Assignment 5 – Your Choice

So I decided to go for the promotional design. It’s the most interesting one for me. I like the 70’s theme and I get to be really creative over the design, images and I can choose what info I include. So long as it has the 70’s theme running through it.

So I start as I have before by writing out in full what it is exactly I need to do. I start with some keywords too but realise I need to research the play to get a better feel for some more keywords that are relevant to the design.

With regard to info I decide I need to list up all the information that I could possible want or need on the promotional material. I know I need:

Dates
Times
Places
Actors Names

But I need to know what other information I might require.

I look at other promotional theatre flyers online for more insight and to increase the size of my list.

UPDATE JANUARY 2016

So in May I went back to work locally and have ended up working more hours than I would have liked – I also moved house in September and then my computer broke and I had to get all of my work backed up but when my computer came back it was really broken! So i’m working on a laptop on loan while my PC is with john lewis being fixed. It has been hectic to say the least! Everything has been pointing to me not completing this unit but I am determined that I will! I did some sketchbook work and took some imagery on this assignment just before I moved house but haven’t really cracked it well so intend on getting this assignment completed this week so that my tutor can look at it on the 15th. I then have to crack on and get my other work assessment ready and with the OCA before the 1st February. Sadly i’m going to have to submit it all digitally but I will be sending my notebooks and some of my work that I printed via trial and error etc as it would be such a shame to have wasted the past year and a half and all of the progress I have made. Anyhow! Onwards and upwards.

Here is the sketchbook work I carried out:

Page 1
Little bit of a run down on the play itself following some research on Wikipedia and watching some clips online. Notice how straight away I am drawn to the orange 70’s theme. Looking back at it I do need to contrast this with something it cant be all orange…or can it?

Page 2
I started to mind map some words to try and get some imagery down. Do I go down the typographic route or an imagery route – or both? Is there a specific date or number I could display that relates to the show. I like the checkerboard dancefloor in browns and oranges. I like the cigarette and smoke…’just a top up’ seems to be a noticeable tag line in the show I could display this. Cheese on sticks is also a favourite.

Page3
I start playing with some pictures and sketching some things I like. I do like abstract, it’s not very 70’s I suppose but I could make it look 70’s with the feel of the colour. I am really drawn to beverlys eyes. She seems like a bit of a deranged woman in the play!

Page 4
I spilt my water on the paper…..but actually it might have been a happy mistake! I like the grungy look of it. Maybe I could incorporate that somewhere. I start to play with ideas and layouts of different images. 70’s lampshades, cheese sticks, cigarettes and glaring eyes. They all seem to be things pointing to the play so I decide I definitely want to work with these but how.

IMAGES
I start to work with cheese on stick and experiment taking my own pictures….this is with a glass cut dish, a bit 70’s and some chiffony material I have in a peachy colour. The brief is it keep a 70’s feel to it.

I then experimented with a couple of my favourite images with colour and black and white.

I decide to take a break from the cheese and look for some other ideas.  Before doing that I also want to get in my head exactly what info I need and how I can break it down.  I start to look at other 70’s posters for some inspiration.  I really like the 70’s style type.  I need to decide on type.  Should I do a whole type poster?  I think about what is actually happening in the play.  They party is actually over the road and I picture someone looking out of their window and actually seeing the party in action.  I also like drawaing in illustrator and playing around so I decide to give it a go and see what my idea might look like.

You can see how I progressed though the design – firstly getting the basic house design done, then adding a little depth and trying to figure out the text.  It’s okay, but i’m not in love with it.  It would be a shame to waste my cheese stick images as I spent quote a bit of time on them so I go back to that.

I added various bits as I went through it but I really like this design.  It’s very retro looking and I kept the text simple so it’s all about the picture.  I realised a few bits were missing and these were my final designs.  I like the quote by Alison Steadman. It was then fairly easy to create the other designs.  I knew what information was important and what wasn’t for each of the designs, for example, the programme cover didn’t need the breakdown of venues on the front and the advert needed to have a very standout element in it like the block of colour, but not so much that it looked completely different to all the other designs.  Here are my final designs one after the other followed by PDFs.  I am very pleased with them and would be happy to submit them to the customer.  I feel I have kept to the brief and made sure there was a 70’s feel to them.

A3 Poster

Double Sided A5 Landscape Flyer

A5 Programme Cover

A6 Advert Design

 

Exercise 7 – The French Hen

Its going to be harder to write this one up as I’ve been working on this for a few weeks now so will have to go through the process by memory!

I started by drafting up exactly what was required of me and starting points to ensure I had everything in order. Newton & Ridley own the Rovers Return which is a pub. They want to open a café/wine bar in the city centre called the French Hen. They want to enance their image as a ‘respectable alcohol Vendor’ This immediately made me think that they will perhaps want their name showing with the French Hen logo so that people can make the association.

I started by mind mapping some ideas to get a starting point for the logo.

I then started drafting up some ideas using my brainstorming. I have not used colour at this point as suggested in my research it’s better to design a good looking logo that will look good in black and white and then add colour later. Concentrate on the idea and theme for now. There were lots!

I decided to try out three of them. I had a play with the layout too of the three I liked.

On balance I decided that I liked the first one the best. It had the most modern feel and it played on the eggs. I decided from the start that I liked the use of the colours of the French flag to give that French and café feel to it.

I liked the logo as it was but wanted to make some adjustments to the eggs as at the moment they were just normal ovals, they needed to be more egg shaped.

I came to a final design and then started looking at ways to mock it up. There were some great free PSD mock ups online at graphicburger.com to really showcase your work and they can also help give a certain to feel to your logo and help shape it. I ended up decided that I preferred the square layout of the logo. It felt more bar/pub/wine bar. I couldn’t decide though between scrapping the colour in favour of a modern black and white look, or keeping the colour which looked a little more bistro to me.

All in all i’m very happy with the overall look and design of all of these. If I had to choose I would go with the black and white versions as I feel it has more of the bar look to it and I like the wooden look of the bar sign. If it was purely a café I would have gone with the other colour version.

Here are the napkins and beer mats too and It all looks fab together I think – clean, simple, sophisticated and modern. I found a picture of an oak top online, I made the beer mats illustrator just using some effects on the black and changing the opacity slightly of the logo. I found a napkin image and did the same and cut some of the logo off the napkin underneath so it looked like it was overlapping.

It pulls in the name of the brewery for the purpose of association. It stays away from stereotypes of wine and bars and the eggs could be used throughout the design if needed. (though if this was real I would need to check and see what font the brewery uses normally but that may not matter so much)

This exercise was an interesting one. I spent a lot of time on it but I am finding that I get to solutions quicker and am getting a better feel for what I like and don’t like. I like how the sketching process this time gave me lots of ideas. I wanted to give up after two pages but I forced myself to keep going and take breaks to keep the creative flow going. I did consider taking pictures of hens and the eggs in my fridge etc but for the purposes of this logo I didn’t think it was necessary as from the start I wanted to keep the design as simple as possible for the sophisticated look. I didn’t want a freehand drawn chicken in there for example!

Exercise 6 – Chance Housing Association

This was a really interesting project for me as I love brand design. Halfway through my new book arrived too, Logo Design Love and it has some great tips, ideas and advice on designing a logo. I can get carried away with detail, and I can over think and overdo projects, so it was important for me on this not to over-design it. You will see at the end that I have created a logo where the word is the logo. I did have a look at some symbols but because the word ‘chance’ itself is quite decorative, it was too much I think for the eye to look at.

So how did I start? Firstly I had a look at other housing association logos out there. I put together some that I liked and some that I didn’t like so much. The brief was clear on this one:

It needs to be seen as different from other housing associations
more modern
more helpful
welcoming to young people wanting to buy a house

A lot of the housing associations had a very corporate feel to them. So this logo needed to stand out in relation to them by being different, and it also needed to appeal to young people so have a more modern look to it.

I also looked at other material online that was aimed at first time buyers. I noticed that a lot of the colours associated with first time buyers were greens and blue, that dream like state – of buying a house, it’s their ultimate dream.

I started by just having a play in my sketchbook which turned up lots of different results. Stairs, blocks of CHA, incorporating the words with the first three letters. I saw a logo online that inspired me to put an outline, almost graffiti like around the word chance. I’ve also seen a lot of round button logos lately that are very modern and wondered if this could be turned into a logo.

I then started to draft up the ones that I liked the look of best, the ones that stood out from the other housing association logos and went for the CHA block, the outline version and the button version. I was also thinking of maybe overlapping block letters where the colour runs through and I was thinking of scrabble letters. Nothing to do with housing but it’s just a bit different and cool.

I wasn’t happy showing these sketches to a client so I drafted up my three favourites on illustrator to show them. Having read advice in my logo design book I wouldn’t have chosen colour at that point straight away. colour is something to introduce later down the line as it could influence the clients decision and the logo at this stage is the important aspect.

I looked at the three illustrator drafts and also discussed it with my husband and we agreed that the large chance logo with the outlines would stand out the most among the other housing logos but it needed a bit of work as the outlines didn’t look very good.

So I went along with this and came up with many variations on this logo. I ended up using a different font, one that wasn’t scripted. When it came to adding it to letterhead and a business card I decided I really didn’t like it. It almost had a youth club feel to it? Looked perhaps a bit dated?

I decided to scrap that and go back to my other outline versions and go back to the script one. As soon as I took the outline away from the script version, and just kept the outer outline, it softened it right up and looked much better. After a play with colour I decided to go for purple and green.

I did realise later down the line that a couple of estate agents use purple like haart for example and there is another letting agency in Peterborough that uses that colour but it may not be an issue and perhaps the tone of the Cadbury purple could be adjusted to take that into account. I was also concerned that the typeface wasn’t enough on its own so I started to have a play with symbols. Reflecting on it and after doing some research I realised that it was too much.

The public need to remember the one memorable thing about the logo and on this occasion it’s the big, bold, script, outlined typeface.

I re adjusted my headed paper and did a couple of versions, one with a strip of purple along the top to match the strip on my business card (I also did lots of versions of these until I was happy with the final chosen one) I also used a copy of my husband’s business card as inspiration for the layout of the text and I used the green in the same way as the letterhead – for the website and for the bold in the T, F and E. As the layout of the reverse is landscape I did think that the layout on the card could suit landscape also and so I created two different versions. (please ignore the fact that my printer wont print the descenders of my typeface for some strange reason! – I need a new printer!!!!)

Once I was happy with the letterhead and the business card I went to work on the advert. I roughly sketched an idea and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to put together now that the rest of the work had been done. I kept the same theme running through (albeit this time I added a green trim to the white strip) and I added a nice big image. I also made up my own text in the advert. Two sizes and two groups. ‘Looking for your dream house but need to get your foot on the housing ladder?’ ‘Contact chance today to see how we can help make your dreams come true’ (picture courtesy of me, in Ireland showing a dream house with beachside views!)

I did a lot of reflection on this work. I really did worry about not having a symbol but I still think it would have been too much. I did worry about the colour. I really wanted to keep the green as it stands out so I changed the purple for green but it just didn’t look right. I think purple is the right colour and I’m really happy with the final outcome and the feedback I have received is consistent with my thoughts which is good.

I just need to photocopy on paper black and white now and put a presentation pack together for my tutor. I’ve already printed it so it should be easy enough.

Logo Research

Firstly I had a really good look online for a good logo book and found ‘logo design love’ which had lots of good reviews on amazon so I popped over to my cheaper book site ABE books and found it there so that is now on its way in the post.

I then looked for a logo quiz. We have the logo board game at home and I love it! But i’m not very good to be honest!

I did this quiz in my sketchbook and what I found was really surprising. The answers I wasn’t 100% sure of, 9 times out of ten, I could at least spot the industry it was in. Eg evian, I knew it was water but I couldn’t remember which one. I knew the red bull logo was a drink but I couldn’t remember which one.

So subconsciously, these logos are engrained in our minds and we do associate these images with the actual product because they are put into our face so often. The images of what I now recognise as bulls has in actually fact got nothing to do with a drink but my mind made the association. That however is down to the intense and expensive marketing that is put into the brands.

Interesting.

Exercise 5 – Poster & Flyer

I began by writing up the brief to see if there was anything missing and what research I would need to do.  It doesn’t  look like the client has said who the audience is, young/old? They don’t have a logo either or said whether they have a logo.  This might be important going forward with future projects, I would suggest that they have one.

Here is a collection of flyers, cards and all sorts of tings I have collected over the easter holidays.

I did want some imagery for this to make it stand out.  I envisage that the front of the flyer will be mainly imagery and the back will be more of the details.  As it suggests photographs don’t photocopy well so I was thinking of drawing the images.  So the steps I needed were:

1 – what imagery will I use

2 – how will I split the information between front and back

3 – choose a colour for the paper

4 – which typeface will I use

I started by brainstorming imagery.  I liked the microphone idea and the singing mouth idea.  I also liked the dynamic shoots coming out of the ladies mouth.

From my brainstorm I roughed out some ideas of front and back of flyer.  I decided that the flyer needs to come first and the poster can follow.

I really like the big mouth idea so decided to go with that.  It is quite young, retro and fresh but hopefully it wont alienate anyone.  Again difficult when we don’t know the audience but i’m going to aim this at everyone.   I wondered how I could get this drawing into a vector form to make it sharper.  I started by using image trace but it didn’t work well so I went back into photoshop and brightened up the image and increased the contrast and I ended up with these lovely images.

I then decided to go with the ‘sunshine’ I call it of the stripes.  Inspired a bit like one of the flyers I have collected.  I put all of the elements together and laid out a rough idea. The microphone and mouth clashed with the black of the stripes so I added a bit of a haze around them.  this reminded me of a typeface I have ‘capture it’, which is a bit hazy, so I used that for a start.  I also printed it onto blue card to see how it looked and initially I’m very pleased with this.  I need to play with the typeface and layout and think about how the word singout can sit as a logo in it’s own right too.

 

 

So I decided I needed to have a play with the type as I do really like this but could there by anyting better? I also wanted to create some sort of simple logo just so there is something to get going with.

I did try and substitute the type for this rounded typeface vox which was quite creative and I changed the boxes to curved boxes to match but I still preferred the first one.

I also thought that the reverse needed some images and so had a play with that.

I then printed the other two designs off so I could compare.

I prefer the word singout with the little microphone replacing the letter I. It also looks better printed on pastel card rather than dark card so that the black can really stand out. I prefer the sunshine coming from the mouth too rather than the microphone. I also think the last version on yellow is much better presented on the reverse and looks cleaner as I’ve added the word singout to the top.

PDF here….flyer6PDF

I’m happy with the yellow version and now onto make this into an eye catching poster. I’m confident with the images I have and the theme of this black sunshine running through it will make for an eye catching poster too.

I started by drafting up some layout ideas……

And then put them into draft form…..

I decided that I preferred the two ‘sunshine’ versions as they stood out more with the contrast.

I further developed the landscape idea as I liked the layout of that the best and turned it into a portrait version.

I couldn’t decided to have the poster with or without outlines around the boxes for some more definition but if I kept the lines quite small I think it looks better. I need to change this on the flyer as the lines are quite thick.

After some playing around to get all the information in, I had a final poster I was happy with. I printed it off and pinned it up as suggested.

PDF – posterfinal2

I did want to change the flyer now though having compared it to the poster.

I decided the reverse didn’t look quite right with the sunshine going across it needed to match the other sunshine and the slant of the word so I changed that. On the front, I also added do you love to sing in the same style as the poster and I added the website at the bottom. I also moved the location of the sunshine to come out of the word singout to give the word more impact.

I printed them off and hung them up.

I decided that the writing at the bottom of the poster was perhaps a bit small? Not sure it didn’t sit right with me. I like the website and other information. Maybe it all needs to be on the same side. So i’ll change that. I do like the rest of it – I think the important information is there.

With the flyer, I wonder if the contrast in size between the word singout and the ‘Do you love to sing’ is not enough. Maybe I need to change the important info on the front to mirror more the information I have placed as most important on the poster. On the flyer I have put the address on the front, Perhaps swap that with professional vocal coaching. I also ad libbed at bit on the professional vocal coaching as I needed something short and sharp to say exactly what this event was all about!

so the flyer I changed the items that weren’t doing it for me and I do now prefer this version….

Also with the poster, changing the size of the mouth gave the poster more impact. I then really struggled with how to place the info at the bottom and make it better. I was convinced I had the important info on the body of the poster and that the further details, website and address was secondary but figuring out how to place it, without it looking crowded was hard. I opted for the first version below and I’m happy with that.

Research Point – Posters

My research asked me to look at posters I have an interest in.  This was quite easy to do as I do love vintage posters and adverts!  These are three I bought recently to be framed.  They are actually from the magazine illustrated in 1953 and 1954.  I chose the Daz one as I thought this would look good in my utility room.  I chose the other two as I loved the colours.  They cost a mere £2 odd each.

 

Looking at other posters that I like, I decided to look into typewriters and it was interesting to see the difference between brands.  I looked at Olivetti, Remington and Hermes.

I have chosen a selection of Olivetti adverts here from the 50’s to the 70’s and they really are great.  Bold, colourful, different and they really stand out.  Making a typewriter look very fashionable and funky like the latest must have.  I really like these designs.  The last advert I think is older.

 

Remington are  different.  Very traditional, looking adverts.  These are probably older than the adverts above.

Hermes posters are mainly illustrated.  Lovely illustrations too that stand out.

So three very different approaches which all perhaps reflect the manufacturer and their brand and the message they were trying to get across to their customers.  Some lovely inspiration here.

 

 

Well I didn’t get much done over the easter holidays with little man at home but I have kept myself busy looking into other things that I really love.  I spent some time drawing and made this lovely horse racing pic for my husband who was looking for some raching art so I suggested that I would draw some!  Really like this, might need some finishing off but Im going to get it framed.

I’ve also been keeping up by photoshopping my friends nails images for her….

And I’ve developed a love fro all things old.  Starting with the vintage magazine adverts that I bought a little while ago, I saw this on ebay and had to have it.  I LOVE the front cover.  And the adverts and stories inside are amazing.  I love that this is 120 years old.  Who else has picked this up and read it?  It was certainly aimed at middle class women of that era and the magazine was also run by women which must have been very up and coming for it’s time.  The colours on the front are very me and I will be getting this framed for my new house too.

I’ve also designed and printed party invites for my sons birthday which has led to some requests so I’ve decided to start doing little bits of design work for people, just odds and sods, to keep my interest and enthusiasm going and to give me extra money to buy more things!  the jpeg conversion has cropped this for some reason but his head isn’t actually cut off in the file.

I got a book on antqiues from the second hand shop too and have started buying blue and white transferware from the 1800’s as I want to get a set and display as they look so fresh despite their age they can look really modern on a modern backdrop.  Pics to follow.

So lots of inspiration and things going on still despite not actually being able to sit down properly and work.  Lots to do next week though.  Just finished exercise 4 and now onto the most demanding exercises before I even get to Assignment 5.  I’m glad my assessment date isn’t until November,  I need to take into account the holidays from now on as I thought I wold get work done but I never do.

Exercise 4 – Birthday List

So for this exercise I did as it suggested and started collecting birthdays of friends and family that I would send a card etc to.  This was easy enough to do from facebook. I kept in mind that it needed to look good.  As it was going into my kitchen I needed to keep the colour and look tied into my shabby chic theme, butI wanted a modern spin on it.  I started to think about the different pieces of information that I would need and made a list.

On my next sketchbook page I started to think about layouts.  I looked around me and spotted my colour wheel.  Perhaps it could be round, I could have a couple of sheets, how could I place the information so I could spin and see what I needed but clearly.  I decided that there wasn’t enough room.

I started to think about symbols.  To save space I could have a symbol next to each name.  But I did also think that when people come over they would instantly see who was getting a gift as opposed to who was getting a card.  How could I do this discreetly.  I decided perhaps I could colour code them with the images.   I thought abuot how I could lay this out then I got to work in indesign.

Below you can see my layout process.  I started by making these little symbols for my different needs.  I do like the first idea of simply having big images at the top and it looks modern and fresh. But I wanted to make it a little more shabby looking. I used some of my favourite colours from the kular app take from vintage adverts etc and I also started by using a vintage font I found online. I decide this was too chunky looking and scrapped it in favour of a script font coupled with a clear sans serif font.  I made the background sponge like and   I popped a border on it too and I used bunting I made all the way back in my first ever introduce yourself assignment!  I could have spent longer making bunting from scratch again but this did the job and as you can see fits nicely into the scheme of my kitchen.   I popped the symbols at the bottom to remind myself and its ever so discreet that no-one will really know for sure, from the off they will just think that it’s a list of birthdays.

It’s under A4 as I printed it on card and fit the file to the page so I could cut around it.  I alos cut some paper doily up to use it to hang it up.

FINAL DESIGN ABOVE – PDF BELOW

final

UPDATE

The more and more I look at my birthday list hanging up the more I don’t like it. I think this proves that something can seem nice when designing but once printed and in your face, you get the best impression. I also keep skipping past the previous files and I do really like the first design. Without the word britday list. Really simple, with just the icons that I designed. So I went back in, updated it, added a border and voila. This actually looks ‘designed’ the other one was old fashioned looking. And because the colours are nice and natural it does look fine in my kitchen. Happy 🙂

final2

Easter trip to Hunstanton

Went to the beach today and took some fun little pics.  I loved this rustic colourful looking drain at Hunstanton.  I get really excited about things like this!  I increased the intensity of the colour to make it really stand out and I tried to get the real grit of the image across. I love this, I might get it printed to put up in my house.

This is my little man, we did the impossible and won a toy from the grab machine!

I also collected a menu and napkin from a smart fish and chip place that we ate at for future projects…

Exercise 3 – giving Information

 I tried to think about what I could already have in the house and remembered this from the natural history museum and remember how I thought it was a really nicely designed map. Great colours and very easy to see exactly where your points of interest might be at a glance. Symbols for the toilets and café with a key at the bottom with more detail. But you could pretty much interpret it straight from the map. This could work really well as a diagram for my house so I did a rough sketch of how it might look. Not sure what all the symbols I would choose would be but it’s an idea. Here is my mood board on graphics I’ve found online – my favourite is the word art one. Different and very visual – I wonder how I could apply this to the house. And keeping a good hierarchy too I may have a few sketches and a go at that. I like the idea of having a sideways view of the house too. Maybe I can combine that with the text idea.

So next I started sketching up some ideas with some of the mood board ideas that I liked thrown in. I looked at a side view of the house but that would look  a little odd perhaps because of the rooms behind rooms.  How would I deal with that?  I look at a text type map, with text making the shape of the room meaning that lines and boxes weren’t needed.  How could I deal with stairs and how would I show windows and doors?  What colours would I use?  I also sketched up how it would look in terms of a flow type diagram.  I did think tube style map but I best everyone does those, so I started to map out the flow diagram.

I would be easier to get going in illustrator in this.  Below you can see my process.  How I started out just with some boxes, and then tidied it up so there was a very clear process and finally putting in a colourful scheme using the adobe kular to help.  I like how I have used the numbers to show the number of living areas, and number of bedrooms.  There is also a clear process to the map and I’ve show clearly the points of entry too.  It was hard to get the boxes aligned just right but I about managed it.  I could have played more with colour and font choices but as an idea I quite like this.

I also started to experiment a bit with arrows which could look good but could make it a bit messy by the end as if I was going to show arrows in both directions I would need to do that up and down the stairs too.  Happy with that for now (cant you tell I’ve worked in admin for years, flow charts engrained in my mind) I went on to the idea of using a text version.

I tried out the text version. It was okay and I went as far as reminding myself how to turn text into outlines and learnt how to turn objects into outlines so I could match the text up correctly but it wasn’t great.  It just looked like every other bit of word design I had seen.  But it was good enough for a mock up.

I went back to my sketchbook and looked at the other ideas. Vector type doodle art could be good.  I did a bed and turned it into vector art.  But I still wanted to show some sort of flow but in a more create way to the flow chart above.

I started to think about the doors.  How I could make them into a 3D looking map.  Too complicated perhaps.

I then simplified it by putting all of the doors in a row and then adding something for the stairs so that you can see where there is a change to get you to the upstairs.  Okay I did realise this is a little like a tube map, but it does work.

I went around my rooms and took pictures of the rooms so that I had some colours from the house to put in and went to work in illustrator. I also took a picture of one of my doors.  I decided I really liked this idea and decided to take it though to a final design.  Below you can see how I started then my final design and key and a title.  You’ll see that I started landscape but realised the map lent itself to being portrait. The doors were also unnecessary so I took those out. I also turned the junctions into squares to make mine different to the circle of tube maps and this then looked nice with the other frames. I chose blue and red as my main colours for the lines, text and frame to give it that tube map feel.  I chose colours from my actual rooms for the lines using the adobe colour app.  I put a frame down the middle to separate the map from the text as well.  This could be added to more with logos etc and i’m really happy with the final result.  Here is a PDF of the final. finalhousemap  One thing I had a little trouble with , which you can see one of the images below was the slight disjointed look one of the lines.  they were perfect in indesign, but in PDF you could see a little lump from far away, but when zooming in it looked better.  The lines were perfectly aligned, same thickness so that was odd, it would be interesting to see how it printed.

 

I went back to the brief to see if I had covered it and it did say to use numbers in my map.  I think it probably does need it in this one to add some contrast so I had a play and came up with this.

I like this one, clearer than the last.  I would also be happy with the colourful map in the first design too.