”Wonderful, thanks Cate! Extremely happy with the handbook design and final files. On behalf of our whole project team, thanks again for your support and flexibility throughout the process.
Prof. Shannon Vallor
The Brief
Making Systems Answer A Practitioner’s Handbook for Trustworthy Autonomous Systems
Client
Prof. Shannon Vallor,
Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence,
Director Centre for Technomoral Futures Edinburgh Futures Institute and Co-Director, UKRI BRAID (Bridging Responsible AI Divides) Programme.
The research for the report was supported by the UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (grant EP/W011654/1) as part of the Trustworthy Autonomous Systems: Making Systems Answer project.
Design Scope
Create a visually engaging 36 page handbook, from the combined authors research, as a digital accessible PDF and print ready files.
Create graphics to enhance the content
Create original illustrations that reflect 3 case studies.
No Brand guideline to follow. Advice on a colour palette and complimentary easy to read typography.
The Solution
From the handbooks content formatted in word, I applied typography and a rough page plan structure in inDesign. I start every multi page document in this way, creating grids and adding Paragraph styles early on in a project – it creates strong foundations and saves an enormous amount of time further down the line.
In choosing typefaces and colour palettes, the most sensible place to start was with the University of Edinburgh and UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council brand guidelines.
Once this was established it helped to identify the pull out boxes, hot quotes and the size and format of the illustrations required for positioning. I then created very rough illustrations for the 3 case studies from Shannon’s brief using the proportions I’d identified.
After the page plan, feedback and text edits were made, I could then start to think of identifying and creating the graphic elements that would tie the report together, fill gaps and start to form the front cover. After a chat through the possibilities, we agreed to a creative approach that would reflect the handbook best.
I created abstract shapes loosely based on speech bubbles arranged as a modern clean random pattern. The abstract design was flexible in use and this approach not only reflected the content it also contributed to the strong front cover.
