Wednesday 11 December 2013

Brief 6 // Life with Energy // Information booklet

The information booklet is the main product of the information pack, this is where the majority of the information is held and how the user will find the important information on what they can do around the house to help save energy.

The main content of the booklet is illustrations and key facts about the products / appliances which have been illustrated. I wanted to keep the design of the booklet simple so that its easy to read and to actually see the information. When it came to the design style for this, I liked the idea of taking on a manual aesthetics, as the booklet is a manual for saving energy within the home and is also about products and electrical goods which all would have instruction manuals with them. This aesthetic also leant itself to have a simple design and one which separated the illustrations and fact information to keep them together in the same design but also make them separate at the same time.

This is the design of the main area of the page design. As you can see the description and idea behind the design concept is put into practice here. Within the section for the information about the product I have used a small information icon, this ties in with the aesthetic for the page but also highlights that thats section is the information section. 

The illustrations for the whole book are similar to this which have a simple but bold aesthetic, one that is in keeping with the design. 


To keep the design consistent and make it feel more of publication, I created a master page design. I wanted this again to simple as it can't distract from the content of the page. This also had to include the logo and page number. For the logo I have taken the idea from the introduction booklet which uses the logo in a highlighted blue box; this would be too big for this particular booklet, so I have scaled it down and adapted the logo to work with this. Just like a responsive website would work, I have taken that idea for the logo over the different formats.


As the main content for the booklet is in the light green accent colour, I have used the cyan as these two colours work best together. 


The booklet is split down into 6 sections:
- Whats watt?
The section explains what wattage is and how it is measured in different appliances and electrical goods around the home. By illustrating different appliances around the home, it is explained through this and showing the amount of watts some items do use.



- Top Tips
This section is top tips on how to save energy within the home. 10 tips on simple and easy things you can do around the home to save energy.



- Cut Down
The first of three sections about energy saving tips for the home. This section focusses on cutting down on certain appliances and not using  them often or using them to their full maximum.



- Turn Down
This second section is about turning certain appliances or products down, using them at lower temperatures for example can still do the job just as well but save you much more money.




- Shut Down
The last of the three main sections being shut down. This section informs how you can turn off certain appliances or products to reduce the amount of energy they use and how much it costs you.



- Alternative Solutions
There are other solutions around the house that can help you save energy that don't involve products or appliances. All houses leak heat etc which causes more heating power to be needed to warm it back up. Simple solutions like covering air gaps etc can be put into place to solve things like this. This section highlights areas like these which can be sorted out really easily and not cost that much.



Other sections - 

Contents - 
This introduces the booklet and the sections for it, using a illustration of the energy efficient light bulb down the side, relates to the content of the booklet.


Energy Information - 
The last page of the booklet informs the user about the effect energy has on the environment and the world and how following these simple steps within the booklet can help the environment. 


Book front cover - 
The front cover of the booklet is printed onto a textured off white stock, this contrasts the inner stock which is a grey/brown recycled stock. For the design of the front cover I wanted to communicate the idea of the step by step guide and that it is about the appliances and goods within your home. So the design is built up from all the illustrations of the different appliances that you can save energy on within the home. 



Images
This publication is wirobound. This was the first time that I have used this binding technique. For the wire frame section itself, I took this from an old sketch book, using the thick grey board back cover which had holes pre-cut for the wire frame. The grey board gave me a template for the where the holes needed to be on the pages, which was a great help, but it was a long process, as I had to draw onto each page all the squares and then cut them out by hand in order to use the wirobinding. In the end it was worth the time as the overall aesthetic of the booklet is great and the binding and the design style of it all fits together and enhances the aesthetic of the manual style. 






  

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