Frame backing paper development

Frame backing paper development

I chose my favored sketches and created them into a digital output with influences from visual and conceptual aspects to create a base of designs to work upon. Playing about with right alignment and left alignment of type on the first 2 designs but for ease of reading I prefer the first example. The below designs experiment with the use of bottom position headers and top positioned header with positive tracking and the reduction of clutter by taking away the cm dimensions but i seem to be drawn to the use of a line separating the inch dimension and the cm dimensions. It represents a sort of conversion symbol used in mathematics. like the use of a division line in a sum. 

I am using adobe illustrator for typographic elements and photoshop to construct the elements of type with my prepared imagery. Also to put the final design in context of a frame. 

Developed the 3rd design on the top row into an outcome that displays a visual grid inspired by the De Stijl movement at this point in time alignment issues and composition of type need addressing. Added lots of positive tracking and a smaller type size for the header to make use of the space of the composition a little better.

Perfecting alignment of a centre aligned block of text by adjusting tracking, type size and spacing between 6, x, 4 and " all following set spacing as show below. 

Final example works ok but isn't very legible and doesn't hold much structure. 

Fine adjustments in layout and presentation of all small increments of measurements between glyph elements. 

Tried out the use of Bauhaus typeface due to cultural relevance and connections between the Bauhaus and the minimalism movements and how the Bauhaus placed there style firmly into the minimalism movements of different eras. This doesn't work though due to the softness and roundness within the characteristics of the glyphs, it loses all sense of the structure I was after in the composition.

Settled on Univers Std in roman and bold weights to create interesting contrasts of light and heavy and the structure in the glyphs help create an overall structure and feeling of security in the positioning of the typographic elements. 

Used my settled typeface Univers Std on the favored De Stijl influenced design. Peer feedback and a quick ask around friends influenced the development of this design. Played about with alignment of the lines and the spacing between the header, the grid dimension element and the cm element. Im happy with this layout it has lots of structure and makes good use of the space within the designs composition, minimal elements work without them feeling like there just floating about the space. They feel fixed and structured. 

Working on some back up designs incase the above doesn't work when incorporated with imagery in the photoshop stages. Shortened the line so its level with the edges of 10 x 15cm to create a better feeling of structure.

Added a cap to create structure but it doesn't work at this length.

Shortened and works much better but the design appears too empty which was mentioned in its initial sketches within the interim crit so the space at the bottom of the composition needs to be used up. 

Created a rough barcode to make use of the space and works much better now. The spacing works perfect. This design would work great how it is, a very clinical and clean design. Very minimalist, functional and legible. But I wanted to create a design that could represent more than type only documents (certificates) for the context of the frame so imagery needs to be added.  

Elements of heir-achy using large point size and bold weights in the header. 

Added lines to create a more visual element of the typography to stop the design appearing too empty but it just causes confusion and hinders legibility and readability of the words and glyphs. 

Gathered a nice choice of type elements to use with my imagery. All these are ready for placing into my photoshop files. 

Opened my image document with the prepared CMYK document. I chose the manipulated image I took in the Tetley gallery as the monotone imagery would be far too heavy in terms of tonal ranges with the addition of typography it would appear too cluttered and busy. To add imagery to avoid loss of quality images are PLACED into the condiment so they retain original resolution and vector quality even with altering of sizing and positioning.

The typography almost fits perfectly into the image but the red imagery element interfered with the A glyph hindering the headers readability and losing consistency wich is is important through my compositions. 

Tried to hide the A behind the image to create a sense of abstractness but this failed the A was hard to distinguish as an A.

Altered positioning so the crossbar was visible worked a little better but I still wasn't happy. 

Altered the angle of the element to 45 degrees to make it line up better with the grid element. Works much better now don't like the grey background though it has a very cold feel and slightly industrial feel not suited for frames for home decor. 

Even worse, far too heavy in terms of tonal ranges and clashing with typography hindering legibility and drawing too much attention to the image elements when the main aspect is the dimension information and brand name. 

Perfect! Works well with the primary colors, has a very neutral feel and reverts back to initial suggestions of using pastel colors. Creates a whole different aesthetic of the whole design, feels much more neutral and softer. Much better suited to housing decor frames.

Playing about with different typographic templates.

Putting a design into context of a photo frame. Found a better angle photo of the frame to work with. Placed the image file into the A4 document that the frame sits in.

Cmd & T allows you to transform the image in terms of size. 

Advanced transform edits allow skewing and other positioning elements i used skew to allow the frame to fit into  the correct perspective of the frame. Old image was cut out using the rectangular Lasso tool and erased so this new backing design was placed below this layer to make it feel like it belonged in the frame better. 

Finals presenting there other dimensions based on the same layout creating consistency through all 3 design outcomes.