

4 layer wave to emphasise surface area and let the under colour be more prominent. I needed to consider the area around the laser cut area to maintain sturdiness when in the hands of school kids, so making the design central was a main consideration. 

Larger but subtler version of 3 layered wave.

When choosing a typeface to replace the wave, group feedback was essential. After forming another crit group to discuss my type research, 7/10 people all suggested pursuing Halfway. The nature of Halfway is soft and almost liquified, the lack of geometric lines suggest a flowing approach to the type-forms, suggestive of the water nature the infographic is based around. The underlying colour blue should further emphasise this suggestion in a subtle way, with the sleeve colour balancing out the blue not over powered by a tight composition. 

   Possible options of outer cases, folded in the middle with bottom semi-circle cut outs acting as sliders, printed on a mid grey card. The aim of this is to engage the kids in an interactive way. In addition, when I (and many others I asked) were the age in question, I found large folded leaflets full of 'grown up' information really boring, therefore tried to attack the situation from a simpler perspective, incepting with my intentions.

I chose 'Halfway', a typeface sourced from Da Font. This soft hand stylisation composes of slightly curvy edges and 'straight' lines, suggesting a soft tone of voice- intended to draw the readers in. It has also been pointed out in a group critique when we discussed typefaces, that this looks like it has almost been thrown onto the page in water, with the slight Oblique adding emphasis onto the message.

   However, as my intention is to laser cut the words into the card, keeping the centres of the A's and R is a huge consideration. With this in mind, I adapted the typeface so it will still be coherent, yet this does mean increasing the card thickness so it is still rather tactile in the hands of 12 year olds.

When adjusted for laser cutting processes, the type is still legible yet may become weak over time. To maintain the  functional aspect of the leaflet, instead of laser cutting the type onto the slider cover, it may be more practical to heavily de-boss with a base colour. This would add sophistication and would hopefully not be thrown away as easily if ascetically pleasing than tacky. If debossed, a textual, possibly thick grey watercolour card may be a appropriate stock choice, reflecting to the message which lies inside.

Development // Inside (side 1)

Layout is always the trickiest part of creating a design for me, so prior to turning digital I wanted to mock out the composition to see if it would work.

The inside of the leaflet has taken much consideration. As I did not want to incorporate a fold, my intention was to let the words/ facts of the film 'Lonely Water' speak for themselves, whilst adding a shock factor- juxtaposing the clean/ simple exterior sleeve. After looking at several unsuccessful infographics regarding child water safety, I wanted to keep my colour pallet to a minimum, alongside simplifying the information and keeping it relevant to their age group (pre-teens).

A digital replication of my sketch has been created, using only black outlines to suggest a person being pulled under water by a shopping trolley- a common object to be found at the bottom of Lonely Waters. My intention is to add a shock factor, yet if  if I had the facilities/ this was properly produced and distributed, instead of a Vector drawing this would be a highly emotive photograph, further emphasising the sense of panic and horror within the water/ message.

Digital mock up's of the inside pamphlet. The 'Any Water Kills' has been overlaid to see what would be visible through the letters if it was Laser cut.

A possible typographic insert as a poster/ flyer incorporating facts about the video, alongside UK Gov statistics on drowning. This has been unsuccessful as it would not be appealing to younger children, whilst going against all research collected and previous intentions.

Incorporating the same typeface 'Halfway' as emotive subheadings, I tried to perpetuate the personal message speaking in a casual manor they should relate to. As this will be printed on a matte mid-blue card, the pale blue bottom half should hopefully be printed in a slightly litter shade, yet still incorporating a grainy fade where the two colours should mix. This would be ideal as either a screen print or a Risograph print, yet due to easy distribution and sticking to Digital is the most diverse means of mass print.

The bottom information is kept short and sweet, composed into four short sentences in size 14 type. The typeface 'Coolvetica', is a adaptation of Helvetica Regular, yet still looks rather dark in comparison to the heavy negative space and top of page text. I chose this typeface to break away from standard conventions, yet sticking to a modern San-Serif, proven to appeal to younger audiences. After sourcing more feedback, it was evident I needed to change this text, dispite widening Kerning/ Tracking to see if this would solve the problem... it didn't.

Reverting back to the simplistic intentions, I resolved this by changing the bottom typeface to 'Helvetica Neue, Light'.  The type size has been kept at 14pt to aid composition, with Kerning adjusted +10. As I want to keep the information concise, the eye is drawn to the bottom of the page- the same place the trolley is floating, giving a subtle subliminal message of death. 

After obtaining further feedback to possibly adjust the illustrative design of the trolley and silhouetted leg, a few people (both in the group and out) commented that it reminded them of 'David & Goliath's' work, popular with teenagers, due to the hand rendered style typeface and simplistic composition.

// Side 2

The reverse side with some more information in Helvetica Neue, Light and Halfway. The rubbish at the bottom of the image is to suggest what is under the water, yet if it was properly produced, it would actually be a photograph of rubbish on the water bed (similar to the Lonely Water Video), ideally with a shoe trapped or something even more gruesome such as an arm.

Screenshot of rubbish which lays below waterline from Public Service Video, Lonely Water.