OUGD504 - Studio Brief 01 - Wallpaper* City Guides

Wallpaper* City Guides are a series of travel guides designed more with the creative conscious in mind. The series use a wide selection of Pantone colours for the covers which gives the guides a more minimalistic aesthetic, reflecting a more 'chilled out' nature which could put the audience more at ease of their travels rather than using a busy photographic cover like many typical travel guides which can almost be seen as quite chaotic. The inside of the publication uses tabs down the outward edges of the book in order to provide ease of use for the audience to be able to find exactly what they are seeking through specific sections. The publication utilises photography as one of the main elements which are accompanied by small passages of information on each place of interest.

The nature of this guide is very practical. It's small size means that it is suitable for travelling with in order to be used throughout and inform the direction of the user's trip. Ideas can be taken from the design of this guide and transferred into my publication since both have a similar target audience of those who are more creative conscious, more specifically for my publication, travelling designers. This guide shows how the overall design of my publication could be tailored towards this specific target audience, in producing minimalistic layout through focusing on more photographic rather than written content, which also enhances the accurate communication of information as content is not lost or distracted by a chaotic design.

The guide also includes additional elements, such as written accounts from people who may live or have travelled to the city specific to each publication. This can be seen to add a more personal touch to the guide which would potentially put the traveller more at ease from hearing good stories from other tourists and local people. Other elements hold a more practical nature, such as the use of maps, statistics, hotel numbers and various other information which could potentially become useful throughout a trip, even those which may not seen as obvious at first. Such design ideas could also be used to help inform the design of my own publication in adding additional elements of practicality which could potentially help the traveller travel lighter through the integration of maps and sketchbook papers, elements which could perhaps also be personalised for and by specific audiences and readers, enhancing the personal requirement defined by the author for the final design of this specific publication.