Development of Ideas

I sketched out some designs based on the idea of having a single image but using alternate angles of the car. I added some annotations next to the sketches that are all in the sketchbook. The ones that seemed to look the best were the ones with moving shots of the car. I'm being more and more interested in achieving this shot as it's an easy way to make a car look dynamic which would tie-in the image with the article. I just need to figure out a way to do that.

One of the most important things about this article (or any article) is the balance between image and type. In my sketchbook I tried to plan out how I would use a grid to set all the design elements in a balanced way.

When setting an image of the car across both pages I can't just have it slap bang in the middle because this would look bad when folded. I don't want to lose too much information down the fold and I don't want to break up the image too much.

 Referring back to my research you can see that in Audi magazine they've set the image of the car across both pages but with most of the image on the left hand page. The face of the car sits centered on the left page whilst the tail sits on the opposite page. This is so that the most eye-catching part of the image is undisturbed and not much important information is lost in the fold.

This how I plan to set the photo of my car in my layout. I can then balance the left page, which will be largely taken up by the car, by setting the article on the opposite page and aligning it slightly further to the right-hand side. This compensates for the lack of photographic information on the second page.

To solve the problem of having the car facing away from the article I can frame the shot so that the road leading off into the distance arrives where the article begins. This will give the image and the article some continuity and should hopefully give the reader a lead from the image to the text.

If I align the top of the article to the top of the car this add further continuity between the image and the type and should ensure that the readers' eye doesn't have to travel too far when following the car to the start of the header. This also allows me to set the fact file in the corner of the left page in the space that isn't taken up by the shot of the car. If the fact file sits aligned with the top of the car and the header this creates a line that the reader can follow horizontally from the first page to the second and then back again. 

I did plan to set the pull quote in the bottom left corner of the spread because this would mean there's a piece of information in each corner which helps balance what's going on in the middle, however it may be more suitable to swap the pull quote with the fact file so that the first thing the reader will naturally look at when they open the spread is the pull quote (since we usually read from left to right, top to bottom). And this is useful because the pull quote is supposed to entice the audience into reading on. The only thing that worries me about that is the amount of space I'll have in the bottom left corner if I want to place a whole fact file in there. It may end up looking too cramped. I want to allow each design element space to breathe since this is a more minimalistic approach to the layout design. I will experiment with this when I start building the grid in InDesign.

Although it's hard to tell exactly what dimensions all the design elements will be I thought something like a 6 (or possibly 7) column grid would be best suited for this layout as this would give me more control when spacing the article from the image of the car, compensating for the relative lack of control I will have of the image once it's been taken.