OUGD504 - Studio Brief 1 - Guidebook Evaluation

Evaluation 

The aim of the brief was to create a travel guidebook to Dubai exploring the activities, places and landmarks within the city and making it engaging for a family target audience. 

The brief wanted the design to reflect the modern, fashionable and high class aspects of Dubai. To evoke a sense of this the design was kept very minimal with an emphasis on imagery and small amounts of text to make the book visually engaging for a family audience and to create a personal, local tone to the book through the information. It was said in feedback that often people did not like the use of lots of text within guidebooks and that having more visuals allows them to get a better sense of whether they want to go to that place. This was taken on board so that the design was primarily photographic. Content for the publication was refined to include only activities that were appropriate and exciting for the whole family, also any places that did not have images that were bright and appealing were also refined down.

The use of the beach and road lines throughout the book allows a narrative and journey to be created through Dubai. The name of the book ‘Dubai: Two Journeys’ makes reference to the idea of travelling along the lines. The use of these lines also allows places to be plotted providing a representation of where the places are geographically. It was said initially that this was perhaps not clear and thought that they were only for illustration purposes however, the contents explains the use of the lines making it easier for people to follow. The refinement of the lines reflects Arabic scripture creating a link between traditional and modern Dubai and reflecting the juxtaposition of the two within the city, creating an elegant design. 

The guidebooks format allows the user to easily hold it within there hand, carry it in there bag, whilst the softcover makes it light, allowing the book to be functional and practical for travelling.

Similar travel guides were priced between £6 - £10 and it was said that the book would be sold at Airports, Hotels and on planes. The book was created using a mixture of processes some of which would not be functional for mass production however these were chosen because of resource restrictions. In particular the cover would be able to be recreated through foiling and embossing onto black card, which in industry is much more accurate in comparison to the results within university, so because of this lasercutting was used as an alternative. Also the use of offset lithography for the internal pages would reduce the cost of the books printing at a larger scale.  The book was created within price range however would be even cheaper with the use of industrial techniques. The guidebooks minimalist and refined look is very different to conventional travel guides which use mainly large photographic imagery so the guidebook would stand out next to its competitors.  

The finish of the book has been successful with the resources available. The soft cover perfect binding has folded effectively despite being thicker because of the combined card. The use of the laser cutter for the cover design has allowed for a precise and accurate finish to the line design creating a refined finish. The printing of the images on to the coloured paper although not as vivid as printing the images and colour onto white, still works well.