Introduction
The final project of ‘Picture Symbol Icon’ and Semester 1 was to create a magazine spread based on an online article to pitch to a new magazine for their first issue. The design also had to be adapted for the internet, with an iPad version of the article based on the spread to be included as part of the final presentation.
The final design had to include such features as images, titles, author and image credits, pull quotes as well as the main body of text.
Initial Research
I decided to design a spread for a Vice article called ‘What Your Choice of Crisps Says About You – Or: Walkers Sensations have made me lose my mind.’ by Joel Golby.
The article itself is written very informally to represent the author’s unfiltered thoughts and opinions about the many varieties of crisps that exist as well as their cultural significance. Golby draws a lot on his own memories and experiences with crisps which gives an insight into who he is as a person and his past. I felt I had to design for this article due to its highly engaging nature and entertaining anecdotes.
To begin, I searched online for related images that I could use within my design to represent the article. After a period of time searching, I found a small handful of promising, creative commons licensed images all of crisps being held or piled up.
Image credits:FEI KUANG, andeecollard, brainflakes.
I now felt ready to start designing the spread using InDesign, but first I analysed existing magazine spreads to investigate how margins, columns, alignment and typeface were used to create successful designs.
Design + Layout
To start on the final design, I created a spread with custom margins and 6 columns to add my content to. Placing a couple of images and text on the pages gave me a sense of what a finalised article could look like. However, I quickly realised that the balance was completely off, with massive chunks of text, weak image presence and little to no white space.
I then decided that the best to progress was to sit and plan out a design on paper before taking it to a computer to assemble digitally. By creating a few sketches, it allowed me to better plan out the final design.
Using the last sketch as a base for my final, I set about recreating it digitally. I intended for there to be an image of a packet of crisps spilling out onto the page and while this seemed like a good idea, I couldn’t find any appropriate images online and so decided to take capture some of my own.
I then fully assembled what I thought would be the final layout.
I soon felt that something wasn’t quite right with this design and tried numerous tweaks and changes to get it to feel more cohesive yet it still lacked character and didn’t work.
I then decided to take a different approach completely. I wanted a very strong visual impact and so redesigned the entire spread, this time with an almost full page image with the title pasted in front of it.I also increased the size of the title to grab the reader’s eye before they move onto the rest of the article. I created a very simple box on the right page which included a pull quote and drop cap to enclose the text of the article. I felt much more confident with this design already as it felt much more visually striking and engaging.
I also included a fully cropped image of crisps in the bottom corner with the surrounding text wrapping around it to draw the eye from the title in the top left down to the bottom right. The pull quote was coloured using a blue taken from the left image to make it stand out more and tie into the other page.
The images were edited slightly from their original sources, increasing the contrast and brightness, before adding very subtle grey layer. This not only served to make the images appear more bold, but played into the idea of old memories and the appearance of high contrast disposable camera photos. This worked well with the article’s very nostalgic feel and the childhood memories described in it.
As a final change, I adjusted the heights of the text columns and included the pull quote within one of them to create an even stronger path for the eyes to follow. I also changed the pull quote to a brighter purple colour, which completed the design. To finish off, I converted the final magazine spread into an iPad screen web layout using elements lifted from the final design.
Outcome
I am very pleased with the final designs and feel they could be displayed in a printed publication and not seem amateur.
This project developed many new skills including using InDesign for the first time as well as learning about new graphic design techniques and terms for different visual elements. I feel my digital design skills have improved greatly over this project and I hope to use them for a new design soon.