OUGD505 - Studio Brief 02 - Crossword Layout Developments

For the crossword idea, the first stage in this process was to begin thinking about what words could be used to make up the crossword, making sure they are relevant to the topic. Initial words brainstormed were:

• Oxygen, gas, methane, carbon dioxide, chlorine, pollution, air, water, soil, paper, waste, landfill and deforestation.

Based on this set of words it was decided that 'deforestation' should be the main focus since this is the overall topic of the brief and campaign posters. It was thought this should be placed vertical down the page since this is the longest word and would flow with the portrait layout of the posters. Trying to keep this as central to the page as possible so that this would hopefully be the most prominent word which the audience would see first, the other words were worked around this in various ways to see if any interesting patterns could be created.

A small amount of research was done into the typical layouts of crosswords in newspapers and magazines. It was found that many have square formats, with black squares inbetween to separate words from each other and fill in the negative space around these. It was also found that typically the clues were placed along either side of the crossword puzzle in two columns.

In starting to produce layout variations for this idea, the first was to use the white boxes on their own, unlike typical crosswords which also have black boxes around and between them. It was thought that once the information had been filled in that this could potentially create more of an impact with the negative space meaning that the crossword has nothing to distract from it and so makes it the main focus point of the design.

Other variations were also produced with a black box around the white squares, which could potentially further highlight the information within it. For this, it was decided to use a large box rather than smaller squares due to the simple nature of this crossword.

Further developments visualise this crossword situated inside another frame which has been produced to represent a piece of paper or newsprint that the crossword would typically be printed on inside a newspaper. This shape has been manipulated to produce a wavy effect which has been done to represent the thin and flimsy nature of newsprint, paired with a drop shadow to make it stand out more from the page and give it a shadow as if it were seen lying on the floor (3-dimensional). Other variations of this idea gave the image a texture similar to that of paper to make it seem more realistic and less 2-dimensional.

In these developments, type has started to be implemented to see how this would work with the image. The main word 'deforestation' has been filled in in this instance using the typeface Rudiment, which has been used due to its characteristics similar to that of handwriting, since these puzzles are usually ones you would complete by hand. Circling this word in red has also been experimented with to further highlight the word and make it the main focus point. This has been given a messy, uneven style whereby the lines do not join at the end to give it a hand drawn effect, similar to that of the type.

Based on the previous developments, it was also thought that perhaps, instead of digitally producing type which looks handwritten, the type could actually be handwritten to make it seem more realistic. In doing so and scanning this image back into the computer, this also gave the piece a slight texture which adds to its elements of realism. Unfortunately, however the colour was not replicated well in the process, therefore this shall need to be changed to make the blue box black again. Another element which will need to be added is the clues which related to each word. This should be thought about carefully in order to make more of an impact and relate specifically to what the poster is aiming to communicate.