The Brief
For our final brief in Picture, Symbol, Icon we were to create a two page spread and a portrait iPad screen of an article chosen from a list we were given. Our double page spread was to show the start of the article and include an image, title, author, image captions, image credits and a pull quote. Our iPad screen was to be based on the magazine spread and showing the opening screen of the article.
Research
For research we were tasked to find a 2 page spread in a magazine or book that we liked the look of and analyse the layout. After a brief lecture on each element of possible layouts we had to draw it onto a piece of A3 paper to show our understanding of layout and how columns and margins can be hidden.
I found this really useful as it showed me how I could layout my spread and how columns and margins can really help with making a layout neat.
Concept One
For my first concept I decided to use a bonsai tree as my image as they are native to Japan. I found a black and white image that I liked and added it to my double spread. My basic layout for this concept was 3 columns with a large margin at the top and equal margins at the sides and bottom. After putting the tree in I realised that the page needed a bit of colour so I took the image into photoshop and added some colour. I’m glad I did this as it then gave me a starting point with the colour of my text and I was able to match the text exactly to the image colour.
This is how my layout looked initially, however, I wasn’t keen on the first paragraph being the full length of the page as it was difficult to change from reading that to reading the columned text. I also though the text size for my paragraphs and pull quote were slightly to big and realised that my text was all very close to the margin on both outside edges which made it look a little odd.
After some minor changes to my spread, such as making the text smaller, bringing the margins in, adding page numbers and tweaking the image and text so that they are aligned at the top, the spread look a lot neater and was easier to read through.
I am very happy with how this spread turned out and I was ready to stop at this one and move onto the iPad screen, however, I thought it best to try another approach to the layout.
Concept Two
For this concept I decided to use a skyline image as my starting point. The basic layout was 5 columns with a large top margin and equal side and bottom margins, this offered a lot of space to play around with text and image layout. I decided to make the black of the image 80% as it made it softer and less in your face, I also decided to do this for all the text on the page. I used google fonts to get the Lato font which I used for this concept. I used a combination of Lato Light and Lato Black for my text to make the titles stand out a little more.
I messed around with the pull quote a bit to get it to stand out from the rest of the body text, I also changed the spacing between the titles to make it look neater. I’ve learnt from doing this project that minor changes can make a huge difference to the look of a layout.
After creating this layout I decided that this was the one I liked the most out of the two so decided to make my iPad screen based on this.
iPad Screen
For the iPad screen I used the same image and font as I did for the double page spread to create unity between the two, I though this was quite important as they are the same article, by the same author, published in the same magazine.
For the pull quote I decided to leave it in the text but highlight it by using Lato black instead of Lato Light to make it stand out from the text around it. I also chose to have the text running off the page to simulate the effect of an iPad screen. I like how the two layouts are very similar and are clearly the same article. I found the iPad layout a lot easier than the double page spread layout as I already had my image, text, font ect and just needed to move them around a little to fit onto the page in a way that it would appear on an iPad screen.
Conclusion
In conclusion I am really happy with both my layouts and am surprised how well they both turned out. At the start of this project I had no idea how I was going to make them look professional and not like I had just chucked an image and text onto a page for the sake of it. I’ve also learnt a lot of new inDesign skills through this project that I’m sure will come in handy for later projects. I’m glad I didn’t stick with the recommended space the images should take up as I feel if they took up 50% of the page it would have made my layouts look cluttered and they wouldn’t have flown as nicely.