Studio Brief 3 - Catalogue

Creating the Catalogue

Within the crit it was suggested that the catalogue could reflect a blueprint by being A2 in format which could then be folded down to A4. It was also said within the crit that the blue used for the background colour could possibly be changed to something that better reflected a blueprint tone. 

Using various blueprint images and taking swatches from these allowed for a few new possible colours. Is was suggested that possibly Klein Blue could be used as this would work across both digital and print however it was said that this colour may clash with the images of the event that were being used elsewhere in the identity. It was found that the other 'blueprint' colours were possibly too dark for the black text to show up on the background when printed. This led us to stick with the CMYK Cyan as we thought this would allow all the elements to remain visible.

The catalogue would be folded down from A2 to A4 meaning that the contents of the catalogue would need to fit around this, in particular the exhibition name and relevant information would need to be visible on the front of the folded catalogue. The logos from the Library would go on the back so they did not interfere with the rest of the design.

For the catalogue it was decided that each of the people within the exhibition would be represented by a numbered, coloured block which would also be found next to their print within the exhibition. While in the exhibition the catalogue would then be used as a reference enabling visitors to see who the work was by and what their event was. The three different types of blocks would have numbers 1 up to possibly 50 if needed and the colours would refer to their groupings within the exhibition. 

The numbers were added to the blocks initially as they were, however this looked odd because they were not in the same perspective as the face that they were being applied to. Futura was initially used as this was a geometric typeface which was based around basic shapes which it was thought might coincide with the geometric cubes. However when the typeface was skewed it looked odd for soe of the numbers. Changing the typeface to Helvetica fitted better with the squareness of the cubes whilst still being legible when skewed. Instead of using black text for all the locks this was adapted so that the colour of the typeface corresponded with the colour of the block to keep the design consistent. When this was done however it was found on the empty, yellow box that the dashed lines interfered with the number on the face of the cube. To prevent this sections of the dashed lines had to be taken out allowing the numbers to be more legible.  

On the reverse of the catalogue would be a A2 large scale print that people would hopefully want to keep as a poster. This design would use all of the numbered blocks, with each having a fragment of the poster behind them from the work they represent. This would tie with the images of the different events that were being used elsewhere in the identity. 

The blocks were to be placed in an A3 size space with a section about the exhibition and the cover and back cover would be A4 in size. An A5 size space was aimed to be set aside for the information about the exhibition meaning that there would be three A5 sized spaces left for all the cubes.

There would be 138 people participating in the exhibition which when divided by three meant that at least 46 cubes would have to fit within each of the A5 spaces.Due to the amount of blocks it was soon found that the text was going to have to be quite small to allow all of the cubes and writing to fit within the space. It was found that the writing could not be any smaller than 8pt at a push because otherwise it would be hard for people to read, with 9pt being the ideal size. 

Arranging the blocks in various ways in just an A5 section allowed for better understanding as to whether 46 blocks would fit within each of the spaces without having to do them all. It was worked out that a grid of 6 squares by 8 squares would fit 46 blocks. When these were spaced apart in rows allowing for the text to fit between the rows 9pt text could fit between them, however the blocks had to be reduced quite a bit. It was also clear that if anyone had a longer name than the example it would be hard to fit the name in without it going on to the next line.

Another layout was to place all of the blocks in rows side by side, however with this idea it was found that there was not enough width between each of the blocks for names to be put underneath each of them. The type was skewed in a similar way to the text in the blocks to coincide with the isometric grid and to help fit the text within the space, however this distorted the text making it less legible.

The blocks were also arranged in columns of ten so that they fit together following the isometric grid. This meant that five columns were needed in order to fit the amount of blocks within the space. This meant that the layout left little space for the text to go alongside each block and also meant that there was little breathing room for longer names or extra rows of text.

To allow more space for the blocks and text the information for the exhibition would be moved onto the front of the catalogue with the logotype and cubes. This now meant that a full A3 side would be available for all the blocks. Spacing the cubes so that there were gaps between bot rows and columns meant that there would be space horizontally so names could be positioned side by side for each of the blocks. It also allowed room for possibly three or four lines of text under each cube for the descriptions.

The information that was going to be about the exhibition had to be moved to the front of the catalogue to make room for the blocks. However this was not a problem as the cover design was already quite minimalist meaning there was space for it to be placed. 

Taking influence from the flyer design, the text on the  front cover of the catalogue was laid out in a similar column. Originally all the text was black however the key dates were changed to yellow to make them stand out more and to create contrast between the different types of information.