Speaking from experience development.

After i'd come up with the content for my book I did a few quick sketches of layouts that I could put my content into. Straight away I seemed to have an idea of how I would like my book to look and thought i'd get more from actually creating it and testing prints so moved away from drawing layouts. I also experimented with different fonts for the belly band I want to create to go around the booklet because I felt the creatively should stand out to emphasise the idea. Here i've also started doing some illustrations that fit with my content to add to the book. 

Once i'd got a basic layout together I tested this on various different stock so I could get an idea of which it would look best on and also which wasn't too thick when it was folded into a booklet. The blue and yellow card didn't really work because the colour in the images changed and it washed the text out in a way with it being so small. This is the stage I was at when I took my work to the second crit, I felt there was enough work to get relevant feedback and it was a good point to be at if drastic changes were needed. 

I also tested my booklet on a larger scale to see if this would look any better but I felt the fact the other booklet was pocket sized still worked so much better as an idea. I also began to look at adding a border to the booklet design because as it stands it looks quite plain. 

After the second crit it was suggested that I create a second book so that I can have 'in and around university' and 'out of university' so people are aware of how to survive financially in both situations. So above I came up with the content for my second book and feels this one links the whole concept to the course more as it talks about the mac suites and the print room which are important factors of the course. I also decided to create a third book full of essentials because two didn't seem enough for a set and essentials are an important factor too so people know what they need both physically and in personality. 

Another thing that was pointed out in the crit was the fact the 'creatively' on the belly band was illegible so this had to be changed too, I experimented with a few more fonts and styles until I found one I was happy with. I've also created more imagery for my other two books so they have the same style as the first one.  

One of the comments given in the crit was the fact the text was maybe a little too small and quite hard to read so I printed a section of one of the booklets to compare how the difference in size looked. I felt it looks better larger as there was the space for this and its also easier to read.

These are the two new font styles I chose for my belly bands and it was clear that one worked better than the other. The top font works better because its easier to read and quite simplistic. The variation in letters makes the whole thing look a bit more interesting and 'creative'.