PLEASE NOTE: All CMIT modules have now been withdrawn,
and are unavailable for the 2010/11 academic year
These web pages and lecture notes are left as reference for those students
requiring CMIT modules to complete their programme only, and are not an
indication of modules currently offered.
Computer Aided Publishing II
Essay Titles
Choose one essay from the list below if you are taking the module for 15 credits (MIT3104) or for 20 credits (MIT3204).
If you are taking the module for 20 credits (MIT3204) you can either do a second essay, on a different subject from the first, or do another design task, with critique.
If you can't find an essay question you like, contact me and we will work out another.
Note that if you have taken Computer Aided Publishing I, either as MIT3103 or MIT3203, you must choose different essay titles and subject areas from those you wrote on that module.
All essays must be presented with a bibliography of the material that you have read in preparation for the essay - the essay mark will be affected if it is absent!
- Use the module bibliography as a starting point for your reading.
Be aware of the rules against plagiarism. Refer to the student handbook for the section on plagiarism and read the guide to presenting essays. There are severe penalties if you plagiarise!
Essays should be about 2,000 words, excluding bibliography and notes. Essays can be longer if you wish.
Marking Criteria
The things I shall be looking for when marking the essay are available as a Word file.
- "Letters are signs for sounds" (Eric Gill An Essay on Typography 1941, p. 31). Are they and is that all?
- Assess the expressive qualities of typography.
- 'Letters are the clothes that words wear' (Erik Spiekermann in Typomania, from BBC2 series Into Print (1990). Discuss.
- The video can be borrowed from the CMIT Office
- Why, if we see in colour, should we be presented with printed media in which we mainly read text in black and white?
- Give a critical analysis of magazine design or newspaper design
from a particular period in a country or countries of your choice.
- Discuss either magazines or newspapers, not both.
- Are magazines intended for men different in design from those intended
for women? If so, suggest reasons why.
- Look at several magazines to get an informed view.
- Assess and account for the differences in newspaper design.
- Concentrate on overall layout, size and typography. Do not discuss adverts in newspapers and do not deal in detail with the types of subject matter covered in the newspaper articles.
- 'Nothing new can be done with magazine design or newspaper
design', Do you agree?
- Discuss either magazines or newspapers, not both.
- 'The design of classical music CD packaging is boring and generally bad'. Discuss.
- Does the design of popular music CD packaging tell us more about the music on the CD or the culture of those who would buy the CD?
- Should the materials and equipment used in the publication process
dictate the design of printed media or should the mind?
- It is up to you what range of printed media you discuss, but do not cover the design of books - that is for Computer Aided Publishing I.
- The more that is put on the page, the less that goes into the reader. Is it possible to reconcile this statement with creating interesting design?
- 'To be simple is the end, not the beginning of design' (C. Voysey, 1893). Discuss in relation to the design of print-based media.
- Discuss analytically the main developments in the history of printed media design and production in a particular period, country or type of media of your choice.
- Assess Neville Brody's contribution to the history of printed media
design.
- Concentrate on Brody's work with printed media. Avoid his work on web-based material - that is for another module.