Dropping in images and text / Creating the Spread

 

Importing the image and text
To start creating the finished piece I took the image of the car I wanted to use and dragged it into the image box I'd made in the grid. I then used the direct selection tool to alter how the image sat inside that image box. I altered the size and positioning of the photo within that grid until I was happy with the result. The car was originally more centered and smaller in the frame so I enlarged the image and then dragged it further to the left so that the front of the car sat in the center of the first page, like I'd planned in my sketchbook.

The text was pasted in from the original word document. I set the type at 7pt with 12pt line spacing as I found this was commonly used in existing magazines. It also worked with the length of my article as it fitted nicely in the space I wanted it to. I also set the type to align itself to the baseline which ensured the lines on each column were level. This helps make the type easier to read as it improves clarity

Typeface choice and Typesetting

I considered several typefaces to use for the bodytype of this spread. Because I'm setting it over an image which is quite busy I wanted to choose a san serif as they retain more legibility than serif typefaces. I also wanted a san serif but they usually have a more contemporary feel about them and I wanted my design to have a clean modern feel about it.

I decided on using Myriad Pro for the article because of it's humanistic qualities that I think make it welcoming and give it good readability. I've used Myriad in the past and it's given great results with bodytype so I was confident in using it for this article.

The typeface choice for the header was slightly different. I wanted something bold and that reflected either the characteristics of the photo or the article. After searching I found this typeface called 'Viva Allende' designed by Vic Fieger in 2005. It has the appearance of a bold san serif condensed typeface (reminded me of Trebuchet MS bold) but with parts rubbed away. To me it reminded me of how the light shines through the trees and bushes in the shot of car driving through the forest. I think this makes it tie-in quite nicely which my article. I think it has quite a dynamic appearance and it's roughened appearance, to me, suggests connotations of freedom or nature.

 

 After applying the typeface choices I noticed problems with their positioning. Firstly the pull quote obscured the bottom of the car which made the quote hard to read and also spoiled the main focus of the image. Pulling the image around didn't solve the problem because of the way it was framed so I decided to move it. Because the car made a diagonal line across both pages I decided to place the pull quote to the right of the car mirroring the position of the fact file down that line so that the eye reads the page from top left to bottom right, which then takes you to the main article.

Another problem I faced was that the bodytype was set across a background which had varying levels of brightness. This caused it to not entirely legible in black or white. Moving the background image around didn't help because the area of intense light was so vast. So I had an idea to use a faint outer glow effect around the article which would darken the areas of the background image that clashed with the type, similar to creating a shadow or a translucent box except less noticeable. This allowed me to set the type in white and keep the overall colour consistent. I chose to set all the type in white because the dark tones of the photo worked better with a lighter text colour. I didn't want to chose an actual colour from the spectrum as this would look tacky and almost certainly clash with the background in some way. White is good because it's neutral like black.

I added a drop cap to the start of the article to indicate where to start reading to the reader. This is a frequently used design feature by most magazine across all genres. I used Viva Allende for the drop to give the body type the same style as the header. Visually this links them together.

I also used the concept of typographic hierarchy to emphasize certain parts of the article like the introduction and the pull-quote. This was done by changing the point size or by making the type semibold instead of regular. These devices draw the readers eye to certain parts of the design and imply importance over lesser emphasizes parts. For example the pull-quote needs to stand out from the main article as it is designed to be read first and encourages the reader to go into more depth. Setting the introduction in a larger size than the article but smaller than the header implies the reader is gradually moving down the hierarchical scale whereby each section acts as a summary or introduction to the next part (header leads to the intro which leads to the article).

 

Columns and Composition

Originally I'd designed the grid with columns per page after dropping in the article and setting the pull quote I wasn't happy with the amount of space that the main article took up. I wanted to give the image of the car more space to breath because it's the main focus of the spread. If the image appears cramped then it loses much of it's impact. So I changed it to a 7 column layout. With 7 columns I had more control over the column width and positioning whilst not altering the actual size of the columns too much. Using this new layout I moved all the type on the second page slightly further to right giving a good amount of space between the type and the car. Less of the road was obscured and this made the car look more striking.