OUGD601 - Practical / Pocket Guide - Visual Experimentation

Before I could being to develop an aesthetic for the pocket guide I wanted to develop its physical form, within this I researched and tested a range of foldable booklets in order to identify which of these forms would work most appropriately with the concept of the pocket guide. I Tested 3 forms of folding techniques; Concertina booklet, Hot Dog booklet, and the Burrito Booklet and commented on their main strengths and limitations within a critical mass produced context. 

Concerta: 

The Concertina booklet is made of repeated counter folds of a single sheet of paper, this technique allows the finished object to be held and read like a book, but when opened fully can vie viewed as a single sheet, making it particularly appropriate to visually communicate a process. The benefits of this folding technique is that is can be produced from a single sheet of paper and requires no binding methods making it cheap to produce and readily available. The limitations are that the length of the concertina can develop irregular paper sizes and can be difficult to design for a full length spread. 

Hot Dog Booklet: 

The Hot Dog fold also uses a single sheet of paper to create an entire booklet with no need for any binding making it extremely cost effective and adaptable. The style of the hotdog fold  is similar to a tradition booklet format making it easy to design for. The benefits of this example are that it requires no binding, maximises the available space, creating an 8page booklet from a single side of A4 and works well with the anthropometrics of the human hand sitting well within it and being simple to operate. 

Burrito Booklet: 

The Burrito booklet completes this experimentation of folded booklets that require no binding thus reducing the overall production costs, this uses cut outs and slots to combine the individual pages creating an innovative folded solution. The benefits of this example allow a large scale than the other two creating an A5 resolution from an A4 sheet however the limitations is that it uses significantly more paper where the other tested examples are formed from a single sheet. 

Conclusion: 

From this exploration of different folding techniques it can be established that the most approbate form for the pocket guide is to utilise the Hot Dog Fold within this production as it is the most cost effective example analysed maximising the available space from a single A4 sheet. This is important within commercial contexts as the booklet is a free resource therefore needs to be cheap to product on mass requiring high volumes for mass production. The form of the folded booklet is traditional and easy for the consumer to engage with allowing a functional layout that will be approbate for the pocket guides content.