Chapter 5: It all wraps up here

Outcome

I wanted to combine a bit of both typography and Swiss style and minimalism to my designs and create a hybrid piece that is to do with Autism. The idea of creating a booklet of different people throughout history that have been known or that do have cases of Autism. I want this book to show that people that have Autism that they can achieve anything with the right support and the right kind of drive. But I also do not want it to just apply to people within the Autistic spectrum I want people of all kinds to go away feeling that they can be whatever they want to be.

I do feel my design ideas have drastically changed. I unfortunately have the tendency to let that kind of thing happen. Which to me I do get disappointed in I am intrigued about so many different fields I feel that I get muddled and loose my way. However there was no doubt about one main thing for this outcome. I did want it to be all about a cause and I am glad that I had stuck to my guns about that. Charities always need support. No matter what the circumstances. I had a great feeling throughout that I myself was doing a good thing and even throughout this I had learnt so much.

I really wanted to get the point across that people can go away feeling different. Feeling that they can go out and feel motivated. Looking at certain famous figures and think to themselves that ‘Well if he can, so can I’. Motivation is an extremely powerful thing. It can be used in so many different ways and through my designs is one way I wanted to convey that.

As regards to the designs I created I am for the most part happy with what I created. The designs are a nice blend of the style I wanted and the style I feel that can connect with people with the symptoms of Autism. Some simpler than others. So for example my Sir Isaac Newton design was probably the most simplistic and raw designs I had made, however I believe it works for me and for the booklet since it is to the point and people understand what It is about quickly. I wanted that idea to apply to all of mine.

Say for my Stanley Kubrick design, Using the red dot is reminiscent to one of the famous pieces created by Stanley Kubrick- 2001 A Space Odyssey. Using the famous and well renowned character in the movie as a staple for the design.

I felt that the one that lacked the most spark was Tim Burton. Now the man is a film maker. He also has quite a unique look to him. However transferring that style from a concept to a design. Was no easy task. His hair was a major option however trying to create something like that in the style I wanted just wouldn’t have worked. So I stuck to another prominent feature he is known for, the man’s glasses. The tinted blue frame was a trademark of his and is something I knew I could work with.

Now as I did with all the designs I did not want the viewer to forget that there is support for anyone with any queries or questions as well. Therefore the reason why I had consistently used the Autism Sussex Logo that I was give permission to use for all pages in the booklet. Leaving the underline statement that there is always someone there for you as well. Throughout the info and pointers I had with these designs as well as leaving the nice side note at the end for anyone intrigued to know or ask for support for anything Autism related.

The main problem I had with this Idea is that I felt it was lacking more famous individuals than I wanted it too. Originally I was going for a sort of list of 10 however this had been drastically cut by half. The reason behind this was that in order to do so I had to add other individuals that had Autism but were not very famous, such as James Durbin, an American Idol winner or Danny Aykroyd. Although I know about these celebrities who have Autism. Does not mean that anyone else would know who they are. And trying to create a design based on them for the public to see would be extremely difficult. There is the problem that people will think that me creating this book can be sexist due to the fact that the book is full of males inside. However this was not on purpose this is due to two facts. One is that statistically for every 5 babies born with autism there is one female Autistic child. Therefore making Autism a mostly male symptom. Which is why the individuals in the booklet are the way they are. If I was to add someone of the female gender it would not be someone that is known to most people. Almost everyone has heard of Charles Darwin or Albert Einstein however if I mentioned Daryl Hannah no one would know. The star from Kill Bill is not something I would feel necessary and would ditract from everything else I had included in the book. Therefore that is the reason it was not included.

As regards to the book itself. The size to me is perfect. The size is small enough to fit into a coat jacket but large enough to be counted as something intruging to read. The booklets have a nice smooth texture to them and to me look professional. The only slight gripe I have with the booklets at first glance is the colour. The oyster/cream colour I went for was not what I initially wanted. I wanted a raw feeling material with a rough look as well on a grey stock paper. However when reviewing over that I realise having some stock like that wouldn’t suit the cause that it is for. Having a nice clean coloured high GSM paper stock would be much better and that is what I got. However coming away from it i still feel it could have been more.

Another constant problem I had was with the Autism Sussex logo. Even though I had converted there image from a JPEG to a vectorised PNG I was still having constant problems with the image quality on the paper. When looking at the design on my exported PDF file of the booklet it was showing up crisp and sharp however in printing problems would not settle. I didn’t want this piece to be left out because it is a crucial part to the design. So I unfortunately could do nothing more for it.

One plan for the binding side was to use a process of sticking, however the idea of creating a saddle stitch design didn’t seem to connect with everything else about it. The use of space in my pages went really well I feel I was using the correct amount of negative space without making the pages look too empty. Im glad with the type I used throughout this booklet.Source Sans Pro worked well with every page and it’s contents. Perhaps I should have played around more with the typography I feel that it could have been a route I should have stuck with. It’s due to the fact that I feel to get my messages across the way I wanted to illustration was the way forward for it.

I feel I have communicated well to the audience I wanted. To the people with the symptoms of Autism although this booklet can be read by others as well. It has the ability of being a motivator to all audiences. Showing all these famous individuals and what they achieved throughout history.