Contrast & Negative Space

For week 2 of The Designers Toolkit we focused on Contrast and Negative Space. We were tasked with creating a 2 double page spreads, one a splash and one a turn, using the given copy and images provided.

I wanted to push this to the extremes and really get experimental with the designs for this project. So I started doing some thumbnails which feature heavy contrast and negative space.

I had then started to take individual thumbnails spreads and develop them digitally. I did this on indesign and using Photoshop and Lightroom for any photo editing.

Below is the first thumbnail I had chosen to develop.

I started off by setting up a 9 grid column in indesign and then choosing the image I wanted to use. I wanted to create a contrast between the image and the type. As well as the contact in size from the Title to the smaller sized copy.

Below I had experimented with the typeface I wanted to use for the copy, the size, leading and the paragraph style that I wanted to use.

HELVETICA NEUE REGULAR 8/12

GARAMOND PRO REGULAR 9/11

I then added my title text for this one which was Thunder Black LC, I chose this as I really liked the bold title contrasting with the smaller copy.

Then printed out a text to see how the copy looked in its relative typeface and sizing.

I then played around with possible layouts for the type as the copy made different shapes due to sizing, so I played around with the positioning of the image credits at the bottom.

Following on from this I wanted to experiment with how I could lay the column copy out, so I had tried a few different variations to see what I liked best.

I then decided that I liked how the 2 column copy looked as the small text contrasting with the big title and image looked effective.

I liked how this composition looked so I decided to experiment with some variations for it playing with negative space and contrast.

I had tried different ways of justifying the type and ranging left to see which one I preferred.

This next thumbnail I chose to develop was to do with how I can use negative space to draw attention to type.

When I did this text digitally I wasn't liking how it looked, due to the different sizes of the title words it threw off the balance I was looking for.

I had once again experimented with how I aligned and justified the copy to see if that changed the appearance much.

I had added more grids and made a 15 column grid to help me fit the text in easier and this made it look much more effective and more like what I had envisioned in my thumbnail.

I had then experimented with changing some of the styling of it.

I liked how this turned out but was a but conflicted with "ON" being the biggest word on the page when its the least Important out of the title "LIFE ON MARS"

For this design I wanted to play with using dramatic black and white contrast between the spread, so below is the thumbnail I chose to develop.

I had then done a few designs just experimenting where copy, pull quote and images could possibly go.

Following on from this I wanted to experiment with adding in some lines for structure as well as some page styling.

Next I experimented with using a full image across the spread and just including the pull quote.

I wanted to change it up a bit as I thought the image looked a bit boring so I created several different versions.

I really liked how this over exposed image looked so I put it onto a magazine mockup and added more texture to it.

Following this I did some more different layout styles using negative space and contrast.

In this design I really wanted to keep it very minimal to allow the white space to contact heavily with the text and images used to allow the smaller text to be able to grab the readers attention.

For this design I wanted the negative white space to really contrast with the rest of the design, so I grayed out all the images to allow them to blend in with the text and to give it a flatter look, which allows more of a contrast in the design.

Below I had just moved around some of the smaller details to se what I thought looked best where.

Below I had done some more experimenting with using negative space and contrast. I really liked how this turned out as the full page image contrasting with the small pull quote, which goes against its use.

After this I wanted to play with the format of the spread itself.

I wanted to experiment with having larger text for the copy to see how it looked and I justified it to give it a more pronounced shape to it.

Following this in had made some subtle changes such as adding a boarder around the image and adjusting the copy size.

I was really liking how this was looking so I mocked it up and played with the reverse again as I liked the black back with the links to space.