2nd page spread

1st page spread ideas



Here are some of my initial mock ups after my crit feedback. I'm not sure which opening page works best? Or whether to put an image in the negative space.

The second page I really don't like, I think it is too in your face and busy in contrast with the first page ideas. Hopefully in my crit they will help me decide which layout to go for, for the first page.

We had our crit today which was helpful. The feedback I got suggested that I play with the headline more, perhaps crossing the text over so that it reflects 'crossing borders' or have it laid across the middle of the double page spread. I want to use a lot of negative space in my layout as this is something I really like in magazine articles. Also perhaps adding some colour as the spread was very black and white.

Over the holidays I am going to work on my editorial illustrations, perhaps do something about Paris as Lenz talks a lot about how she loves living in Paris and how Graphic Design has enabled her to do so.

Today was really helpful. We had a workshop with Justin all day. In the morning we had to do some rough layout ideas on layout paper which was really good as usually I work quite small but this meant we had to design on a bigger scale. Then after lunch we moved on to the Macs and designed our rough layouts in InDesign. I had to decide on a headline for my article and then illustrate the meaning of the headline in the text. Mine was 'Crossing Borders' as Annette Lenz talks about the opportunities that Graphic Design opens up to you by enabling you to work with different cultures and in different countries. Tomorow we have a group crit looking at each others designs from today.

http://issuu.com

I like the use of negative space. The illustration is the focal point but it works well with the text. I think I may use a 3 column grid like this one.

I found a really good website which features hundreds of magazines

http://issuu.com I was looking at 'Fake' magazine and found this which really jumped out at me. The image is really strong and bold and takes up predominantly all of the double-page spread which I think is really effective. I like the simplicity in the colour. The bold black text has the visual hierarchy as it contrasts with the image.

My final CV! I did this CV in InDesign as I now have some knowledge of the programme and it looks much more professional. Everything is aligned properly and it just looks a lot better as a whole. My name is really bold and striking so hopefully will stand out as a CV. Now to send it off to employers!

Today was interesting. Kit and Justin got us to choose one word from our transcription. We then had to chose a font from the pages that they gave us and handmake our word from the font we thought best represented the meaning of the word. My word was 'Dream' so I used a psychedelic looking font and got rid of the baseline so that it looked floaty and 'dream-like'

Here it is

Transcribing is looooong. So glad we got to split up the parts! Annette is really hard to understand in parts too.

We had our first introduction to InDesign yesterday with Jo which went quite well. I'm quite excited about this project as I enjoy doing layout designs and editorial illustrations.

We also had a workshop with Kit about designing books and pagination etc which was interesting and we got to see some books which Kit had produced when she worked as a designer which was cool.

My improved C.V! Kit had a look through though and we found some errors which I need to correct. I had some spelling mistakes as well as some alignment issues. Also, some of the introduction wasn't relevent so I am going to edit that.

New project! Thank god its not another animation!

The new project is a magazine layout which I'm really looking forward to. Today we were all allocated a typographer. Basically we have to listen to the chosen persons podcast and transcribe the interview, and then transfer it to a magazine article using appropriate illustrations/photographs etc. My designer is Annette Lenz, whom I have never heard of. I did some research on her but there wasn't anything in the library and I couldn't find out much about her on the internet. Here is some of her work though

Her work is quite geometrical and abstract. Strong use of colour and bold type, its really striking. The left image is quite dream like and intriguing.

We had a guest speaker in today who is a freelance designer. She was really informative and helpful and it was interesting to hear about her changing career. The talk reiterated the fact that being a designer is about getting yourself out there and networking. It's not what you know it's who you know. However, it all still seems quite daunting when you think about how many people want to get into the industry... Overall the talk was really helpful to hear about someone who has been there and done it.

Some tips she gave us were:

-Assume reader will flit around the pages

-Look value for money, grab attention

-Intro 1/2 a sentence summary of article.

-Subheadings break up text

-Captions add further info for the 'skim' reader

-Boxes- short related features along side main article

-Use a simple colour palette- about 2 or 3 colours

-Use a versatile and flexible grid

My first CV! It looks quite bland though and doesn't really stand out. I'm thinking I should add some colour, and also realised that I have my education history in the wrong order!