User:Ssstephen/prototype/20231003

performance upgrade

Prototype implies maybe that something will go wrong, something is going wrong, this shit could be better? Is this optimism or despair?

An old client got in touch last week who I worked with three years ago and previously on an annual project. Last year I was trying to make time for xpub so I turned the work down. This year I need money and am less afraid.

We spoke last week on Microsoft Teams to catch up, he's a kind guy, was telling me about his family and hobbies, nice to be in touch with him again. He also told me about struggles they had with the replacement they got for me last year, and showed me how the project went while I was off it. It seemed fine. The project involves the publication of data on salary levels in Ireland, from the point of view of a recruitment agency. He is keen to take it in a more socially conscious direction this year which is exciting but ultimately the publication is a promotional piece for this private company so potentially problematic. The company has a DEI officer (diversity, equity and inclusion) so he suggested they become involved also.

Today I will prepare some sample pages for how the new report could look. My plan is to use the InDesign document from 2021 as a starting point, as it will make it easier for me to adhere to the brand guidelines and a lot of the work is already done in terms of typography, grids, colours, that can be reused. How long will this transition take from Adobe to other tools? Do I plan to reach an end point? Maybe, I at least would still like to phase out old practices more than I currently have. However the existing workflows and processes are efficient which in this situation is super useful. I don't want to spend more time on this than necessary.

I open the document and save it in a newly created folder for the 2024 version of the publication. I also open a .txt file I made during our video call with some notes on the new version. The notes mostly detail how the company would like to have a social impact, be honest, authentic and trustworthy, and celebrate positive changes that have happened in the workforce recently. Are these appropriate aims for a company? Yes I think so, although they have to be woven into the profit motive to be allowed, it is still a positive that a company has these goals and I hope they can have a helpful impact by pursuing them. I am also driven by $$$ in this situation (it's my job) and I also hope that we can have a positive rather than negative effect on the world while doing it. Note for future prototypes, how to improve this balance, how to increase awareness of whether the effect is in fact helpful.

I'll start by deleting most the pages in the document, because I only need a few sample spreads for today. There is a separation between the content and the form, which is helpful, because the content doesnt exist yet. Neither does the form I suppose. Based on our conversations at the moment, I will develop some visual approaches to the document, and the client will create the text content and decide what data to gather. The process is less linear than it appears. Ok the annotation is really distracting from the work I wonder if I need to change the balance a little.

I go to the clients website and socials to see it their brand has changed in the past years (usually more reliable than a formal brand guidelines document). Its pretty much the same. They have been active with their social impact campaign which is reassuring. I notice they have some mentions in particular about equality, which I will use in the visual approach. I'll make the text and figures bolder and bigger. Impactful? Yes I guess so, its part of the language.

I mess around with typesizes and colours for a while. I make a big fuck-off equals sign for the front cover. It doesnt have to be super involved. What does it mean to furnish a business with these symbols? What am I allowing or creating? They have some photography of awareness campaigns and environmental restoration actions they perform, I'll include them in the sample pages.