Summer Editorials: Design Process & Outcomes

Design Process
I chose to design my spreads in InDesign, and I started by setting out the page size and margins for my first magazine, Wanderlust. After measuring the magazine and looking the the constructions of the layouts I found that the margins were all quite uneven, with very large inside and bottom margins, and smaller ones for the outside and top. When looking at the layouts I also found that four columns are used to place text and imagery, although often they are spread across two or three or even all four columns, which is common in magazine design. The next step in setting up the document was to set the baseline grid for the text to sit on, making sure it is all in line. I wanted to use 12 pt and so I made the grid increment every 14.4 pt, which I got using the formula for finding the optimum leading value (pt size x 1.2 = leading).

After setting up the document and making sure all the margins and grids were correct, I then placed some images and text and began constructing my spreads. I started with my bag review spread and began placing images and placeholder text. I decided to use two wider columns of text, rather than four small ones, as I felt like this fit with the style of Wanderlust better and also it gives the page more space, giving more breathing room to the text and the images around it.

After getting my rough layout made, I wanted to experiment with creating a small badge/banner for the page that showed the article was a review, something I have seen multiple times in different magazines. i wanted it to be quite bold and simple, using thick lines and simple shapes to create something that stands out and draws the audiences attention first, letting them know the nature of the article before they begin reading. I experimented with various different typefaces, mainly using bold, condensed sans serif ones to fit in with the typeface used for the header on the spread.

After finishing my review badge I placed it onto my spread and experimented with different placements. I think the simple badge design is strong and stands out on the spreads, almost looking like it was simply stuck over the top of the image, just as a badge would be. I also experimented with different positions of the images and the typography, looking at colours, quotes and playing with laying text over my full page image to help bring the image and text together. I continued to tweak and change small things on this spread until it was at a stage that I was happy with and that I felt worked successfully.

The next spread I chose to design was for St. Michael’s Mount. This was a much simpler layout to design, as I chose to include a full double page image, using a very small amount of text. I chose a very misty image where much of the island was hidden, as I thought this was a much more interesting way to present the article than just having a clear image with no mystery to draw the audience in. I also edited the photograph mid way through my design process, as I felt that it was too dark and dim, and was giving the spread quite a melancholy feel, whereas I think editing the image and bringing some of the colours out has changed the feel, making a brighter, more vibrant and interesting page.

I used the same typeface again for the header on the page and experimented with size, colour, and even erasing some parts of the text to make it seem like it too was getting lost in the mist. For the body copy on this spread I chose to use one of the four columns, creating a thinner paragraph, however there was considerably less text on this spread than the previous one and so I think this is much stronger than having a wide, thin paragraph spread across multiple columns.

My final spread for Wanderlust magazine was about the Eden Project. I again chose to use a double page image for this spread, however I wanted to play with different placements of the typography. I also chose to experiment with a more decorative header for this spread, rather than just using the same typeface as the others. I created a geometric pattern in Illustrator inspired by the shapes on the biomes at the Eden Project, and then placed it inside the text for the header. I experimented with different placements and sizes and eventually found a layout that I liked and that I think works successfully, relating to the image used in the background.

The body copy on this spread was slightly bigger this time, and so I chose to spread it across two columns to create a nice, more square paragraph. When experimenting with the layout, I found that the image was quite busy and there was lots of detail in it, and so I didn’t want to make the page too busy or overcrowded, and so I chose to place the body copy in the bottom corner of the page over an area of the image away from the main focus of the biomes. This takes a lot of the attention away from the text itself and keeps it on the image, which works in this spread and the image tells the audience what the article is about, with the text just there to provide support and more detailed information about the image.

For my final spread, I chose to design it for Creative Review, as a review of the Carsten Holler exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London. As I had designed spreads to fit Creative Review before I already had the dimensions and information to set up the document saved. I chose to work with three columns, although they can be split into more columns, but I don’t personally like to make them too thin.

After setting up the document for Creative Review, I began to add in text and imagery and experiment with the layout until I found something that worked, referring back to my sketches for ideas and guidance. I kept the typography very simple in this spread, using one serif font and keeping it all quite small and separate from the images, except for the small header that I placed over the full page image. I experimented with including different images, although I tried to keep the full page image as one of my dark, almost monochromatic images of the outside of the exhibition, as I really like the contrast in image styles created with the two brighter, more colourful images I used on the opposite page.

Final Outcomes
These are my four final outcomes. I think they are successful spreads and I think they all fit well with the style of the magazines that they are designed for. I have experimented with different layouts and different techniques for placing type and image and I think they have worked well to create some strong designs that would hopefully attract an audience and spark an interest in the articles I have created. I tried to design spreads based around four different subjects, as I thought this would give me more room to experiment with each and also would allow me to experiment with a wider range of ideas to present a range of different subjects. Designing for two different magazines, rather than just one, has also allowed me to do this, where I have been able to design to two different styles and sizes.I am pleased with my final designs and I think they are strong, successful works. I feel they fulfil the brief and that they fit well with the styles of the magazines I have used, whilst also holding some aspects of my own design that may not be found in the magazines, making sure they can still be recognised as my own designs.

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Summer Editorials: Ideas & Research

Initial Ideas
After looking at the brief, the first thing I decided to do was to gather some ideas about what kind of magazines I wanted to use, and also what kind of spreads I wanted to create. I wanted to make something that gave me a fair amount of room to play with and something I could be quite creative with, and I wanted to make something that interested me and that I maybe would enjoy reading about in a magazine.

I came up with a range of ideas, many of which were concerned with the outdoors and exploring and adventuring. I also thought about looking into music or film related spreads, looking at bands or films that I loved, although I felt like I could be a lot more creative with the spreads and also the imagery if I based it on something outdoors. On thing I thought about was using skateboarding, although this is something I used in a spread before in year 1 so I wanted to try using something different for these ones, allowing me to experiment with something new.

Magazines
The main magazine that I took inspiration from for my project was Wanderlust, a travel magazine that looks at interesting travel locations from around the world, showcasing beautiful places from around the world with bright, vibrant photography and exciting articles. I really like the feel of this magazine, and of course the idea of travelling and adventure interests me more so, and so I want to use this magazine to put my own double page spreads into.

After looking through the magazine I looked at the way it is put together and the text and imagery is laid out. I found that the magazine is quite image heavy, using many large and full page images, often spread across two pages at the start of articles. This is an editorial style that I really like and I think works very well to create a strong layout, and I think it also works well with the focus of this magazine, and it looks at travel and locations around the world, and so naturally photography would play a bit part in that.

I also found that the typography throughout the magazine was quite simple, using a serif typeface for the body copy and a bold, simple sans serif for headers. This is all that is really used throughout the magazine, except for some bigger, bright, more decorative type used for headers at the start of some articles. I really like this magazine and I think it will be fitting to hold some of my ideas.
The next magazine that I chose to look at, and possibly use to present my work, was Creative Review, a publication that looks at art and communication arts from around the world. This is a magazine that I have looked at before and used in previous projects. From designing for these dimensions before I found that I really enjoyed designing for this square format, as it was more interesting than traditional magazine dimensions and it allowed for some different, quite interesting layouts.

From looking at this magazine before I had already looked quite in depth at how it is laid out and constructed. Creative Review is quite a text heavy magazine and does not have quite as many images or white space that Wanderlust does. However it does still include images and it does include a small amount of full page images occasionally. The typography itself is also much smaller, allowing for much more text to be included on a page. This is created with a very different style than Wanderlust and so it would be quite interesting to design a spread for this, not just for the different size and layouts, but also for different subjects as well.

Final Spread Ideas & My Photography
After some time away from working on the project I managed to narrow down my ideas quite a lot, based mainly on the experiences I had over the summer. The first subject that I photographed and decided that I wanted to use was The Eden Project. I thought this would be an interesting article and I also found that it was a very aesthetically pleasing place, making for some good photography to include in the spread. I wanted the photography to be the main part of this spread with a small amount of text to support it and give some context, and so I made sure I took a range of photos, from huge, landscapes of the domes, to macro photos of plants and more from inside the domes.

The next subject I wanted to use was St. Michael’s Mount, a small island Just off the coast of Cornwall. I didn’t get the chance to actually visit the island when I went there, although I think I took some very interesting shots of the island from the mainland. When I first arrived it was raining and there was a thick mist covering most of the island which I think creates an eerie, mysterious feel, which I think would be really interesting in a magazine spread. For this page I want to make the photography the main focus of the spread with a small amount of text to add context to the image. As I didn’t get a chance to visit the island, there wasn’t a lot to photograph, and so I tried to make sure my images were the strongest they could be to make sure the spread was as strong as it could be.

For my third spread I wanted to move away from location based subjects. One thing I wanted to look into was making a review, and as I had recently bought a new bag from a brand that is based around adventure and being outdoors, I thought this would fit Wanderlust magazine well. I wanted to show the bag modelled on a person to show size and the way it fits, so I went out into the woods and found a ridge with a big view and modelled the bag for some photos. I chose to use a portrait lens with a very small aperture, allowing for a shallow depth of field to keep the background blurry, keeping the focus on the bag. I think these images are successful and they showcase the bag well, in an environment that it would be used in.

As well as showing the bag modelled on someone, I also wanted to show bag on its own so I experimented with photographing just the bag against different backgrounds. I tried laying it on a wooden background but I couldn’t get it to sit right and I didn’t like the way it looked against it and so I tried it against a brick wall, which I think looked much better. I think the colour worked better with the colour of the bag, and I think it works better in the photograph.

For my final spread I wanted to use something different, creating something for another magazine. I visited the Carsten Höller exhibition at South Bank in London, and I found it really inspiring. I wanted to make a review of the exhibition for Creative Review, working with different dimensions and allowing me to experiment with new layout ideas. I took a few photographs at the exhibition, although I don’t think I managed to get many strong images, and so I felt I needed to use a few found images from existing reviews of the exhibition. I want to use one of my images from the outside of the exhibition, although I feel like my images from the inside aren’t strong enough to use in the spread and so I found a few images from review online that were much stronger.

Found Imagery Links:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/carsten-hller-decision-at-his-best-he-channels-willy-wonka-but-the-spectacle-becomes-boring-10318970.html
http://www.hungertv.com/feature/carsten-holler-decision/

Layout Ideas
After refining my ideas down into four concepts for magazine spreads and gathering a collection of photography to use, I decided to quickly sketch out some rough layout ideas for each spread. This allowed me to get a rough visualisation of what I wanted each spread to look like, experimenting with full page images and smaller images laid out in different ways. Whilst trying to keep a similar style for the spreads in the same magazine (Topo, St. Michaels and Eden Project all in Wanderlust), I wanted to try and design using a different layout for each spread, to allow myself to experiment with as many different ideas and techniques as I could and to create a more varied range of outcomes.

Final Typographic Piece

This is my final drawn design. After some thought and experimentation I added a little bit of detail in the form of a little shadow around the text and a banner across the center text. I think this design is much stronger now than without the decoration. I think I have drawn this well and I think the text works well as a design. I am happy that I managed to keep everything aligned and spaced evenly, making for a much stronger design, typographically and spatially. I think this is a good example of my typographic skills and I think it also shows my strong interest in type, through the quality of the piece and the amount of time I have spent drawing it.

When I had finished drawing I decided that  wanted to experiment with the design further, exploring what other processes I could include. I began by scanning my image in and taking it into Photoshop. The scan was quite greyed out with not much contrast and so I used the Threshold tool to take out all the greys and push the contrast right up. Whilst I think some of the detail is lost a little in this version, I really like the extreme contrast that is brought into it and I think it makes the design strong, however in a different respect to before.

Whilst I liked the black, I wanted to experiment with other things that could fill the text and so I selected and deleted the black and replaced it with an image of some textured, rough wood that I had taken in a cafe in Kingston. I really like this version, and I think the wood adds more texture and depth to it. I did edit the wood slightly but I found that it still gets lost in the white background a little bit where the wood is very light.

After this I wanted to experiment even further; I took my original scan into Illustrator and used the live trace tool to knock out the background and isolate the text, making it bold and one colour. I wanted to explore further how I could use imagery, and so I decided to drop one of my images from my Environments brief into the background. I made my text white to stand out, and used the burn tool in Photoshop to darken some areas of the image so that the white text didn’t get lost. I tried this with two of my images and I think they have been very successful. I really like these images and I think the typography works extremely well with the imagery. I am very happy with these pieces and I think they successfully show of my typographic skills. I’m glad that I decided to take this piece further as  I think I have arrived at a much stronger outcome than if I had left it as a hand drawn piece.

Drawing Process

Before drawing the text, I laid out my guidelines, measuring the height of the text, the serif height, and the width of the letters, leaving room for the serifs. Once I had drawn out the guidelines for one letter I used Sean’s technique of using a small piece of paper to mark the guides on and to then measure out the rest. Rather than making all of the text look the same, I decided to change the text in the centre. I chose the words ‘Don’t ask for’ which are the less important words, which have less emphasis on them. Because of this I decided to make them smaller and stand out less, making them sans serif and very thin.

After I had finished drawing out my design, I wanted to transfer it to a nicer, thicker, cleaner sheet of paper, without the use of guidelines. I lined the design up behind my clean sheet of paper and then placed it onto a lightbox so that I could trace the design. I wanted to keep my design hand rendered and use this tracing as my final design and so I made sure to keep it as clean and well drawn as I could.

After penciling in the outline of my design I redrew it using fine liner pens, and then began to work in some detail to the piece. I decided to add decoration to the large B, giving it some emphasis and  depth. I decided to try this with the first letter of each word and I thought that it looked good. I was happy with this design ad I thought it works very well, although I feel it was quite plain and I there was a lot more I could add to it. I considered adding decoration around the text to fill up the space, or passible adding to the text itself to make it more exciting or detailed.

The Sarcmark

This is my final presentation page for my Sarcmark. I wanted to keep it simple and clear, showing what the punctuation mark represents and how it could be used in a sentence with other text. I am happy with my design and I think it works successfully as a punctuation mark. I feel like it fits well with the type and I think it can work well when in use as it is simple and easy to use.

Final Sarc Mark

After selecting a few ideas I decided to create them digitally and I narrowed my ideas down further to these two designs. I thought that they were simple and that they looked the most like they could work as punctuation marks. I think digitalising them has helped a lot as it shows how they work with text more accurately and also it creates a clearer example of it as a mark.

Overall  I decided to choose this design. This design is clearly inspired by the bracketed exclamation mark, and is very similar to an exclamation mark itself. I think that this helps it to work as a punctuation mark. When drawing this design originally I found that it is very quick and easy to write, which also makes for a successful punctuation mark as people will be able to write it quickly and carry on without having to stop to write a complex punctuation mark.

Sarc Mark Ideas

After finding out about the use of a bracketed exclamation point for sarcasm, I wanted to go on to create something inspired by that idea. I started with that drawn out on top of my sketchbook page and then went on to quickly sketch as many ideas inspired by that as I could. I really liked the idea of joining the brackets together somehow and then merging them with the exclamation point.

After sketching as many ideas as I could come up with, I had a look at them and chose a few that I liked best and that I thought could potentially work as a punctuation mark. The main thing I kept in mind was that I didn’t want it to be too complicated. I wanted to use a simple, easily drawn design, as when writing, the mark needs to be drawn quickly and flow with the text, rather then being awkward to write an then slowing down the process of writing.

 

Punctuation Marks

Punctuation marks are used everyday by everyone. It is used to determine the meaning of sentences and to divide up text into sentences. One of my favourite examples of the importance of punctuation is the quote:

“Eats shoots and leaves.” – which means the subject consumes plant growths.

“Eats, shoots, and leaves.” – which means the subject eats first, then fires a weapon, and then leaves the scene.

The two very different meanings are determined by the small use of simple punctuation. I am tasked to create a new punctuation mark for a new purpose, and so I thought it would be a good idea to look at some existing marks and where they have evolved from.

The earliest forms of writing were made using symbols and glyphs, and did not require punctuation so much, however as this evolved, the need for it became more apparent. The earliest alphabetic writing had no capitalization, no spaces, no vowels and few punctuation marks. This worked  fine as long as the subject matter was restricted to a limited range of topics such as recording business transactions. Punctuation is historically an aid to reading aloud and the oldest known document using punctuation is the Mesha Stele (9th century BC). This uses points between the words and horizontal strokes between the sense section as punctuation.

The Greeks began using punctuation marks consisting of vertically arranged dots—usually two (dicolon) or three (tricolon)—in around the 5th century b.c. to help with the spoken delivery of texts. Greek playwrights such as Euripides and Aristophanes used symbols to distinguish the ends of phrases, helping the play’s cast to know when to pause. Punctuation developed dramatically however when large numbers of copies of the Bible started to be produced. These were designed to be read aloud, so the copyists began to introduce a range of marks to help the reader. These included indentation, various punctuation marks, and an early version of initial capitals.

From the invention of moveable type in Europe in the 1450’s, the amount of printed material and a demand for it began to increase, meaning a standard punctuation system was required. The introduction of this standard system of punctuation has often been attributed to the Venetian printers Aldus Manutius and his grandson. They have been credited with popularizing the practice of ending sentences with the colon or full stop, inventing the semicolon, making occasional use of parentheses and creating the modern comma.

By the 19th century, punctuation in the western world had evolved “to classify the marks hierarchically, in terms of weight”. Cecil Hartley’s poem identifies their values:

The stop point out, with truth, the time of pause
A sentence doth require at ev’ry clause.
At ev’ry comma, stop while one you count;
At semicolon, two is the amount;
A colon doth require the time of three;
The period four, as learned men agree.

After all of this, the marks have evolved into the standard system of punctuation that is known and used by everyone today:

apostrophe	’  ‘
brackets	[ ]  ( )  { }  ⟨ ⟩
colon	:
comma	,  ،  、
dash	‒  –  —  ―
ellipsis	…  …  . . .
exclamation mark	!
full stop, period	.
hyphen	‐
hyphen-minus	–
question mark	?
quotation marks	‘ ’  “ ”  ‘ ‘  ” “
semicolon	;
slash, stroke, solidus	/  ⁄

After thinking through some ideas and looking at different marks and where they have evolved from, I think a punctuation mark that is needed is one to convey sarcasm through written text. Often when communicating through text people write things sarcastically, however sarcasm is conveyed through tone of voice, and so this is difficult to translate through written word. This is something I would like to try changing, by creating a sarcasm punctuation mark.

Hand Drawn Processes

As for the technique I wanted to use to create my design, I wanted to look back at a tutorial we were given earlier in the year by a designer who specialises in hand drawn typography, Sean De Burca. It involves making the guidelines for one letter, and then to make sure these guides are the same width for each letter afterwards I drew the same guides onto a separate piece of paper and lined them up with the existing guides to show where the next ones would go. This is a very successful process and it worked well when I experimented with it briefly during the tutorial. I haven’t used it fully to create a whole design yet and so I will be interested to see how it works out and how successful it is for making my design.