EVALUATION BOOK

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© 2011 David Nathan Davieswww.behance.net/davidnathan

Environment & SpaceFGCS200, Collection

Original edition: © 2011 Hand MadeSaddle Stich Binding© Photography & Editing by David Nathan Davies

Printed in the United Kingdom21/11/2011

CONTENTStatement of IntentEvaluation & RationaleFinal OutcomesClosing Comments

04060812

ENVIRONMENT & SPACECOLLECTIONSTATEMENT OF INTENTEVALUATION & RATIONALE

By David Nathan Davies0905767

Graphic CommunicationCraft & Technology

4 STATEMENT OF INTENT

STATEMENT OF INTENTTo house the collection of Model Airplanes I will be splitting TheTank up into two sections, one half to house the collection of model airplane boxes along with their instruction manuals and the other half to house all of the half built kits, paints, magazines, books and so on.

The Tank will be split using a white wall going exactly down the centre. This wall will act as backdrop to both sides of The Tank. This wall could also be painted or have a form of vinyl rubdown to make it more interesting.

Two of my initial mock-ups of the layout of the tank, both done using isometric perspective.

AOBVE/OPPOSITE

5 STATEMENT OF INTENT

The collection of model airplane boxes will be housed in a large spruce frame, based on the injection-molded frames the kits come housed in. The frame will have small tags that will have numbers on them which will relate to the object in the catalogue that will have more detailed information.

The other side, which contains the collection of half built kits, paints, magazines, books will be housed more conventionally using podiums and objects mounted onto the wall. The half built kits will all be hanging from the ceiling of The Tank from invisible wire.

This idea will be intrinsically linked to the catalogue, which will have lots of information about each model, and act as guidebook, taking people through the collection.

6 EVALUATION & RATIONALE

EVALUATION & RATIONALEFor this project, Environment & Space, I was asked to design and curate a collection and an accompanying catalogue for the Design Museum Tank. I decided to use my father’s collection of half built model aircraft as I felt it was an interesting and unique collection to focus on.

I began by researching into the collection, looking back at the objects themselves, who made them and the history of the manufacturer etc, this gave me a good background to work from and use as a basis for my designs. The research I conducted also included

Photogrpahs of my catalogue for this project. The use of multiple paper stocks and sizes was based upon the instruction manuals in the kits which often have lots of decals and extra intructions tuckted inside them.

AOBVE/LEFT

7 EVALUATION & RATIONALE

looking at prices of the models when brought and comparing them to the price they are now worth, also what year they were brought. This provided some interesting research as lots of the kits had skyrocketed in value and become collector’s items. I feel that I could have gone further with the research, instead of just looking at the prices, years and manufactures I could have looked into the processes used to create the models as they changed drastically with technology from when they were first made. I also think that looking into the process of model making itself would have been beneficial for me to help get a better insight into the hobby. I also think that I should have used my father’s knowledge more, as he has been engrossed in this hobby for many years and asking more detailed questions than simply when, why and where, would have been greatly beneficial.

After researching the collection I began to impose order to the mass of objects, sorting through the collection and placing it into categories. For this, instead of me choosing the model which would feature, I asked my father to select his favorite kits, he based his selection on several factors, favorite planes, favorite model manufactures, fond memories of buying the kits and so on, this also applied to the half built kits. This meant that the collection was still entirely his; it wasn’t my edited version of his collection. This is something that I continued to do throughout the entire project as I felt it was of paramount importance as, even through extensive research, I don’t fully understand the collection, I think that this is section of project in which I handled very well.

Getting to grips with The Tank itself was much more of a challenge, even after visits to site. One of the things in which I struggled with was getting to grips with the size in comparison the scale of the models themselves. I found it very hard initially to find a way of displaying the objects, so each model stood out, but also trying to make the space feel fully utilized. I initially was very rigid with The Tanks use, sticking to simple square podiums and shelving, which felt very ‘pedestrian’. This was one of the areas of the project that I really struggled with. I think that working in a 3D space, such as The Tank, is so far out of my comfort zone the initial struggles were founded, but as I began to explore the space more I began to feel much more comfortable and get to grips with the space as I found it much easier.

To use the space effectively I split The Tank up into two sections, one half facing the river housed a large plastic frame, which had photos of the unopened boxes, details of the packaging and kit instructions etc. The other side housed a selection of five half built kits with their boxes and all the paraphernalia surrounding model making. This split would lay the foundations for the Dream and Reality of model making, with the dream being building all the kits in which inspire you, this links to the unopened kits, and

the reality being all the half built kits. I think that this idea is good in principle, but needed a lot more focus and exploration, I don’t think I utilized it fully and could have gone a lot further with it. I do think that the idea of using a large plastic frame, based upon the plastic frames the kits come in, was a good idea and had a really nice link with the project and target audience of model makers.

For the sides of The Tank I used a combination of a blue background with white text. The blue was lifted straight from the packaging of the Novo kits. There is also the obvious link between the kits and the sky and how blue is a considered a very ‘boyish’ colour which links in well with my target audience. I think that the blue and white work well together, but I think that I used the rationale of the colour to justify it without considering the visual. I don’t however think the colour is bad but I feel I should have more thoroughly explored different colours before settling.

The next part of the project was to create a catalogue to accompany the show and to be sold at the Design Museum Shop. I began by, once again looking through the collection, at the instruction manuals and magazines for inspiration relating the collection. Looking at the manuals I noticed that lots of different paper sizes were used, one size for the instructions one for the painting guide and one for the decal paper. This gave me the foundation for my format, a multi layered catalogue with several paper stocks going throughout. Once refining the size of the catalogue, settling on an A5 minus size, 133mm x 190mm to be exact, I began to think about binding. This was more challenging, as I had to make sure it linked into the collection but also work well with the pages and stocks. I decided that an elastic band, which was inspired by the old boxes held together by rubber bands, was a good way of holding the pages and also linking in with the collection. I think that the binding works nicely, it has a good, clear link and also fit in with the aesthetic of the catalogue, but I do feel that its not as strong as it could have been. Some pages have a tendency of moving around and going out of alignment with each other. I think that I should have also explored a combination of elastic band binding and standard bindings to resolve these issues.

The layout of the catalogue was not inspired directly by the collection itself as I wanted it to be nice and clean, to let the photos almost speak for themselves. I set about taking photos of the collection, ensuring consistency within the images and maintaining quality. I found this very difficult as I had to shoot all the images on the same day and I wasn’t sure on what images I would need, where they would sit in the catalogue etc, I was still unsure of the layout exactly. I think that this was my biggest problems with designing the catalogue as I took a long time messing about with the format, getting that correct but neglecting the visual style. Continued on page 12.

8 FINAL OUTCOMES

9 FINAL OUTCOMES

10 FINAL OUTCOMES

Once I settled on style I found the catalogue much easier. I still feel that I played the design a little safe, I didn’t experiment much nor did I venture much out of my comfort zone. I do think that that catalogue works, but I could have pushed it further as I did with the format. I also think that the link between The Tank and the catalogue is a little vague, the cover and colour link in nicely with The Tank as a whole but the layout and use of images doesn’t seem to quite fit in. displaying the catalogue was another issue, the binding isn’t very strong and needs to be kept safe so I had to display it in a bag to keep it secure. I used a blister pack, based upon the original Airfix kit bags, to display the catalogue on the shelf. This worked as a simple, and clever way of keeping the catalogue safe whilst also having a very clear link with the collection. I used the paper tab at the top to add in the barcode and basic imprint details to give the catalogue more context, also the inside of the tab had a large print of some of the decals from one of the kits as a hint to the what this space would have been used for on the original packaging, for storing the decals and instructions.

Originally I want to screen print my cover as I wanted a blue background and white text plus image. Once I began to print I ran into some problems, the type that I used, DIN 7pt, was to small and broke up when printed. The image on the cover was perfect; it was just the type, which let it down. I decided to cut my losses and digitally print the cover so that I didn’t wasn’t time sorting the problem out. The cover design is deliberately the only part of the catalogue to be in colour. This is a link to the old instructions and magazines; the covers were always in full colour, but the inside pages were in black and white to save money on printing. I think that this works well and has a solid link to the collection.

11 FINAL OUTCOMES

12 CLOSING COMMENTS

The format has to use a very light paper stock to make sure it folds correctly. I used and 85gsm short grain book paper to print it on which led to a lot of show though. This was a deliberate decision to make it link into the old instruction manuals of magazines, which at the time, were all printed very cheaply. This cheap printing lead to a lot of show though, so much so that some of the instructions are very hard to read because of it. I managed to lessen the shown though a bit so that text was still legible and so that it didn’t detract from the catalogue.

Overall I feel that my ideas for The Tank were solid and based on the collection but they lacked the depth and exploration they needed to be fully realized. I feel that the format works really well, has a strong link in with the collection and The Tank but lacks the playfulness and excitement that is found in model making. I also think that the catalogue works better on its own, as it still feels a bit distant from the rest of the design for The Tank. Looking back at this project I get the sense that I could have pushed myself further and stray more out of my comfort zone as I still think I was a little safe. I need to be able to let go of what I ‘know’ and just play around and experiment more to help me better my ideas. As with the research I think that I need to go more in depth, not just with the background research but the more specific and focused research into the collection for example.