Task 4 - Specialist Production & Definitions

Task 4 - Specialist Production & Definitions

TASK  

Based on the terminology and examples introduced during this session, extend your awareness of the diversity of print production methods in relation to professional design practices discussed. See how this impacts on what you have learnt so far and how it might affect your personal interpretation of print issues around the 4 core areas below.

• Branding and Identity 
• Packaging and Promotion 
• Publishing & Editorial 
• Information & Wayfinding 

It is important that you identify and evaluate unfamiliar products, contexts and functions of design for print as this will help you to develop a broader and more informed understanding of the specialist nature of print production.

Research Sources / Further Information  

LOOK AT: How the Pantone Matching System (PMS) works. What exciting alternatives different stock/substrates can provide in terms of options. How you might collaborate/interact with specialists How the same problem might be solved in different ways.

Task 3 - Stock Options & Print Finishing

Task 3 - Stock Options & Print Finishing

Study Task

With a focus on Stock, Substrate and 'special' Print Finishes find as many variants as possible for each of the following areas of Design:

• Branding and Identity 
• Packaging and Promotion 
• Publishing & Editorial 
• Information & Wayfinding 

You should consider production values, scale and functionality in relation to appropriate contexts and target audiences and evaluate their impact on the design decisions that have been made. Wherever possible you should aim to collect physical/actual examples of print as this will help you to evaluate the important tactile, formal and functional elements of your source material

Your findings should be recorded and critically evaluated on your Design Context blog.

Research Sources / Further Information  

Keywords

Coated, uncoated, die cut, spot ink, UV varnish, Emboss, laminate, duplux

Websites (all links)

Pantone matching system
4 colour & metallic ink
Emboss/foil/thermo 

Books

Experimental Formats - Roger Fawcette-Tang

Task 2 - Colour for Print

Task 2 - Colour for Print

Using examples of design for branding & identity, packaging & promotion, publishing & editorial, information & wayfinding explore the following colour systems:

• CMYK (process) 
• Spot Colour (2 or more) 
• Monochrome & Tints (solid colour and half-tone) 

In order to develop a significant awareness of print production methods, you will need to identify at least 2 examples of each colour process from each of the four areas of design.  Make sure you continue to explore a range of sources and research methods and post your findings to your Design Context blog. Your posts should be supported by an appropriate level of critical analysis and reflections on why you have chosen the examples.

Branding & Identity

[insert images and annotate]

Publishing & Editorial

[Insert Images and annotate]

Information & Way finding

[insert images and annotate]

Packaging & Promotion

Type Workshop Part 2

We have set up a three column A4 page and inserted the second paragraph of block text.
We were told how paragraphs don't always need to be placed in block text and indents play just as big role  as the paragraph. A default indent is often created by pressing "tab" however its a ten mil space which isn't wanted all the time. For our paragraph we decided to use a " three character " indent.

TIP

If people don't notice your layout that means you've done a good job because the reader shouldn't notice your layout over the article

We then got given another set text and had to fit it onto a new A4 document and try make it as legible and readable as possible. I choose to go for a 2 column style document but the right way would have been a 3 column which not only read nicely but also looked pleasing when reading the text.

Colour of the page actually affects how we are brought to the page. It engages the part of you which sees the whole document. By adding more leading you add more white into the document which makes it nicer to look at. If you increase the weight of a typeface you will darken the whole feel of the document. 

We now had to incorporate the image onto our page. This was an image of some block press which needed to be placed in our document and allow the text to still be read.

Type Workshop

This morning we covered how to fit body text into a set sized column. Using different point sizes and leading we managed to fill it out.

Using the same method as the first we moved the body text along a column and reduced the point size but increased the leading to achieve the same effect as the first.

We as a group came to conclusion that the third column felt the best to read after being printed however we thought the second was the best whilst on the screen however.

Moving on from the first document we changed the layout to a 10 column document and pasted the third set of type into the document and made it fill a single column, a double column and a 3 set column.

The third column in my opinion was easier to read yet many aid the second was easier. A big point brought up was we should judge what is easier to read depending on our final outcome... if the final outcome was to print.. then print off the document and double check the type does read better printed as a posed to being read on screen and vice versa. 

TIP:

never go below five or six words per line.

never go eleven to twelve words per line.

Moving on from the above we decided to change the font to see how different typefaces effect the settings we have set up... just because it works for one type doesn't mean it will work for every other.

To test it further i used each type set of the family ariel to see how the likes of italic + Bold affect the readability.

It did change slightly but the settings did work for the different type styles which are in the same family.

The problems we have with car oil...

Problems:

• The labelling is too difficult to fully understand
• The market feels male dominant
• The packaging is all the same
• No universal oils for certain car types ( classic, family, hatchback, sport, high performance )
• Pouring the large containers can spill and leave everything messy
• The expensive cost of oil plus the effort needed to change oil makes it undesirable 
• Overfilling the oil level can damage the engine and kill the car
• Changing oil feels like something that a garage should do
• Staining clothes and anything it touches
• Getting the wrong oil can be just as bad as using no oil
• Add more...

Solutions:

• Standardise the oils for certain cars eg. Classic use one, Family use one, Sport... etc
• make the containers smaller so its better and easier to use
• Ditch the liquid side of oil and make it into a solid to transport and adding it easier.
• Create a modern more universal packaging to make it less scary and friendlier.
• Allow the process of adding oil to be easy
• Make overfilling and choosing the wrong oil almost impossible.
• Colour coded oils would replace the #W-30 etc coding system
• Add more

Undertanding Oil

On every bottle of motor oil there is a seal that gives you three pieces of information:

• The API service rating
• The viscosity grade
• "Energy Conserving" indicator (it either is or it isn't)

The API service rating is a two-letter rating that tells you the type of engine the oil is meant for petrol or diesel and the quality level.

The viscosity grade (for example, 5W-30) tells you the oil's thickness, or viscosity. A thin oil has a lower number and flows more easily, while thick oils have a higher number and are more resistant to flow. Water has a very low viscosity -- it is thin and flows easily. Honey has a very high viscosity -- it is thick and gooey.

Measuring Motor Oil Viscosity

The standard unit used to measure viscosity is the centistoke (cSt). According to the Automotive and Industrial Lubricants Glossary of Terms:

Viscosity is ordinarily expressed in terms of the time required for a st­andard quantity of the fluid at a certain temperature to flow through a standard orifice. The higher the value, the more viscous the fluid. Since viscosity varies inversely with temperature, its value is meaningless unless accompanied by the temperature at which it is determined. With petroleum oils, viscosity is now commonly reported in centistokes (cSt), measured at either 40°C or 100 °C (ASTM Method D445 - Kinematic Viscosity).

The centistoke rating is converted into the SAE weight designation

Multi-weight oils (such as 10W-30) are a new invention made possible by adding polymers to oil. The polymers allow the oil to have different weights at different temperatures. The first number indicates the viscosity of the oil at a cold temperature, while the second number indicates the viscosity at operating temperature. How the polymers work:

At cold temperatures, the polymers are coiled up and allow the oil to flow as their low numbers indicate. As the oil warms up, the polymers begin to unwind into long chains that prevent the oil from thinning as much as it normally would. The result is that at 100 degrees C, the oil has thinned only as much as the higher viscosity number indicates. Another way of looking at multi-vis oils is to think of a 20W-50 as a 20 weight oil that will not thin more than a 50 weight would when hot.

Thoughts

• As messed up and confusing the codes seem on the front of oil packages they are quite straight forward once known.
• This took a lot of understanding and seems to be an annoyance and off put towards buying the product
• a survey showed that people with certain cars all use the same type of oil, perhaps it would be easier to have a single oil for petrol cars, diesel cars, classic cars, high performance.
•  need to be easier.