OUGD601 // Dissertation // Practical // Rationale

My dissertation looks at the effect that digital design is having on print and discusses wether the medium of print is still relevant within our digital age. By researching throughout the time of doing my dissertation, I was able to create a balanced argument for both sides, I found that print is still relevant within the industry and that at the moment it is making a come back as printing techniques such as letterpress and screen printing have become a lot more popular and being used again. A second finding was that companies that focus on publishing are using both print and digital design together in order to create a strong business plan and in essence create a product that is much more effective and one that can reach more people within the world.

Taking this factor into account, I wanted my practical element to open the same enquiry as my dissertation has. In order to achieve this I have focussed on the idea of print and web working together.

One subject that I have discussed within my dissertation is that print has seen a decline in the large print runs and it is now much more focussed on the quality of the product. This has created a surge in high quality and bespoke designed publications, this has also lead to more independent publications being released.

Within the design industry technology has changed publishing and recently magazines and publication have turned digital. This has taken the original printed publication and replicated it to create a digital product. On the other hand, you don't often see a digital product being translated and created into a printed product. I found this idea really interesting and thinking how a website could basically be printed and still communicate the same idea really intrigued me. This was the direction and creation of my practical element.

The basis of the project will be a website - the digital product. I will design, create and code a website that is for myself, this will carry my own branding and showcase my work. The website will be a simple design so that the focus is on the imagery of my work. By doing this it will hopefully make it easier to translate the design of the website to the printed page.

The publication will be directly influenced by the website, the layout of each page within it will create the layout of the pages within the publication. In order to communicate the translation of the website to the publication, I will include the website pages on a translucent stock to over lay the pages that corresponds to it. This will show how the website design has influenced the layout of the printed publication.

Elements within the publication such as the typeface will take representation of a digital nature and how the coding of a website aesthetically looks. This will carry through to the page formatting. The format of the publication is going to be A2. I have choose to use a large format as the tactility of a publication is the essence of it, making it large format, physically means the user is interacting with it. The stock of the publication will be GFSmith stock, the stock colours are that of my branding, orange, grey and off white, these will be used in various weights to represent the importance of pages of the websites.

The whole idea and communication of the practical element is to show that digital design can take on the characteristics of a printed publication. We see digital design as a external product, because it lives on a screen, you never to get physically hold the product or own it. The use of printing techniques, page formats and stock will show the user how texture, ink and stock can influence how you interact and understand a product. This is making a digital product be as tactile as print and essentially hold the same aura that print does.