Magazine Design

In this part of the module we had to create 2 Double Page Spreads, one Splash and one Turn Page.
We had to create one pair on a 6 column grid and another on a 11 column grid.

We were given freedom over the subject as long as it has ties to 'Exploration'. So before I started thumb nailing I had to decide what I wanted to base my article on. I had several ideas all pulling on the theme of exploration, these included; Exploration of Japanese Culture, Exploration of the Seven Summits, Amazon rainforest Exploration. But the one that I had chosen to do was the Exploring Dr Seuss's Secret Artwork.

Below are some of my thumbnails for this task, I tried to draw as many of the images in as possible to be able to see how the image works with the text.

We were told to gather some images that are relevant to the subject matter and that we could use in the thumbnail and final designs.

I had then found my copy text I was going to use, I had found several articles based on Ted Geisels hidden artwork and his midnight collection. I will use this as well as making up my own headings and stands-firsts for the article which was mentioned in the brief.

Once I had done this I started taking some of the thumbnails and developing them on indesign using both the 6 and 11 column grid. My plan is to try the same design in both of the different grids to see which one I think looks more effective.

Below is a thumbnail for what would be a splash page.

Below I had used the 6 Column Grid, Gutter is 4mm. Top, bottom, Inside and Outside margin is 10mm.

Main copy is Garamond Pro 11.5/15. Title size is 23pt. Caption size is 9/11

Once I felt comfortable with the overall layout I had played around and created different variations, playing with the size and positioning of what I had already created. As well as adding in the running head, foot, folios and the other required elements which we needed to include.

I started by adding the folios, and a running head and foot. This felt very plain and soulless at first so I went in and style it a little more to make if feel less bland,

I had changed the running head to small caps as it added some difference into the design but still using the same typeface. I had also lowered the opacity of both the running head and foot so I sits in the background more.

Finally I had fine tuned it some more, adding an underline to some of the page information, and lowering the opacity of the page numbers.

I had added some structure lines into the design to help fill in some of the negative space and make it look more professional.

I then experimented with the style of how I wanted to display the title of the article.

I had put a drop cap in to help the reader to distinguish where to start reading to see how it looked.

I had then done a design where I had removed the lines I had added to see how it looks without them in.

I had then tried this design on the 11 column grid to see which one I found more effective.

I then wanted to see how it looked when the text was justified, to make this look effective though I needed to made the gutters later by 2mm.

This mockup would be for the turn page.

I had created this in the two different grids again, starting with the 6 column, then I have experimented with how I wanted to lay it out again making changes each time.

I wanted to see how this copy look when justified but when I originally did this the gutter was too tight that call the copy blended together, so I had increased the gutter to 8mm.

I then experimented with adding in the captions, headlines and the other features which were mentioned in the brief.

The image caption below felt way too big so I had shorted it an experimented more with layouts for it.

I had then thought about whether I wanted to display the article title on the running head of both the pages or if I wanted the article name on one and the magazine name on the other.

11 column grid

11 Column.

Following on from this I had taken some of the thumbnails which I found the strongest and made them digitally, then refined them, making smaller changes to the layout, sizes, accents and any features which I wanted to add or remove.

I had then just experimented with how I wanted to layout the type and captions.

Once I was comfortable with a layout I played around with how I wanted to justify the copy.

I had experimented with this in an 11 column grid too to see how that worked with the grid.

Following the feedback session I took note of all the pointers I was told which could improve my layouts and took them into account when moving forward, as well as going back and making suggested changes to my previous designs.

Some of the main points which I needed to improve on were not justifying copy, keeping a steady character count and experimenting with scale for the headlines.

Splash

I then experimented with some of the sizing and positioning of the content.

Following this I had added some headlines to the spread, but I feel like there's a little too much red on the page and its pulling the readers eye all over the place.

Then I had taken some of my first designs and applied my feedback to them by playing with scale and how I stylise the title and headline.

Splash

Following this I wanted to experiment with styling the drop caps

Turn

The brief said it must include a minimum of 4 images which I hadn't been doing at the moment, so below I tried to rearrange my turn spread to allow this to include more images.

Splash.

I had tried this out using a sans serif typeface too to see how that looked when paired with the serif.

Below I had experiented wo

Turn.

Below I had taken the same design but altered the margin size to see how having a very small margin and a very large margin effects the look and feel of the design,

COVER

I chose the title 'Margin' for my article, below I started developing my cover trying to give it the same feel as the articles I had done previously.

After the last feedback session I had taken the suggestions for improvements and applied them to my work.

First I started on how I wanted to style my captions.

The next improvement that started working on was shortening the captions for the images as they were way to long for a simple image caption, so I had done this.

In doing this I had to fix some negative space on one of my designs which was creating an awkward divide in the layout.

Final
6 Column Grid

11 Column Grid