OUGD504 - Writing and Exchanging Briefs

Exchanging Briefs

Meeting with Serge 

The theme of his book is a three day travel guide to Dubai and will contain mixture of activities, landmarks, scenery; places of note within Dubai. These will include main tourist places as well as other lesser known things that are interesting within Dubai. It was suggested that content would be broken into morning, afternoon and evening activities because of weather conditions and high heat which means people are unable to do things outside during day.

Dubai a very wealthy place and people need money in order to visit so the book will be aimed at 28 - 40 year olds who have disposable income. It was said that people mainly go as families or as a couples and that the city has visitors from all around the world. He wanted the book to be gender neutral to appeal to a wider demographic.

It was also discussed how, although very multi-cultural, there are also strict rules and laws within Dubai that visitors should be aware of which he described as mentionables within the book.

Dubai was described as a luxury, modern, fashionable, highclass and extravagent  so the book needed to reflect these themes.

Sources that Serge had looked at were National Geographic and other travel guides such as Lonely Planet, Marco Polo, Eye Witness Travel.

It was suggested that the product would be sold in airports, hotel stands and on planes, in business and first class

It was discussed that other travel guides on the area were roughly between £3 - £7

Observations on Content available so far:

- Written content for the book was quite limited and there was a little uncertainty on his part as to what he would be including, however it seemed there would be brief information about each place and its location.  
- Much of the information was from his own knowledge rather than sources, meaning most of the research for the project would have to be self directed until he had written the content
- All the images for the book had been created, with plenty to chose from in different variations. Many of the images were good compositionally and some architecturally striking.
- A range of places had been visited with multiple things to do in each location

Points and questions that were put forward to Serge

- Many of the places visited often more than one activity inside, so it was discussed how content could be grouped into sections depending on location /  area, e.g. Dubai Mall as a section then the Aquarium and Ice rink would be a sub section within this.
- It was suggested that information on the Metro System, Mentionables and Taxis could be put together as a travellers help guide
- It was said that because of the intent for minimal information on each place the book would not be like normal travel guide and would be more photographic in its approach
- It was asked whether the 'three day guide' had to be kept as it was felt it was possibly limiting, especially when it was expressed that the guide could be used by people who were staying longer. It was suggested it could be aimed at people waiting for flights or a weekend guide which was less specific. Also the content had not been broken into three days so this would need to be worked out in order to do the three day idea.
- Morning, Afternoon and Evening sections would provide guides on how to spend time. However it was said that for this to be done I would need the plans for each day to be worked out.
-Because of the price range between £3 and £7 it was said the book would have to create the illusion of high class through affordable means so compromises would have to be made within budget.

Things that were agreed I needed to continue:

- The number of images would need to be cut down as there were multiples of the exact same shot. Refining them down to different angles rather than multiples would better help me select images for the book.
- Would need a list of all the places where pictures had been taken for research purposes and understanding the topic.
- All the images would need to be put into folders to make it easier to navigate between content e.g.having a main folder for each place then subfolders within this for each activity within the place. This would make it easier to understand which place is in which location. 
- The content would need to be written up, however this was not needed urgently