Record Reviews

In class, we had a review a couple of songs from the 60s. So, I went onto the chart website and went to a random week in 1967. I decided to pick a couple of records that stood out to me, starting further down in the charts and making my way up.

The first is I'll Never Fall in Love Again by Tom Jones. On this particular week, it was number 45, but it did reach number 2 in the UK and number 6 in the US. It's a slower song, and the focus is mainly Jones' voice. It's a sweet, sad song and I do like it. However, it's not my favourite as it's pretty simple, and, well, I'm not heartbroken to love it too much. Apparently America agreed when it was first released as it only reached number 49, but then when released two years later, it reached number 2.

The next is Soul Man by Sam and Dave. This is literally the opposite of Jones' track, as it's upbeat and jazzy. This is their first single, and it hit number 14 at it's best, but did win the 1967 Grammy for Best Rhythm And Blues Group Performance. I love this one, as it's upbeat and has a lot of energy.

The next one is Big Spender by Shirley Bassey. This one is a signature song for Bassey, and reached number 14 in the UK charts. I enjoy listening to this one because of her voice, but it also reminds me of glamour. People like Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, all come to mind when I hear this.

Next is I'm Wondering by Stevie Wonder.  This peaked at number 12 in the US and number 22 in the UK. This is probably one of my favourite tracks, as it's catchy and stays in your head. The lyrics are easy and light-hearted.

Finally, I had to do the number one of that week. That was Baby Now That I've Found You by Foundations. This one is very upbeat and, again, catchy. I like this one again because it's very disco and high energy.

Peer Evaluation

In class, we all pinned up our covers and ideas for our book early on. This gave us all a chance to give and receive feedback.

I pinned up my covers and, also, a couple of layout ideas for the inside of my book. I got feedback that the layouts were good, one particularly interested people, which was the 'MUSIC' page. However, the others were very neat and clean, and in the 60's pages didn't look too precise and organised. So, when I was editing my book, I took this on board and didn't line up images with text, and I even used text wrap on the images so the words would be placed around them.

Another bit of feedback I got was on my covers. People generally seemed to like them, but there was pointed out a way to improve them - or the one I chose. It was suggested I could make into an interactive GIF, and when you scroll over the cover, a spotlight appears on the figure.

At first, I liked this idea but then I realised we were exporting this project as an iBook, and in print (if we had time). So, I decided not do this, but the feedback helped me a great deal with choosing the cover I wanted.

My (Flat) Plan

The next step in my book, is to sort out the content and organise the book. I did a simple flat plan in Illustrator. This clearly lays out the structure. It's different from a print book as you cannot do double spreads in web versions of books. So, this is why each page is laid out separately.

After the cover, I have a contents page. This will include links to the pages so you can skip to certain pages, and this is to make the book a bit more interactive. I have also included a couple of 60's adverts in my book, as many magazines had full-page advertisements, and I want to have a 60's style.

I also laid out the entire book in Indesign (only some pages are completely designed). These aren't all the pages, but you can see how it has been organised. I need to fill the blanks still, and then focus on the contents. I also want to add some audio of their songs, but that's for a later date.

So far, I like how it's turning out and I think my content is really good. However, I'm a little worried about the colour in the book as I haven't really added any. It's something to experiment with and start toying with.

The Audience

I want to have a vague age range, and for two groups of people: younger adults and people who grew up in the 60's. I want to reach out to people who grew up in the sixties, as the style of my book will be 60's inspired, and will look as if it was made in the 60's, so this group will recognise that (hopefully). I also want to reach out to younger adults, as it's an informative reading piece and it'll be an interactive online book which appeals to this group. I think the book as great cross between old and new, which is why I have two groups.

Making my product accessible is important, as I don't want to make my product only available for certain people. I was using Helvetica for the font in my book, however, after some research Arial and Georgia seem to be preferred fonts, and older people prefer 14 point size font. Because of this, I am changing some of my fonts, but I am sticking to my 16 point size as I want the text to be slightly larger than normal books. This is to help people with dyslexia and reading issues, and the sans-serif fonts will help with that, too.
Source: http://www.awaionline.com/2011/10/the-best-fonts-to-use-in-print-online-and-email/

I believe my product is tuned for my audience(s), as there are things about it that people will like (the interactivity, the style, the context). However, if there was one thing I am worried about it making it all flow, and writing about the 60's to people who lived in that era.

Page Layouts

I had sketched some interesting layouts from 60's examples, and so I produced one of these in InDesign. It needs work, for sure, but I think it's different and interesting. I may experiment by making some letters bigger and putting more text in others. Also, I may fiddle with the fonts a little.

Other pages I wanted to be more simple - all about the information. However, there's a huge difference between most 60's styled pages and mine. Mine's too neat.

I love having straight lines and perfectly lined up photos, but many 60's examples weren't quite like that. Paragraphs were dotted around and photos didn't fit around the text. However, there are many ways (like my 'MUSIC' page) to do this creatively.

So, though I like my simple layouts, I may have to dig a little deeper and get more creative, to bring my book to the 60's.

Book Cover

I decided to design a mock-up book cover for my interactive 60's styled book. First comes the research, so I looked at book covers in that era.

Most book covers use icons to represent what the book content was, and the colours were bright and retro. So, my first designs were very bright, and had the silhouettes of two faces and one woman. I really liked the icon idea, but I thought I could improve it.

With some more looking, I found Helvetica was used widely back then. So I used that font and added more colours.

I also changed the opacity of the icons so you could see slight colour changes in the pictures, too. This gives it a nice flow and the colour seems naturally faded.

I tried a couple of colour themes (blue and pink) to see if other colours worked better. Personally, I like the pink and purple one best, because it seems more musical and disco-like with the way the orange pops out.

I did some more experimenting with my covers, but I carried on with the pink colour theme. I added opaque circles, more shapes and one I even changed the icon. To me, now, the most successful ones are the bottom middle and the bottom right - mostly the bottom right. This is because of the dynamic shapes included and how it's 60's inspired but still different from just any other 60's book cover.

Finalising my Idea

For my interactive book on the 1960's, I'm making a book about The Supremes, their story, their music and their influence on that era. It will be full of information and facts, but also help for people to remember or be inspired by the girl group.

For this, I wanted to look at layouts of magazines and pages of that era, as I'll be designing it as if it was made in the 60's. I found a couple of creative pages that I liked, so I drew this up in my sketchbook.

I liked having a creative way to show or tell something to the audience, so I will continue to find retro but creative ways to present my book. Another thing is, in the 60's, most magazines had not a lot of order about them, so things seem a little messier (compared to how neat things can be these days). I want to replicate this.

I did a small practice run in Indesign on laying out text, and using paragraph styles. You can see this really simple layout I was playing with.

I want to do more of a complicated design next time in Indesign, and make it colourful and arty.

1960's Style Book

Our new brief is to create an interactive book with a theme of the 1960's, and about a subject - or more - in the 1960's. For instance, culture, politics, etc. We can design this in any style we want, psychedelic or comic, for example.

Up next, comes the research. I looked into typography and photography back in the 60's, to help me decide on the style of my interactive book.

Photography in those days was mostly black and white, and the use of film cameras (obviously). I've included some of my favourite shots in this blog.

A very famous photographer in the 1960's, that worked with many celebrities also, is David Bailey. He's known worldwide for his pictures, that mostly were of celebrities and even for the magazine Vogue. He was a cultural icon for art and photography, with his clear shots and simple approach.

Another photographer who had an impressive private collection, was Lewis Morley. His photos are a little more creative, and some have an atmosphere because they're not as clear as Bailey's. The photos are a bit more creative and aren't as simple - which I like. Having the images as black and white also adds to the effect of his images.

Psychedelic font

I also had to research typography in the 60's, and a good way to look at that was looking at posters and album covers of that time.

A font that's very popular is the psychedelic font, created by Wes Wilson. This font floats around artwork and has a very artistic and hippy feel to it. Wilson says, when he was creating the font, that he wanted to use up all of the space when he was creating a poster.

My Sketchbook

There are other fonts, some are very bubble-looking, curly or pretty 'simple'. Colour was a huge thing, also, and the 60's was full of it.


My idea was the brief was, at first, fashion. However, doing some simple research on fashion in the 60's, I was mostly inspired by a group of girls that were highly influential in that era. The Supremes. From their music to their fashion, they overcame racial barriers and released top hits in their careers. So, my book will be about The Supremes and how influential they were.

Getting to Know Indesign

I followed an Abode tutorial for InDesign, and it helped me to get the basics of producing something interactive. The tutorial is here if you want to check it out. 

First, I downloaded the files I needed to and then I followed the tutorial. It was pretty easy, and it was helpful to see how buttons and slideshows, for instance, works. It teaches you how to make things pop up, like audio or notifications; it teaches you to make photos switch and turn into a slideshow, and, finally, it shows you how to use buttons to switch these photos (make it interactive). 

This was really helpful, and I want to keep exploring InDesign. This is something I can do with this guide page, which helps you make hyperlinks and etc, etc. You can read this here.

The Business

In order for my business to work effectively and be a success, I would use certain techniques. Job production is where you create one product, and when you've finished that one you can start another. The reason being is that I'd like to focus entirely on making my app and website, and then upgrading it where need be. As I'm only creating one thing then sending it out to a store for multiple to buy, job production is the most suited technique for my company.

There may be some constraints on production, however. One that comes to mind is timing. This is because to build a website and application from scratch isn't easy and is time-consuming. Production will take a while, and any updates in the future for any glitches or new features will also take time. However, with dedication and the right timing for advertising the app, I know timing could only be a small constraint.

There are some legal requirements when starting any business (in the UK). This includes from choosing the name to tax liabilities, and more. Some don't really impact my business - like trading laws and limitations - but things like choosing a name that isn't offensive or copied, and seeing what copyright and insurances I need to look into. 

Source: http://www.uk.parkerrandall.com/what_we_do/start-ups_advice/legal_requirements 

There are some UK laws that affect app developers in particular, too. One is the Data Protection Act 1998. This law is all about the information you gain from people using you app, and how t use that data. You can only gain information from people that you need, and you ned to register with the ICO. You cannot store this information for longer than needed, you must provide it for the person to access if they wish and let them know what's happening to their data.

Another law is the Office Of Fair Trading. This prevents companies from acting aggressively to customers, and the company is not allowed to hide anything important in small-print or 'privacy policy'. For instance, if there are any in-app purchases then it must be clearly stated. 

Source: http://www.appprivacy.net/uk-laws

You can download my application from the Apple Store, however, that is not where you subscribe or create your account, but you can login. On the website, you will create an account and subscribe to the monthly cost. This is because Apple can take 30% of profits made from application prices or in-app purchases. By signing up online, Apple don't take the huge percentage out, but you can still make money. The website is linked within the application, so sign up is easy and simple.

How I'm going to let people know about this is, firstly, the website. This is where you sign up and choose to subscribe. The website will show animations of the features and when the application will or does look like. It shows you where you can download it, and it shows reviews from others (I'll come back to this).

Another platform I can take is social media. Social media is the best way to reach people my age, so I'll create Facebook ads, an Instagram page, and etc. This will reach out to people and they can browse the feed from that platform or move straight to the website. 

Finally, I will try and get reviews. I'll release a prototype version for a certain group of people for reviews. I can also get in contact with Buzzfeed and other popular online sites to review it or try it out. I want to get as many people as I can excited about the release of the application.

Who is my app for?

I don't mean to be vague, but everyone.

The issue I have with targeting a certain audience for my product, is that it reaches out to people with mental health issues - which is one in four globally. I have a huge global audience this can be relevant to, and an approximate of that audience is 450 million people.

However, I won't be able to reach that many people as there are complications, like language barriers and such. Though this narrows down my possible audience, I still can't narrow that down to how old my audience is and what they earn.

I first started with some research. I wanted to focus on young adults, at first, as they would be the ones using apps more regularly. I found that the increase of young adults and children being admitted to the hospital, over the last decade, was 68%. Another statistic was that over half of adults suffering with mental issues were diagnosed in childhood, and at least 80000 children and young adults are suffering from severe depression. Source: http://www.youngminds.org.uk/training_services/policy/mental_health_statistics

These statistics helped me to realise anxiety and depression, and other mental issues, was serious in young adults and children. Considering that 18-24 years old was the age group that spends the most time on apps on mobile devices, I decided to aim my product at 16 - 25 year olds. However, this does not mean I won't have features for older or younger people, as mental health issues is something that affects everyone, and I don't want to exclude anyone at all. Source: http://www.businessofapps.com/app-usage-statistics-2015/

So, I decided to do a survey. This was to gather information about people's interest in my product, whether they would use it (and pay for it), and whether they suffered at all from mental issues. I am still getting responses, but it seems most of people responding are 15 - 19, and only 15% don't suffer from any mental health issues. Again, 39% don't want to see a doctor or therapist though they suffer symptoms. This helped my to add an app disguise to the features of my app - (one of which 61% would feel is useful). So far, the more important features are a mood tracker, and a progress report - and I've also received suggestions.

Take my survey here: https://goo.gl/forms/dcUWSDi1weSeuttd2 

Personal Brand Logos

Personal branding is the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands. This is Wikipedia's definition of personal branding, and this is what I was tasked to do recently. 

I decided to look at other examples on Pinterest to get an idea of what was already out there. Most designs related to context. For instance, a floral design for florists; a camera icon for photographers; a creative art for artists, etc. Most designs were simple and not overly complicated with colours or the design itself.

Next, to organise my ideas, I decided to set out a physical mind map. This was to get creative and every time I have an idea I can add it, and brainstorm from old ideas. I first organised the designs I had copied from Pinterest into groups.

Next, I wanted my logo to represent me, so I wrote down words to describe me, hoping for some inspiration on how to reflect that. Finally, I discovered some colour themes I could include in my logo. This mind map helped me get all of my ideas and thoughts out on physical paper.

Then, I took a page of my sketchbook and went away to design multiple ideas. Some I wasn't happy with as they didn't suit me and my

personal brand. I like the logos where I included the word 'designer'. Of course, I'm not in a designing career as of yet, but it sounded nicer than 'student'. I then took my favourite design and took it into digital form to play with it. 

In the end I went with something simple. I like the end product because it's not complicated and it has a nice texture. I think there could've been ways to include more of my personality in the logo, and I may even keep working on an icon to add to it, but, for now, I'm pleased with its progress so far. 

My Product

I have to create a product, and, for that product, a proposal. I had to brainstorm ideas, and I thought it would be a good idea to produce something I'm passionate about. Those things are children, writing and helping people. At first, I thought of a sketchbook that would help inspire artists. A wise man once told me 'never start with a clean sheet of paper'. However, when you have sketchbooks full of blank pages, it's hard to not imagine how to make it 'unclean'. This is what inspired me to think of a sketchbook full of pages with scribbles, dirt or even paragraphs. This will hopefully help inspire artists to create.

Another idea was a children's book to help with reading and/or writing. As a big sister, I can see what helps my little sister with reading and writing, and thought I could create a book as a helpful tool.

Finally, I thought of something different. An app. As someone who is obsessed with good apps on my phone, I thought of one to help people with any kind of anxiety. This would help track your moods, what triggers any negativity, have a panic mode for when you need it, and gain anonymous support from real people also using the app. I thought this may be really helpful to people who suffer with anxiety, panic attacks or any type of mental illness. I thought was my my best idea because a lot of people suffer in silence with mental illnesses, and not having support from others or themselves.

I designed an arty proposal in my sketchbook with all of my ideas and thoughts for this app  I can't wait to improve on it, and start some much needed research.

Charcoal Portraits

Today, we started to experiment and draw with charcoal. There have been thousands of artists that have created masterpieces with charcoal. This is an example on Google.

I have never drawn with charcoal before, so this was interesting.

At first, I did some of my usual, cartoony sketches to get to grips with the charcoal. It was hard to sketch with as the charcoal doesn't completely stick to the page, so when you slide your hand across, it smudges. However, doing a self-portrait and a fashion inspired sketch, I used this to my advantage to create shading and highlights.

My sketch is quite simple and basic, which I like but can improve on. I think more detail and learning how to smudge purposely and not on accident will help. I could, next time, try sketching with a real model in front of me. Because I used a webcam to see my own face, when I looked down to draw and then back up, my position had changed. This didn't help with proportions and sizes.

The next one had dried a bit weirdly. I had accidentally used too much spray to dry it, which made the charcoal run around with it excess spray. I can fix this with chalks, etc, but next time I know to be a bit more sparing with the spray, and dry it on a flat surface.

Frankenstein Poster

We had to create a infographic about Mary Shelley, with all the research we had gathered. I decided to do a simple one, with similar colour themes through and 'older' font styles.

However, to catch the eye, I used symbols and text boxes to design my layout and information. The yellow also makes it bold and bright and eye-catching.

To improve, I would want more. More information, more icons, more to fill the 'blanks', as it does look a bit simple. I also would'v drawn it out by hand and maybe kept it that way, so I could keep adding to it with ease, and get all my ideas out at once.

Colour-ways

We had to learn about different colour-ways and what works with who. What this means is when you designed something, you alternate the colours to create different moods and feelings. For instance, this is an example from Google. It has the same design and shape, just completely different colours within them. This is a good way to experiment.

I decided to use different colour-ways with something I had previously designed that I had given up on. This is the original piece that was meant to be used for a tattoo idea. I did like it but I thought I could improve on the simplicity of it all. This was a perfect opportunity to experiment with colour.

Firstly, I added colour behind it. This made the piece 'pop' little more, and added some fun to it. I also changed the colour of the birds, however, I thought I could do more.

That evolved into a 'blue' vision of the girl. I liked the orange behind and how it contrasted with the blues, but more experimentation was necessary, and that led into these other versions.

Overall, my favourite has to be the purple girl with the navy background. The colours compliment each other well, and it's pleasing on the eye. I would've chosen the orange and blue girl because of the contrast, but it was very bright.

My least favourite the red background and the yellow-ish girl. Ths is because it almost looked natural, but yet off. It was plain and very close to the original.

Next time, I would experiment with different types of colour schemes like complementary, etc. Just to get a wider variety in choices.

Accessibility Poster

We had to create a poster, that reaches as many audiences as we could - including people with disabilities. This was to 'put around college' to inform people. Given all my research on dyslexic fonts, colours for colour blindness, and more, I decided to create a poster about College IDs.

There is a new rule in college that we have to wear our IDs around our necks. So, I decided to make a poster telling students to, and why. Despite it being an informational poster, I wanted to make it fun and cartoony so it caught the eye. So, I had the initial idea of having the college ID as the poster. This is visual, so anyone with trouble reading from a distance could make the connection with the poster and the content already, so it is good for short-sighted people and colour blind people.


This is the poster I designed in my sketchbook. If I could improve anything it would be the colouring. As this was made with disabilities in mind, I would've completed it in the college colours - blue and white - instead of plain black. Also, I would've cleaned up the text and layout - but it was only a rough draft. (Colour-ways blog, here).

I could test whether or not it is good by handing out A5 sizes and asking people for feedback, or hanging it on a wall next to feedback forms. Alternatively, I could gather people with dyslexia, or colour blindness, and conduct a focus group.

Finished Tattoo

I decided to put my tattoo in digital form as a final piece.

Overall, I liked my idea and initial design as it was creative and represented something meaningful. However, if I could go back I would spend more time on hand-drawing the tattoo, as that would've made it more of a realistic looking tattoo. I also would've tried to improve the text a little by hand, but I didn't add any digital fonts because I wanted to act as if it were a real tattoo.

Museum Visit

On Thursday we went down to the museum 'Bath at Work', which is a reconstructed old factory including over a million collected items from real old factories. Our task was to draw still life in the museum. These pictures are ones I took of some things that really interested me.

This ranged from a typewrite, vintage bottles, and even an old fashioned car. Being not quite talented enough yet to draw a real life car, I decided to pick smaller areas of things to draw. This is a snapshot of my sketchbook.

I think with some more practice and time, still life can be something I can draw with more ease. I enjoy putting textures into things, so I liked to draw things like wood and paper. Glass, metal and shiny things I struggled a bit more with drawing, so I think if I continue to draw shiny objects in my sketchbook maybe everyday or so, I can - hopefully - only get better.

This is a skill I'd like to learn and is very useful in the publishing world. To see something and draw it can be useful, as that could inspire you or remind you
of something and help with designing other things for clients.

Accessibility

Can you read this?

A graphic designer, with dyslexia, has designed a font to show the difficulty of reading with dyslexia. When you try to reform the letters to make the words, and can no longer skim read, it takes ten times longer to read it - which is embarrassing. This was Daniel Britton’s intention - for people to understand the most common learning disability. This, however, to hard to test as what fonts may work for some, it won't work for others.

Disabled people have to be considered when anything is produced or published. It helps your work to reach a wider audience, shows that you care, but, mostly importantly, avoids any discrimination.

Considering this - how far do we have to take this? If you publish a poster, how can you avoid people who are short-sighted not seeing anything? Do we have to make Mount Everest wheelchair accessible? How is it even possible to create a poster or app eligible for all disabilities? I think the best way to see how people react to different, is getting some secondary research. I didn't think there'd be any, but there was.

(Link to essay - coming soon)