Iconic Cities was a brief about travel, for this I created a travel guide and website and first brief in which I have done both print and web within a project and brought them together to create one fully synthesised brief.
At the start I found this hard to get going, the initial design of the travel guide was dragged out a little as I wasn't that happy with the design and concept of it. When I came up with the idea of using the travel tags and tickets, the project turned around and started to make a lot more sense. I was really engaged with the new concept and started to enjoy the brief.
From starting the brief to the end, I feel that this has been one in which I have designed from the start to right to the end, taking time in thinking about the concept and drawing out ideas has made the brief better as the designs have been developed along the way and have more meaning behind them now.
The design of the travel guide is the main element that I enjoyed, creating the title and master pages was great for me to do, I loved creating the small details and icons within the pages which were taking inspiration from the travel tags and incorporating them into the printed publication. The binding technique of the travel guide was a test for me, as the publication was so thick, I had to create a binding technique that would work so the book could read throughout and so the full-page design could be seen all the way through. It took a long time to develop and realise how to create the binding technique and also keep it in a consistent aesthetic with the overall publication. Eventually I came up with the method that has been put into use, using elastic bands to create the bind it makes the publication spin moveable because of the elastic nature of the bands, this means the pages can be fully opened to view the page. Doing this put the user first and made the product unique to the travel company.
I wanted to create a bespoke publication and concentrate on the production of the travel guide to make it the best quality as I could; I think that I have achieved this. Focussing on the production of the guide has defiantly helped this process and shown myself that firstly I can create products like this, but also it is something that I am good at and enjoy doing. This has been clear within this brief that the creation and production of the products has been the most enjoyable part for me and something that I can take through to future briefs within the year.
The second element of the brief was to create a website for the company. For this I have just mocked up a website as I didn't think it was necessary for it to be coded and built, as it wasn't the main deliverable for the brief. The website extends the printed publication and makes the travel guide more accessible to the audience. The main use of the website is that the user can create there own personalised and tailored travel guide by selecting certain information they want including.
The website design was good to do, this has been the first website I have created for the year and it enabled me to refresh my memory in web design. I thought that I would have forgot about everything we had learnt in 2nd year about web design because it has been that long since I have done it, but surprisingly I hadn’t and it all came back when I started the web element. The design of the website is quite simple but carries the aesthetic of a travel information website. I feel the web product worked better for the project as nowadays it is more relevant to have things online because of the digital nature we live in, the web is more accessible and easy to use in the terms of shopping online. Aside to that it was still great to design the publication and have a physical copy that entailed more craftwork.
Overall I preferred working on the printed element of the brief, because this is where my own practice lies and I think I am a stringer print designer. Although it was still great having created the digital element and it was an opportunity where the brief suited both print and web products, which could be branding and shown as one whole underlining product. If I was go back and change / re do any part of the brief, I think I would expand the brief and produce more printed and web products. In terms of web, this would lend itself well to an app, users of todays society are very digital based and on the go, this would provide all the information of the travel guide and the website, in a more suited product for the phone. In terms of print, I really like the iconography and brand mark within the travel guide, I think this could make some really nice printed ephemera or other products using it.
Even though this brief was completed towards the beginning of the year, I still feel that it is one of the better ones, as it has a lot going on within it. It can be seen as a commercial brief and something that could turn into an actual product. There are lots of elements within the design of the products that are all backed by a focussed concept that can be seen within all the products.
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