OUGD504 - Brief 03 - Production Considerations

STUDIO BRIEF 3 – “Type in context” publication

·       Binding, Print finishes, Stock: I evaluated a number of premium stocks from GF Smith to use as the cover, and to also experiment with print finishes. Using these high quality stocks increases the overall standard of the mock up. I then researched a number of print finishes for this brief, The ones I saw as being most appropriate were screen printing and spot varnishing. I experimented with both types of finish on the cover of the book. Using any more finishes would have cheapened the aesthetic of the publication.

·       Size/format: I chose to design the publication at a small scale to make a reference to bibles and traditional prayer books. This was a very concious decision. The book could easily be printed on a larger formatted, and perhaps would look better on a larger scale. The images inside are of a very quality so could easily be up-scaled. 

·       Mock-up’s: I constructed multiple mock-ups before printing a final version of the publication. I did this in order to test the pagination, the stock and the format. Mockups are an essential part of any design process and they are a great tool in gaining constructive feedback. 

How you produced the outcome in the college and how it  might be produced in a commercial situation? I utilised the facilities available to me within the college to produce this publication, notably the digital printing room at Blenheim walk. I also used the print room at Vernon street to bind the book, it was useful to have to technicians there for advice. I used a binding technique that I was very familiar with, for ease. I regret not experimenting with other more interesting binding methods. So, in a commercial setting, I would suggest that the publication would be bound either case bound or perfect bound. This would give the publication a much more sophisticated finish, and would not be as time consuming to bind. 

Your relationship to printers, other designers, illustrators, developers? I made sure when designing to keep all of my content within the page margins and to set up correct bleed and slug measurements. If I were to print this publication using a commercial printing company, I would package the InDesign document and write in the messages box the following requirements: Print in monochrome, double sided on A4 (specific) stock. When you print a document from InDesign, the software paginates the content automatically. This is how I would communicate the specific production requirements.