Production Journal

Day-to-Day College Production

20/2/18-7/3/18

Wrote and submitted my initial proposal.

8/3/18

Developed action plan from initial proposal and made a checklist of what needs to be included in my sketchbook taking influence of the work I did last year. This helped in planning the pages of my sketchbook as I can now fill in theories and begin putting research in without worry of running out of room.

9/3/18

Began secondary research by looking into different keywords linked to my subject on YouGov Profiles in order to roughly work the already established target audience. Alongside this I created a survey on SurveyMonkey to establish my primary research and look into what knowledge is already common to my preferred demographic. A problem I encountered here was that I couldn’t access the full version of Profiles so I couldn’t get the full amount of information of a group collected by the site. I contacted YouGov requesting full access for my project research but I haven’t had an answer back.

14/3/18

Went on Pinterest and DailyInfographic to find inspirational infographics and infographic creators. Put into sketchbook.

15/3/18

Research into the codes and conventions of an infographic in order to understand how to create my own and see the common trends. Put into sketchbook. Visited learning curves in both the Old Mill Lane Campus and UCB for books to help with my research on design theories, trends, visual displays, exhibitions, etc. I’ve recorded these in my bibliography.

16/3/18

Searched online for news articles, blog articles and stories of sharks and found that most were written with a negative representation of sharks.

21/3/18

Researched into charities to find two suitable to donate the proceeds of my project to. Put into sketchbook. I’ll decide on which I’ll be using later on as the ideas for my final product develop.

22/3/18

Filled in the colour theory and gestalt theory sections of my sketchbook, a problem I found here was that I ran out of space on the colour page so I had to glue in extra paper in order to include all of the information I’d found. Began typing up information for typeface theory.

23/3/18

Glued decorative pieces for the theories into sketchbook, filled in shape, typeface and researched into recent graphic design trends, specifically those popular in 2017 and ones predicted for 2018.

28/3/18

Added my existing knowledge of advertisement models and brand archetypes into sketchbook. Began researching and typing up British values.

29/3/18

Developed and presented my understanding of audience theory in my sketchbook as well as added in a page to define research and show the specific kinds.

30/3/18

Spent the day looking through magazines I’ve gotten from members of the diving club for articles on shark conservation, behaviours, first-hand experiences, etc. that I can cut out or scan to put into my sketchbook and further my research into existing media and public views and opinions.

4/4/18

Scanned and printed articles too big to cut, justified using a magazine source in sketchbook. Had to leave early due to personal issues, but I will make up the production time lost at home.

5/4/18

Decided on my final target audience by merging all of my research, put into sketchbook.

6/4/18

Arrived late due to personal problems, researched facts, figures and statistics then listed the information I will include on my infographic in my sketchbook.

11/4/18

Looked into possible curiosity aspects, decided on the coconut fact as it would make my infographic light-hearted despite the serious topic.

12/4/18

Helped out with a peer’s practical work to create decorations for the exhibition, I’ll make up this time at home. Put skills that I’ll learn and develop into sketchbook.

13/4/18

Ordered a badge maker to prepare for making products in time for the deadline, it should arrive in a week. Decided on donating to Shark Trust as it’s a smaller, more local charity. Went through sketchbook annotating parts of research.

18/4/18

Missed half an hour of production time at college thanks to bus being late, started designing various concepts for my infographic and its possible house style.

19/4/18

Finalised concept for my infographic, as well as the house style. Looked through DaFont and downloaded different fonts I could possibly use.

20/4/18

Began production on infographic.

25/4/18

Drove in to arrive early and brought the badge maker into college as well as the books I checked out at the learning curve to return them. I will also be taking back all of the magazines. Continued infographic production.

26/4/18

Messed around with different possible design features for my infographic on varying colours and backgrounds, continued infographic production.

 

27/4/18

Sketched out ideas for illustrations and product designs, I’ll be digitally creating them next week.

2/5/18

Aimed to work on illustrations for the infographic, however I ran into an issue with my graphics tablet as it ran out of charge due to being wireless and I hadn’t brought the wire. I tried to use some of the graphics tablets supplied by college but they weren’t compatible with my laptop and the program that I use for digital art or Photoshop. So because of this, I used today’s time at college to sketch potential designs for the products I’ll be selling at the exhibition and work on adding to my sketchbook.

3/5/18

Brought in charged graphics tablet and created illustrations. I also used this session to make a test badge to anticipate how the real product will be like.

4/5/18

Continued infographic production.

9/05/18

Finalised the house style of my infographic, deciding on the colours and fonts and added the understanding and justification behind them to my sketchbook alongside the others.

10/05/18

Worked on infographic, only needs a few more touches to go then I’ll be sending it off to be printed over the weekend. Printed and made up the badges I’ll be selling at the exhibition, as well as that I adjusted the illustrations from them to a more effective design to print on a tote bag.

11/05/18

Finished infographic and saved it in .psd, .pdf and .jpeg formats on a separate memory stick ready to print. Wrote short analysis points dissecting it into sketchbook and added more to the justification page.

16/5/18

Bought t-shirts and printed out the designs on magic touch, then used the heat press to seal the designs onto the bags. I found that I’d bought the wrong kind of t-shirts so I’ll be coming into college early in order to replace them. Continued writing my evaluation.

17/5/18

Exchanged t-shirts for the right ones before college and printed them. Finished off evaluation.

18/5/18

Checked over and handed in all work. Prepped for the exhibition. Infographic Development

To create my infographic, I started out with a blank canvas on Adobe Photoshop sized 60x40 inches, 300dpi with the CMYK image mode. 1) Created a base layer with a gradient. I did this to use one of the 2018 graphic design trends. 2) Found a stock image of waves, traced around it. 3) Used the magic wand tool to highlight the gradient area separated by the waves and filled it in with white on a new layer. 4) Typed in my infographic's tagline and warped a square into a fin-like shape. 5) Filled in my attention-grabbing introduction, adding particular emphasis to the figures. Used the line tool to fill in the negative space at the top corners of my infographic. 6) Used the square marquee tool to create a banner at the bottom, then warped it to make a slope. Added Shark Trust's icon.

7) Typed up a link to Shark Trust's website as well as the statistic I'm using for the curiosity aspect of my infographic. 8) Added a few simple illustrations to my curiosity to make my infographic have more visual appeal, as well as bring attention to the curious statistic. 9) Using the custom shape tool as well as the rectangular marquee tool, I created boxes for information. The purpose of the arrows is to first show where to begin reading from- we read left to right- and directs you to where the following piece of information lies. I also typed up the information for the boxes as well as the percentage figures. Throughout my infographic I change the colour of some of the text. This is to add extra emphasis to those words, examples being "extinction" and "still alive". 10) Copied and pasted the first directive arrow and warped it to curve around to the next box as well as fill in some of the negative space. Then I added the subheading of "So what is finning?" a question I answer in the box below. 11) Here I added a diagram of what finning does to a shark, including some typed information inside of it. I did this as many of the inspirational infographics I found on shark conservation had these, so I illustrated one in a different style to those to make my infographic more unique. 12) Added extra piece of information on finning to finish off that section, leading off to a second subheading "What can be done to help?". I copied and pasted the arrow, once again warping and cutting it using a ruler and the marquee tool to fit in line with the box it reaches from.

13) Typed up six different things someone could do to help shark conservation. There are plenty of other ways a person could help, however I chose these are they are the most simplest and easiest options, as well as that six is a well-rounded number that can be easily organised into a visually pleasing order. Something that made arranging this section of my infographic was the amount of text for each suggestion, as this depended on how big a box it needed. This resulted in a lot of moving them around, resizing boxes and formatting the text. Eventually I came to a satisfactory placement, however this left gaps of negative space I didn't want to leave. 14) So to fill in the small negative space at the bottom, I added one of the small shark illustrations I created for my product designs alongside a speech bubble. Product and Infographic Illustration Development

To create the images for my products I started them all the same way. First I sketched them out on either paper or digitally, then after opening these sketches with MediBang Paint Pro I did rough connected lineart. Using the magic wand tool I selected the outside of the lineart then inverted the selection via ctrl+shift+i and inked in the rest. After this I smoothed down the edges, coming to a silhouette of the image. Next I moved onto colouring, coming up with an exaggerated colour palette for each of the kinds of shark e.g. the Great White being more blue than grey and the Whale Shark having a red hue.

Making badges to sell at the exhibition:

Infographic Peer Feedback Do you think I have used an appropriate colour scheme for my topic? Please explain your answer.

Ella-Yes, the colour scheme is quite tropical. The blue represents the sea and the yellow colours represent the sand of a beach. This links well to your infographic topic.

Jasmine- I believe you have as they all complement each other well and relate to your subject.

Lewis – yes, the colours fit together and suit topic of your infographic.

Tyler – Yes, I believe that you have chosen an appropriate colour scheme as you have used colours that can be associated with the ocean and the beach. With the theme being on sharks, this is very suitable and ideal.

Is the presentation style (fonts, placement, amount, etc.) of the information on the infographic suitable? Is it easy to follow? Can you elaborate?

Ella-The layout is a fun but legible layout. You have used the element of continuity from the gestalt theory by including arrows. This makes it very easy for me to follow those arrows from one box of information to the next.

Jasmine- I think it is appropriate as you have made the style to current graphic trends to gain your audience’s attention to a serious subject.

Lewis – the layout is bright and bold making it easy to read and follow along the arrows and text.

Tyler – The fonts, placement and the amount of information on the infographic is very suitable. This is because it is easy to follow.

What stands out about my infographic?

Ella-The rounded off style to the infographic gives it a young and modern atmosphere. I think incorporating the illustrations of sharks makes it more personal than any others.

Jasmine- I think it is the animated sharks as this is what attracts my attention to your infographic and makes me read on.

Lewis – I like the images the images around the infographic because it gives it more character and that’s what capturers my eye first.

Tyler – The images, colours and text boxes stand out and appeal to the reader. This is ideal as you want people to be engaged by the infographic.

Finally, what changes/ improvements could I make and why?

Ella- In my opinion there is nothing I can see that could do with improvements.

Jasmine- I believe there is no improvements to make as if you was to change something it will ruin the effect that it currently has on the audience.

Lewis – maybe try different font style for the title because it doesn’t suit the rest of the infographic and it looks lost on the white background.

Tyler – I don’t believe that there are any improvements, but to be picky, you could have used a different font colour for the sandy coloured text boxes as they are only slightly different shades.