Graphic Design

Fundamentals
Supporting Document
Alyson Barbret
ed

The Making of my Graphic

Design Manual
Information Included

Section 1: Introduction
Section 2: Analysis
Section 3: Design
Section 4: Develop
Section 5: Implementaion/Evaluation
Section 6: Final Submission &
Reflection
Introduction
Introduction
When I was first given this brief, I was nervous that I would
not have the skill to complete a functional and aesthetically
pleasing graphic design manual. With limited knowledge on
adobe programs like indesign and a lack of experience in
graphic design, due to my unique placement as an exchange
student here at Salford, I was intimidated by the challenge.

At my home university, I study UX design which is a little

different than graphic design, but once I began to go over
and understand the brief, It became clear to me that I could
treat this project like an instructional design project, using
my background of learning design as a strength to help
support the setup, layout, and content in my manual.
In my instructional Design classes, we learn that design
is an iterative process involving repeated cycles of
development, evaluation, and refinement. I wanted to
take this approach with my manual to ensure that I was
producing effective work. I decided that a good way to work
through this design process was to follow an instructional
design model that I am used to working with, called the
ADDIE model and set my project up in this way. In doing
so, I progressed and repeated through various cycles
of analysis, design, development, implementation, and
evaluation before coming up with my final graphic design
manual. This supporting document will walk you through
those various stages.
 Analysis
Phase of The Design Process
Analysis Phase of Design
The Analysis phase of instructional design is the initial
step where instructional designers gather information to
understand the learning needs, goals, constraints, and
other relevant factors.

During this phase of my learning design, I made sure

to spend time understanding the brief and my potential
learning audiences. By considering an intended audience
for any design project and determining your learner’s
background, prior knowledge, learning preferences, etc.
it helps ensure that you are tailoring the instructional
material to meet your specific learning audiences’ needs.

Detemining My Learning
Audience
I decided that if I were to actually manufacture and share
this book, it would be aimed to teach those who have
limited or no prior experience in graphic design, since
my manual is introducing some of the basic fundamentals
pertaining to it. With this in mind, I figured a good measure
for studying my learning audience could be done by talking
with students at Salford who are in different areas of study.
I talked to my flatmates who are all non-graphic design
students to get a good understanding of what a student like
them would need and benefit from in order to grasp a basic
understanding of graphic design.
 Learner Analysis
In instructional design, during the analysis phase, it is
common to craft an audience analysis or empathy map to
organize information about your learner. This will help
ensure that you have something to look back on throughout
the design process as a guide to help ensure you are
tailoring the content around the needs of your learning
audience, so I decided to implement this as a helpful
research tool in my own manual.

Learner’s Prior Knowledge

This learner is a student at Salford who studies buisness, so she has no current
background in graphic design. She has some knowledge on technolgy which
could allow her to pick up digital skills faster. Also, being a university student,
she has knowledge on how to synthesize and evaluate new information, which
may allow her to understand more complex topics in the manual. She has used
adobe photoshop in her marketing class before, which means she also has some
prior knoweldge in this, which could help her with learning graphic design.

Motivation Learner’s Skills/Intrests

This learner has a medium -Fundmental undestanding of Adobe Photoshop

level of motivation. She volunteered to help Learner’s Background: -Computer Skills
test out this learning experience because she -Drawing
Age: 18
has some interest in learning graphic design, -Reading
but it is not one of her top intrests, so her Occupation: Student
motivation reflects that. Area of Study: Buisness

Learner’s Goals Learner’s Frustrations

-Become more proficent in photo- -Photoshop is challenging to

shop
-learn some graphic design skills
to use in marketing
-Gain a basic understanding of
graphic design
understand
-Learner wants to learn new skills
like graphic design, but has little
free time due to university schedule.
-She has more intrest in learning
digital skills than analogue, but most
of my manual focuses on analouge.
Format Considerations
After evaluating my learning audience, I began to consider
the actual layout of my manual taking into account any
limitations or constraints I might experience. While the
brief does state that the manual had to be completed as a
printed, physical copy there was still room to decide what
modality I wanted my printed manual to be submitted as. I
considered some unique techniques of folding like the beak
zine and accordian fold, but ultimately decided that a more
typical pamphlet-stitched book design would be the most
beneficial.

This decision was due to my understanding that while

innovative folds like the accordion can be visually
interesting, they may lead to complexity and visual clutter
when dealing with several pages of information. Prioritizing
the learners’ experience, I aimed for a design that would
provide a straightforward and easily navigatable format.
This helps ensure that my learners have the resources and
clarity necessary to optimize their learning experience.
Design Considerations
One significant challenge that required consideration was
the actual design of my manual. I was not as confident in
the Adobe InDesign skills of mine compared to those of my
peers. Acknowledging this gap, I took a proactive approach,
turning to online resources such as YouTube tutorials to
enhance my proficiency as much as I could. Beyond this, I
strategically redirected my focus towards prioritizing the
structural layout and overall learning experience of the
document over striving for shocking levels of innovation or
creativity.
 Design
Phase of The Design Process
Design Phase of the Design Process
I then moved into the design phase of my project. The
design phase is where the instructional designer plans and
outlines the specifics of the learning experience based on
the information gathered during the analysis phase.

During this phase of my project I had to make some tough

decisions on what I had room to include or not. It is very
important that any information used directly correlates to
a learner and the desired learning outcomes. If something
does not aid or directly relate to their learning, it should be
left out. Because of this, I had to sift through many of the
designs in my sketchbook and decide which designs were
beneficial to include.

I also went through our class slides to determine which

activities would aid in instruction. I decided that I wanted
most chapters to have at least one activity correlated
with the content, because not only do learners stay more
engaged when content is broken up with activities, but it
also gives them an opportunity to extend and transfer their
knowledge. This approach aligns with the instructional
design belief that instructional content should not only
inform but actively involve learners in the learning process.
 From here, I decided that the best way to map out this
content was for me to create a content outline/storyboard
to help guide me. Some screenshots of this document are
shown below.

Chapter Concept Topics Content Activity Assessment Media

1 Composition Rule of Thirds By dividing a design into a 3x3 grid, the rule of thirds Ask learners to Proficiency is
reveals specific focal points that naturally attract apply knowledge by measured by
viewers' attention. These areas are located primarily placing a grid over their ability to
where the grid lines intersect. Since we read from left their own design complete the
to right, viewers instinctively view designs from the task/activity
left side, progressing across to the intersections on given.
the right. Using this rule in your own designs will
allow you to strategically position essential elements,
text, and other components within these critical
intersections, and it will provide you with a method to
control how individuals engage with and perceive
your overall design.

Negative Space If you followed the predicted order, then you have Start with activity, N/A
just experienced the impact of visual hierarchy. asking viewers to
Hierarchy refers to the arrangement or presentation look at a picture
of elements in a way that implies their importance or and notice where
establishes a visual order. they naturally look.
It can be effective to
So how exactly do you use this principle as a teach by
designer? demonstrating
You can establish order and enforce the visual rather than by just
hierarchy by using size. telling, so this could
Bigger words are usually read first. be a fun, interactive
way to teach this
You can also use colors to create contrast and draw
attention.
Content Chunking
I knew that I wanted my manual to be both informative and
fun, and I know that learners learn best when information
is chunked into manageable sections, which is why I have
structured the manual into distinct sections separated by
dividing pages. This intentional design provides natural
breaks for learners to pause, reflect, and reset in their
learning journey. This structure also enhances their ability
to synthesize and retain information compared to one
continuous, lengthy manual.
Navigation
Another important thing to include in all learning
experiences is clear navigation for the learner. To include
this aspect in my own manual, I made sure to provide a
table of contents at the beginning, and then I also included
page numbers and headers throughout. The way that my
manual is set up allows users to stay more engaged because
they don’t struggle to find or follow the information given
to them. It also helps to reduce cognitive overload because
when the navigation is intuitive and straightforward,
learners can focus their mental resources on understanding
the content rather than figuring out how to navigate the
course.
Learning Outcomes
It is always a good idea to provide learners with their
learning outcomes before beginning instruction so they
know what to expect and get out of their learning, so I made
sure to write out the intended outcomes for each chapter to
help ensure that all of my instructional materials directed
learners towards these specific goals.
I played around with the idea of putting learning outcomes
at the start of each chapter in my book, but eventually
determined that my manual would become too wordy, and
redundant. Instead, I felt that continuing with my planned
structure of simple title pages introducing each chapter
would save the same purpose of letting learners know what
they would be learning in each chapter, without being too
monotonous or redundant.

Upon completion of this section, you will be able to:

-Implement grid systems in design layouts to achieve a structured and

cohesive visual organization.

-Apply Gestalt Design Principles, such as proximity and similarity, to

create visually unified and meaningful layouts.

-Understand and utilize the principles of Similarity and Proximity to

enhance the overall coherence of your design compositions.
 Develop
Phase of the Design Process
Develop Phase
From here, I moved on to the develop phase of my project
where I started to create the actual instructional materials
based on the plans and designs developed in the previous
stages. This phase required a lot of prototyping, getting
feedback and redesigning.

Title Page
I decided that I wanted the cover of my manual and
many pages throughout to include my design from our
screen printing sessions. As I mentioned, I am less
comfortable with designing things through Adobe, but I
felt proud of this physical screen printing and thought it
could be an attainable way to elevate the visual appeal
of my manual. The only issue was that my screen
printing session was completed with blue, red, and
yellow paint. I liked the blue but felt that yellow and red
were quite aggressive color choices that could lead to
overstimulation thst negatively affects the readability of
my manual. I did some research with these questions in
mind:

How will using bright colors vs pastels affect the way

a learner engages and interacts with my manual? Are
certain colors more appealing/relaxing? Are some more
stimulating for learning?
Evolution of the Title Page
Upon research I found that cool colors like blues, greens,
mauves, and purples are best for learning as they provide
learners with a sense of relaxation. This is proven to help
stimulate concentration and promote creativity.

I liked the blue in my screen printing, so I decided to keep

this as the main color but added purple accents through
photoshop. This is how my screen printing evolved and
eventually became the overlay you see on many of the pages
in my manual.
Before I settled on the faded overlay type design, I tried
applying my screen printing in different visual contexts
to see what would look the cleanest and most visually
appealing.

While I had fun experimenting with the look of my book,

ultimatley, the final overlay I encorporated as the theme of
my manual was the best choice because it was interesting
whitout being too visually distracting. The first look I tried
out with the different triangles was not very polished and
looked rather cluttered. The second design I tried with the
elongated circles was underwhelming and did not have a
clear theme. Due to these factors, I eventually ruled out
both ideas and designed the final overlay .
Typeface Experimentation
I tried out different typefaces for my manual and eventually
found one that was visually interesting without being
overbearing. I stuck with Source Serif Variable, using bold
for titles and normal for body paragraphs. I think that this
was a good choice; using a font with serifs contributed to a
sense of coherence and formality without compromising
the ease with which learners could engage with the content.

Initially, on the tile page, I had the title in a different

typeface that was similar to Source Serif Variable, but it
looked a little more grunge or blackletter, and I felt this was
a little visually harsh for the goal of my manual.
Title Page Design
I played around with the angle of the font, thinking that
a slight angle may be a visually interesting way to display
the title, but something about it didn’t seem quite right. I
determined that a more simple and horizontally aligned
font was not only more clear and straightforward for
learners who were viewing the tile, but it also was a good
balance with my screen printing overlay. I photoshopped
the overlay to have parts of my screen printing blended
and “dripping” down vertically. In terms of type, I
felt the only appropriate and visually cohesive way to
display the title was in a straight horizontal path that laid
perpendicular to the color overlay in my design.
Implementation/Feedback
Phase of the Design Process
Peer Feedback
In this phase I made sure to test print my book quite often
to see what it would look like on paper. This helped me
catch errors in spelling and layout before I laser printed
it. I also ran some phases of testing through this stage
to see the effectiveness of my manual. When you are
designing something, I am aware that you often feel like
what you are writing makes the most sense to learners, but
recognizing the potential for this bias, I acknowledged the
importance of seeking external opinions. Stepping back
and obtaining feedback from others revealed valuable
insights and highlighted areas for improvement that might
not have been apparent in the midst of the design process.

I got feedback from some of my friends who are non-

graphic design students which would be my intended
audience if I were to actually manufacture and put out
this book. From here I changed around or omitted some
activities or information my peers found confusing.
Submission & Reflection
Finishing the Manual
After progressing through these stages, I finally completed
a prototype of my manual that I was ready to put to print.
As I mentioned, I felt the pamphlet stitch was best for my
specific design so I went into the workshop and put this
together.
Reflection
After submitting my document, I feel happy with the
outcome and satisfied with the work I produced, but as a
designer I think there is always room for improvement. I
learned a lot from this project and am excited to use what I
learned to expand upon it in future projects.

This was my first time putting a design to print, so I

learned a lot about challenges like how colors appear on
paper, potential formatting issues, and the importance of
catching errors early in the process. I think I should have
begun test trials of printing sooner, because ultimately
there were areas of my design and layout that still could
have improved. Alex pointed out how, specifically on the
“negative space” page of my manual, the text boxes were
not as aligned as they could have been. This is something I
failed to recognize on my laptop screen and if I would have
printed sooner, I may have had time to catch this.
On a broader level, this manual served to deepen my
understanding of user-centric design by providing hands-
on experience that created a deeper understanding of
the unique relationship between design choices and the
learner’s experience. It reinforced the idea that successful
instructional design is rooted in awareness of the user’s
perspective and a commitment to continuous improvement.
These are things I will carry with me in my design
approaches in the future.

​ his project also highlighted the importance of effective

T
time management. Despite the initial perception of having
lots of time to complete the project, it became evident as
I began working through the various phases of design,
that it’s easy to unintentionally spend too much time on
a specific phase of the design process. Next time, I would
leave more time for feedback and revisions.

Ultimately, one overarching thing this project taught me is

that effective time management is not just about meeting
deadlines, but ensuring that the design process unfolds
smoothly and that each decision is made thoughtfully.
This insight from the project will likely guide future
projects guiding a more strategic and balanced approach to
managing time in the dynamic field of design.