Self Critique - Landscape Development

Over the last couple of days, since my most recent blog post, I have been picking out aspects of each spread that I think could be improved, in a self-critique, and I have been working on developing these into a more refined design. Below, I have attached JPEG images of each of my spreads individually, and each image has been accompanied with some text explaining exactly what I have changed in the spread. It will make it easier to identify the differences between my initial landscape brochure, and this developed version. Most of the developments are quite small and subtle, but needed in order to develop the brochure nonetheless.

Above, is my current brochure cover page. In my last mock up that I printed out, I noticed that some of the sky had been selected in the same colour range as the cityscape, so there was some of the darker blue in the sky. So basically what I did for this small development, was go through with the masking tool and mask over it all, so that the sky was only made up of the lighter blue shades, leaving the city and harbour to be coloured in the darker shade. I really like the fact that the cover is still quite simple in terms of the colour scheme, although just the simple introduction of the light blue shade for the sky has made the page seem a lot more lively and scenic, which makes it far more fitting more my brochure. It helps to set the tone for my brochure, and give the viewers a clear indication of the stylistic approach that I have taken right from the get go.

Above, is my initial destination spread, which is showing the walk up Mt. Victoria to the lookout. In my previous mock-up, I felt that there was too much negative space, and the visual flow that was created diagonally from the sign and the tower seemed to come to a halt in the massive blank area. So I have moved them in towards the centre of the spread, and I have added a bit more of the hill, some more city, and then a tree up on top for a bit more imagery, and to help give more of an emotive feel to the spread. Along with this, I left justified the main bodies of text, and went through to make sure that there wasn't any weird spacing in between words, which would've created an unwanted distraction to any readers. Also, on my last spread there was some strange dark areas through the middle of the page, so I wen't through and erased these. It turned out they had been part of one of images that I chose the colour range from. I am really happy with this development, as I had felt that the Mt. Victoria spread was slightly weaker than the rest, although now I am far more satisfied with how it is coming together. There is definitely more of a defined visual flow, whle the image is quite nicely balanced out, due to the varying scale of the images and text.

The spread directly above, based on Red Rocks Reserve, is at this point going to be my second destination that I am showing within my brochure. Much like the Mt. Victoria spread, this one I also went through and changed the text to left justified, and made sure that there weren't any weird spaces in between words. I felt like the justified text looks a lot better, and it helps it sit a bit more nicely on the page, rather than being quite disjointed due to the varying line lengths. It allows the images to be the most dominant, without being too distracted by the shaping of the text. Another aspect I played around with was the colour of the imagery. For a starter, I changed the pinkish colour to the same colour as the heading, although at about a third of the opacity, to still make sure it portrays the noisy, rough aesthetic that I was aiming for. On the printed mock-up, the black part of each image (such as the seal, Owhiro Bay sign and the rock) looked too dark, and were too dominant. I went into the colour swatches and changed each of these to still a dark colour, but more of a really dark grey, rather than a straight black. I feel like this will help improved my brochure by still having the imagery as the focal point, but not too overpowering and distracting because of the stark contrast between solid black and the background. I will print my updated brochure out tomorrow so I can see how it looks when outputted.

In the attached image above, the Botanic Garden spread, I have made a few changes in terms of the composition, and also in terms of the text as well. The heading remains the same, although I have again played around with adding in the left justification. This allows it to sit a lot nicer on the page, and allow the imagery to be the most dominant feature. The indented text still allows the three bodies of text to be differentiated. I have played around with the composition, and the scale of my imagery, in order to improve the visual flow of my spread. In my last development, the visual flow was a bit disjointed, so I have rearranged the imagery, and added in a bit more, in order to create a more defined diagonal visual flow. I have added in the little path with "Wellington Botanic Garden" written on the shelter, and have also incorporated a bit more of the field area, which consisted of all sorts of roses and other beautiful flowers. I am really happy with how this spread has developed, and it definitely looks a lot more balance, structured, and overall refined. I will print this out and take it in for the class critique on Monday.

 

Above, is my final page in my brochure, which consists of the "Journey Planner" and "My Schedule" sections. There are a few small changes I have made to these. When I printed out my most recent physical mock-up, the calendar, as well as the right hand modules, seemed a bit too far down the page, so I have simply moved them up a bit higher, and aligned the top module with the top part of the calendar. I have played around with the opacity of the background cityscape behind the modules and calendar just so they aren't too distracting. Furthermore, I have removed the "date/walk" title on the schedule page, and replaced it with a "day one", "day two", and "day three" heading.

I feel like my brochure has definitely developed a lot over the last few days, especially since making the change from portrait to landscape. Tomorrow I am going to print these out into a mock-up brochure, which I will take to class on Monday for our class critique. I'm glad that I have continued to individually refine the brochure in my own time, which allows me to take a more developed version to class, so I am further ahead in the refinement process. Hopefully this means that there won't be too many major changes that I need to make coming into the final week of this project. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this looks once it is printed out, following all of the changes that I have made in the past few days. Despite a few of the changes being quite small, it's noticing all these small changes that can actually have a major positive impact on the advancement of my designs, or any design in general. So over the next week, before hand-in, I will look to be as picky as possible with heaps of little changes, as well as change it based on feedback I get in class.