There were certain guidelines we had to use in order to evaluate it correctly
- Font
- Type
- Aesthetic
- Purpose and meaning
- Convey ethos/ Spirit of institution
- Target Audience
- Social and Political contexts relevant to the production of publication
- Does the design solution ultimately solve the problems set
In small groups we came up with a few unsuccessful factors of the prospectus :
- Font too big in places and too small in others
- Alignment
- Bad choice of colours
- LCA name not centred
- Type on the cover is hard to read
- Type on the cover shouldn't have been centred
- Photography isn't placed effectively
- Bad photography
- Poor quality paper
- Not easily identifiable
- Doesn't convey the correct ethos for an Art and Design college
- Unnecessary borders and boxes
- Photos are captioned
- Too much text
- Incorrect quotes (Fred Bates)
Write a short constructive criticism of the LCA prospectus.
Identify at least 5 features that you think are either successful or unsuccessful.
In our first Context of practice seminar we had to evaluate the 2012/13 Leeds College of Art prospectus from a Graphic Design point of view.
My initial impression was quite confusing as I was not sure what I had been given. Personally I think a prospectus should be easily identifiable straight away. The prospectus is the main way of branding our institution and should attract attention almost immediately. As the cover does not display the LCA logo I could not immediately identify what I was looking at. The colours used on the cover were quite generic and made the typography hard to read. The paper that the prospectus has been produced on also seems to be poor quality, which combined with the expensive foiled type doesn't portray specialist Art and Design institution. I also feel that more consideration could have been made to the reverse of the prospectus as the Leeds College of Art name is off centre.
Another thing that struck me as bad design was the photography displayed inside. Particularly bad use of cropping in some places. From an outsiders perspective I feel the images need a small caption explaining what they are displaying making it easier to identify who has produced/photographed it and what course they have or are studying. The images of students work in a prospectus are possibly the most important feature of a prospectus as people can identify what course would suit them based on the work produced by other students at the college. I feel that the layout of the prospectus could also be improved with use of alignment and using the space provided, this could also be a beneficial way to save money on the amount of pages needed.
As a prospectus that will be handed out to the general public it is very hard to navigate as each subject specific section is hard to find, this is a problem with font sizes and type. I found it very hard to find my course in the prospectus as the type doesn't seem to be a lot bigger than some of the quotes displayed on certain pages.
My initial impression was quite confusing as I was not sure what I had been given. Personally I think a prospectus should be easily identifiable straight away. The prospectus is the main way of branding our institution and should attract attention almost immediately. As the cover does not display the LCA logo I could not immediately identify what I was looking at. The colours used on the cover were quite generic and made the typography hard to read. The paper that the prospectus has been produced on also seems to be poor quality, which combined with the expensive foiled type doesn't portray specialist Art and Design institution. I also feel that more consideration could have been made to the reverse of the prospectus as the Leeds College of Art name is off centre.
Another thing that struck me as bad design was the photography displayed inside. Particularly bad use of cropping in some places. From an outsiders perspective I feel the images need a small caption explaining what they are displaying making it easier to identify who has produced/photographed it and what course they have or are studying. The images of students work in a prospectus are possibly the most important feature of a prospectus as people can identify what course would suit them based on the work produced by other students at the college. I feel that the layout of the prospectus could also be improved with use of alignment and using the space provided, this could also be a beneficial way to save money on the amount of pages needed.
As a prospectus that will be handed out to the general public it is very hard to navigate as each subject specific section is hard to find, this is a problem with font sizes and type. I found it very hard to find my course in the prospectus as the type doesn't seem to be a lot bigger than some of the quotes displayed on certain pages.
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