For this brief we were asked to design a magazine spread for one of a selection of articles provided to us. We had to design the layout for the first two pages of the article. I decided I wanted to go with the fashion article; ‘The Perfect Fit’. I initially assumed that the fashion article wouldn’t be to my taste, but I was surprised to find that the main part of it was about a Japanese brand ‘KAPITAL’ that I had been a fan of. I decided to use the text from this part as the basis for my article. Once I knew I was going to use the Fashion article I decided to start my research there.
What I noticed from looking at other articles was that a lot of fashion magazines make use of very ornate Serif fonts, these often being used for titles or logos. They often combine that with a sans serif font to help break up the article and assist with the flow of the text. Varying weights are also implemented to help achieve this. There is also a big reliance on imagery in the majority of the articles, with most two-page spreads being around 50% image.
As well as this I began looking at more Swiss and modernist layouts. I have been a fan of these movements for a while and I wanted to try and take some inspiration from these into the layout as I have never really attempted that style of design before.
I found this Swiss-style layout and decided to use this style for my main source of inspiration. Looking at the layout you can see a very loose three column design in the almost diagonal layout of the text, image and the what I assume is the page number.
The designer has made effective use of justification, this helps with the readability of the text. In the layout, the designer has confidently used white space to put emphasis on the image and typeface. The designer has also used colour to draw attention to the text by having the image and the number appear in black and white. This style is repeated on both pages and creates harmony between the two layouts.
In my design I knew I wanted to try and capture the essence of the fashion layouts I had researched whilst also taking inspiration from the Swiss and modernist layouts that I’m such a big fan of.
When creating my layout, I decided to follow a loose three column design much like my chosen layout. I used a combination of modern serif and sans serif fonts, I decided to use this combination as a result of my research, I found that this is a very prevalent aspect of those types of layouts.
I decided to have a play around with the title and liked the idea of the article name ‘The Perfect Fit’ not actually being a perfect fit. I created an ironic visual play on the phrase ‘The Perfect Fit’ by using a hyphenated typographic approach. Structuring the title this way led to a lot of freedom to where I could place my title in the layout, as I didn’t have to contend with the length of the word ‘perfect’ in contrast to the other two. I sourced some images from the KAPITAL website of models wearing the latest clothing.
I liked the subtlety of the pale blue denim and decided to use it as the primary
Final PDFs
Two Page Spread – Article Two Page Spread Final 02.12.18-2bqktg9
iPad Layout – Article iPad Spread Final 02.12.18-yd4o8q
Conclusion
I enjoyed this brief far more than I at first thought. I didn’t expect to become as absorbed in the layout of my article as I did. I found something very therapeutic about juggling the balance between the type and the images on the page, and found the whole experience very rewarding when it finally came together. It was also a great chance for me to further refine my InDesign skills and I found that I was still able to learn newer and more efficient ways of handling and arranging the elements on the page.