Today I've designed another idea for the backing paper design project. My initial thought process behind it was that it could work either way up, and that the different orientations provide different descriptions of the size format, so one way would should how the frame is approximately 20 x 15 cm, and the other would show how it's approximately 8 x 6 inches. In terms of design inspiration I went down a Swiss style design route, probably with a good mixture of both contemporary influence and modernist influence. I've made note of some visual research underneath; I'd like to stress that I didn't want to be too cliché by using Helvetica or Akzidenz Grotesk, however much I like them. I opted for a mixture of different weighted versions of Avenir Next, and I'm happy with that choice, I think the numbers in particular look brilliant.
Here's the new designs:
I wanted to add a little extra into this design too, after last weeks crit I decided my minimalist design was simply too minimal. I've decided to opt for a bar code and a QR code. It's important to mention that the intention of the QR code would be to take the customer to the web-address of the website the frame is from, however for the sake of this project I've made a working link to my own blog.
A bar code was another design element I wanted to incorporate, it adds much more context to the design and makes it much more realistic as a product. The bar code itself also has connections to myself, only the really keen observers will find that the code reads: 'OUGD405 DB251837', which is the module code mixed with my student number; again it's just another way of adding design subtleties to a piece of work.
The way I wanted to utilise the visual research on Swiss style, would be by implementing a 15o baseline for the text to sit on. That and the colour scheme.
Careful consideration into a grid system has been put in place as to align all the elements of the design in a clean way.
Finally, I included an image of the matterhorn, just to solidify that link between my design and Swiss design. I'm really pleased with how it looks, I could see it on the shelf of some contemporary furniture store. I do think it needs one more thing though, I'm just not entirely convinced of what it is. One thing I am considering is creating a brand, just to stick some kind of logo on there perhaps.
