Beer Identities: Final Crit Feedback

In order to gain feedback on my prototype design(see figure 1) I asked the following questions in a peer-to-peer feedback session. I wanted to gain a greater idea of how others read and interacted with the publication and also some comments on the design to see if I could improve any areas.

How would you suggest it be bound:
- prefect binding would work however might be difficult with the different pages
- staples would be better for a cheaper publication
- look at binding methods fro pub menus

What do you think of colours used:
- colours make sense
– maybe add other colours to make it more intersting
- contrasting colours used more

Do you find it difficult to navigate:

- yes as its not bound at the moment
- can't tell as not bound
- been pulled out of order so confused as to how its meant to be

Overall I feel this feedback was helpful as it has made me think about the order and binding of the publication however a lot of the suggestions where not appropriate. Staples wouldn't be possible as each page is a single piece of paper therefore a binding method such as perfect binding would be needed. The navigation feedback is useful as it is supposed to be difficult however this will be corrected when the publication is bound, which I will be able to gain more effective feedback on.

Following the review of the feedback above I felt more in-depth feedback was needed in order to move on and refined the publication further. Consequently I discussed my ideas with my tutor and received feedback that the use of a consistant colour and typeface confuses the concept of the book as the reader relates each page to each other instead of looking at the separately. Changing the colour and typeface will allow each personality to stand out more clearly and allow the design to follow the concept of the book as although the colours used have a reason, however the book has become more about the people rather than beer. Furthermore in relation to the binding decision perfect binding or book cloth tape will be used with addition of incorporating a beer matt aspect, potentially through backing the book using the same material as beer matts. Overall the student page is the most effect as its very considered due to the use of the letter press and the story told through the process of the letters disappearing.

Decisions:
Overall I feel the feedback gained within this session will allow me to further refine the publication. I plan to change the colour and typeface of each page based on the personality in order to match the concept and the design. Additionally I will alter the layout of some pages so they more effectively represent the personality and production decisions as the current publication requires a lot of explanation which is good as the book is supposed to be difficult to follow. However the book need to be able to be read/followed in a coherent way despite the difficulties within it.